There has never been a better time to be in SALES

Hooray! – the age of customer ‘contempt’ is now over, and we have just embarked upon an exciting new customer-led era where salespeople can shake off the old stereotypes and become highly valued, and where the charlatans and charismatic lone-wolfs of yesteryear will no longer play a role.

For all the devastation that COVID19 has caused, it has done one really great thing for business: COVID19 has shined a very bright light on the role of the salesperson, and the extent to which sales has been stuck in the dark ages. COVID19 has accelerated the shift to virtual and digital-first engagement models...and a totally new dynamic between buyer and seller.

Personally, I'm delighted that we can now FINALLY move away from the old self-serving ‘interruptive push' and 'brute force' sales models, to a world where genuine intent and integrity is rewarded....a world where both buyer and seller are actually aligned…..where a true win/win is now possible.

Buyers have NEVER enjoyed being ‘pushed’ into buying, and thankfully all that cringe-worthy non-sense of the past that only created a general disdain for the salesperson, is now well and truly behind us.

Yes, wisdom is easy with hindsight. But seriously, what were we all thinking? Lone wolf salespeople operating in a defined territory, carrying the pressure of a short term revenue quota, forced to maximize short term revenue attainment at all costs, and motivated solely by maximizing their own short term personal earnings (via commission).

The OLD sales profession:

Sadly, so much of the sales role has been lived in a fog of automatic and habitual behavior due largely to outdated leadership that has failed to recognize this new customer-led era that we now live in. Salespeople from the past have spent so much time executing ABC (Always be Closing) that many of them can’t fathom this new ABH (Always be Helping) paradigm.

Under this old regime, salespeople were forced (in many cases) to utilize some crude tactics to control, persuade and manipulate the buyer into purchasing BEFORE they were actually ready, and those old tactics produced a dynamic where the buyer and seller were actually pitted against each other as virtual adversaries, where real trust can never exist due to vested interests, and where the extroverted ‘wolf of wall street’ types were taught techniques on how to conquer the buyer…rather than help them solve THEIR problem. Seriously, why would anyone EVER treat the most important stakeholder in every business with such contempt?

What's driving this shift?

Up until recently, the vendors have always 'held the cards' and this was due largely to information asymmetry. Vendor salespeople have been exploiting this imbalance of power over the hapless buyers who previously had no choice but to engage. Not any more. 

The pendulum has now swung and it's todays buyers who have the power and the access to information required to solve their own problems. Personally, I’m super excited by this change. Why? Because we can all now approach every business engagement on an equal footing with our increasingly scarce and valuable buyers, without the need for any of that 20th century pushy brinkmanship rubbish.

Today's buyers will only engage with credible sales professionals who actually possess specialist insights, and who understand that buyers want to be taken on a long-term journey. Do not take my word for it though...just ask a B2B buyer what they want in 2021 onwards!

Thus, the post pandemic customer-led era is now rapidly weeding out the blaggers and forcing the ‘lone wolf quota crushers’ to rapidly change or find another career....online transparency, peer reviews and independent advocacy will ensure that the blaggers can no longer hide.

The NEW sales profession:

The successful salespeople of the future will be digitally driven, socially connected, subject matter experts with deep domain knowledge that can offer their buyers unique perspectives and commercial insights.

Like it or not, only the ‘specialist’ B2B salesperson will survive in the future, meaning that generalist salespeople that do NOT create value in the minds of today’s buyers are now rapidly being removed or replaced by self-service etc.

The following roles are now converging into what will become a hybrid set of competencies for the successful salesperson of the future.

1.     EDUCATOR/TEACHER – buyers want to be educated on solutions to problems. Selling in the future is about being a great educator. Remember: “when you sell you break rapport, but when you educate you build rapport. Try educating instead of ‘selling’.

2.     DATA ANALYST – salespeople need to be able to help buyers cut through all the ‘noise’ and find the exact piece of information/data that they need to solve their problem. Developing your skills around data synthesis and being proficient at how you find and disseminate data will be a critical part of the sales role moving forwards.

3.     PUBLISHER – creating, cultivating, and curating educational content has now become a prerequisite to sales success, and the A-Graders in many industries are already utilizing content to establish credibility, get attention, and drive ‘inbound’ opportunities – old sales tactics (like dumb outreach) will no longer open new doors.

4.     DETECTIVE - gathering evidence and facts to help solve complex problems is now also a critical skill-set. Interviewing key stakeholders, examining records and identifying potential value-adding partners is a critical skill-set as the sales role evolves. 

Interestingly, some are saying that the typical profile of a modern salesperson is no longer a smooth talking extrovert, but more likely to be an introverted problem-solving analyst type. Have a think about your team composition...what's the mix?

But don't be mistaken - sales is still a tough gig!

Yes, it’s a new Golden Era, but that doesn’t mean that sales is now easy. Far from it. To be good in sales now requires a whole raft of new skills and a totally new mindset – selfless rather than self-serving. Sales is now about what you can ‘bring to the table, not what you can take FROM the table’.

Thus, we can now all breath a collective sigh of relief that we no longer have to butt heads with buyers. COVID has now accelerated this inevitable shift and I’m absolutely thrilled that our profession can now finally shrug off the old stereotype of the charismatic, smoother talker who is not to be trusted.

“A sale is just something that happens when you are immersed in helping your buyer solve THEIR business problem”.

So, if you are in a sales or BD role, then I strongly suggest that you acknowledge and embrace this new 'Golden Era' and start rapidly developing your knowledge and expertise so that you can become the type of specialist that your buyers will value.

Finally, thanks to COVID19 accelerating this shift, we can now all begin to truly enjoy a role where we are 100% aligned with our buyers, and one where we are highly valued…instead of being distrusted, despised and avoided.

The next question is 'how to engage with a modern educated buyer who no longer wants to meet us in person'? But that's a topic for another discussion.

Happy selling....without the selling!

By Graham Hawkins

(Best Selling Author of 'The Future of the Sales Profession')