Hey Big Vendor!
During almost 30 years working within a well known FTSE 100 company, I was frequently the target of many a zealous vendor trying get a slice of our multimillion pound sales and marketing budget. I have to say, for the most part, I found them to be a pain in the neck, which was slightly ironic as I was a sales person myself. You see the problem with selling to sales people is that our ‘BS sensors’ are highly tuned and we can smell a sales trick at twenty paces. Rather than focusing in on what they are trying to sell us, we tend to become preoccupied with the technique they are using to do so. Don’t forget, they are playing us at our own game, which may engender some sympathy, but may also make us hard taskmasters, tough negotiators and often impatient.
"...the problem with selling to sales people is that our 'BS sensors' are highly tuned and we can smell a sales trick at twenty paces."
When I became an Associate at Clearwater Advisers the tables were suddenly turned. The buyer became the supplier, and a very different one at that. Of course, I was selling a product in my previous life but I represented a well-known consumer brand with a large presence in the market. Many buyers were likely to want to buy our product and, with our largest clients, the job was more to negotiate volume and price. Even with new client acquisition, we tended to at least get some face time with a sales lead. Having said that, the stakes were still very high with a slight shift market share making a multimillion-pound difference to my sales figures.
"I was attempting to sell them the hardest kind of product: the invisible product"
So nothing could prepare me for the task of selling the services of a small boutique company operating in a highly populated market. Not only were most of my target clients previously unaware of Clearwater, I was also attempting to sell them the hardest kind of product: the invisible product. You see, although my previous employer was a customer service provider, I had something physical that I could show potential customers, some hard product as it were. On top of all of this, I was acutely aware that my contacts knew that they were being sold to and, like me, they were judging my performance and at times probably finding me a bit pushy.
The answer lay right in front of me. In order to get over this blockage and speak confidently and credibly about the Clearwater proposition, I had to take a dose of our own home grown medicine to enable me to sell the invisible, without feeling like the stereotypical salesperson.
As a firm of strategic communication advisors, we specialise in showing our clients how to become more natural communicators and thereby increase trust and buy-in when they hold sales conversations, even with salespeople! We do this by combining the science of the latest diagnostic communication analysis technology (Personal Presence Analysis?) with the art of projecting your natural personality.
For me this is work in progress, but in the meantime, here are my top 5 pet peeves with sales people:
- Pushiness – of course, you’re meant to be persistent but know when to back off
- Unsolicited or unscheduled phone contact – there’s no escape for me and I don’t mean this in a good way
- Overly critical assumptions about my business – nobody really enjoys criticism and it probably won’t progress a sale
- Ignorance – in the age of the internet there is no excuse for not doing your research
- Slick sales patter – I’m more convinced by authenticity
NED I Board Advisor I Executive Coach for Customer Experience Leaders
4 年Spot on Richard as ever! This is where sales meets customer experience - focus on the customer's needs and tailor your approach accordingly. When selling is done right, it can feel like a service, and as a customer you feel good about it.
Airline Leadership and Representation | Change & Transformation | Partnerships & Alliances.
4 年I hear you and I can completely empathise with most of this. The other pet peeve I would add is people wanting to schedule an hour of my time to make a presentation, before they even check if I have any need for, or interest in, their service!
Experienced and professional Sales Director | Exploring sales opportunities and revenue generation | List planning and development | Sales channel management | Establishing footprint in schools | Enhance online presence
4 年Great article Richard, and that's from a sales person! I agree with your pet peeves and fear that I may have at times pushed those buttons, but hopefully not very often. Customer is key and such a large part of being a good sales person is knowing how to listen, to understand what is being said as much as what is not being said. Its about managing customer's expectations with what you can and cannot do for them and being upfront about that. And it is also about knowing when to walk away - a hard thing for a sales person to do! Some of my greatest achievements have come about from working with a customer's initial idea or proposal and delivering a product that way exceeded their dreams and expectations - very rewarding for everyone!
Head of Sales, EMEA and Americas
4 年interesting read - having been on the end of more recruitment/lead gen companies than I care to think about I feel your pain! Often you can feel the pressure to deliver a result the salesperson is under dripping through the mail/phone which drives the poor behaviour you describe. One of the limited upsides of C19 is not being hassled by hospitality teams who "suddenly" have a table free at Twickenham next week....
Manager, Learning Design and Digital Skills Academy | British Airways
4 年Great article Richard! Many of those pet peeves ring true for me too. My biggest salesperson pain? Not listening or trying to uncover what I actually need and instead, just pushing what they need to sell - being more interested in their business rather than mine!