HOW SALES CHANGED FOREVER .....and what works now

Selling anything always required customer trust. That hasn’t changed.

But the business world has changed.

The global pandemic overturned everything....including the sales process.

In short, your customer's trust is no longer built today in the same manner as previously.

In the new business environment, salespeople have fewer opportunities for business meals, office visits and client entertainment. The traditional sales function has been impaired across every industry.

So how has the role of the salesperson evolved to account for this?

It hasn't.

NEW SALES SKILLS

Individuals require a new set of sales skills in the current business environment.

For starters, it demands much greater emotional intelligence.

It also relies upon a wholly different approach.

Unfortunately, most large sales organizations are just doing what they always did - just more furiously.

It's called "outbound push."

Even the best-funded sales teams are simply hammering their customers with frequency. In fact, automating this has become a perverted virtue. There's a "Cult of Metrics" around micro-measuring the client touch-points. From personal experience, the tech and product-driven firms are setting the pace in this.

SALES = PEOPLE

However, this "quantity" approach is flawed for one major reason:

it forgets the person!

In a connected world, business is no longer about the push of “closing” those decision-makers.

Sales has now shifted to the “pull” of relationship on an individual level.

Since selling into large organizations is really a multi-threaded sale, it demands you build many personal relationships. Only then, will a group of decision-makers consider whatever you're shilling.

?ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL

It's been said that "all things being equal, folks would rather do business with friends."

This has never been more true. In this new era of business uncertainty, customers are more risk-averse. Which means that winning new customers is very difficult. Additionally, the data clearly illustrates that your existing customers are always your most profitable ones.

This is why your Sales should now shift focus to your existing customers.

But I don't mean relentless cross-selling. I mean you must now elevate the relationship with your best customers into an actual friendship.

Sounds corny?

It's not.

It's business strategy.

Because in this ruthless period of change, your customer relationship is the only thing that can carry you safely through.

FISCAL BUDGET

In college, I was in a psychology experiment.

People were grouped?into tables of 9 for dinner. Each dinner table of 9 people then received one pizza pie with 8 slices. It was a study in personalities.

Some grabbed. Some shared.

Today, your company is sitting at that proverbial pizza table.

Your customer has 7 other providers just like you. But their new budget will only retain 3. All else being equal, the 3 providers they select will be the 3 they like the most.

Anyone who doesn't believe that real business is driven by relationships, doesn't understand real business.

BIGGEST BUSINESS ASSET

All of this means that your biggest business asset is your customer's trust.

Unfortunately, trust fades in the face of people-turnover, physical distancing and shifting lifestyles.

Customers are people. And all people want reassurance. Especially during times of uncertainty.

Unspoken questions are swirling in the back of your customers' minds. But these questions are not about your service or product. They are the misgivings your customer will never ask you.

·????????Should they continue their relationship with you?

·????????Has turnover impacted your ability to deliver?

·????????Are you planning to jump ship, personally?

·????????Will your company even be around in 12 months?

Uncertainty is the enemy of trust. Unsure customers never buy.

Right now, every person is unsure what to expect next year. Not just in business but in their personal lives as well.

So building customer rapport becomes the pre-eminent sales skill now.

This skill pertains to both individuals and companies alike. Customer trust lays the foundation for the customer experience.

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“Customer experience is the number one driver of growth in 2021 and beyond. This has been happening for a while. But 2020 really accelerated trends in digital transformation and buyer-seller relationships.”

??? -?Yamini Rangan???CEO, Hubspot

https://www.hubspot.com/hubfs/State-of-Marketing%20(2).pdf

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Your customer's experience drives your repeat revenue. And dependable revenue is the holy grail in changing times. Which is precisely why trust-building should be what every sales leader is developing in their salespeople.

This is not the case.

?HYBRID OFFICES

But it gets worse.

Sales must now operate in a world of disaggregated workers and hybrid-office setups. Building trust in such a world requires the fostering of those bulletproof relationships remotely!

Gaining trust has become more challenging, both internally and externally.

Unlocking revenue always required that your customers know, like and trust you. Now you must do this without ever visiting them.

So how have Sales professionals approached this task?

ZOOM

In the face of this challenge, the sales folks collectively turned to technology. Internet connectivity was embraced as the savior of the corporate bacon.

You know where that led.

You were up to your neck in communication apps and software. You were Zooming, Teaming, Meeting and webinar-jamming, right alongside everyone else. Yet video-conferencing didn't quite deliver.

Because simply owning a lightsaber does not make a Jedi.

The truth is that Zoom was a poor substitute for sharing a meal or meeting for coffee.

INFLUENCE & EMOTION

Sales must now build customer trust through a literal and figurative lens. This isn't the Marketing team's role. It's on you.

As a salesperson, it is your job to capture and expand revenue. Full stop.

But done right, Sales folks can create a distinct advantage in the marketplace. Because Sales is really about influence and emotion.

Such disciplines are predicated upon personality. So ultimately, the salesperson is actually more important than any data-driven keywords or search-engine optimizations.

Sure data matters. But not as much as the person in the sales process. That PERSON is the actual "bottom of the funnel."

Here's why.

JABRONI

Regardless of content rankings, web traffic or any arbitrary metrics, nobody will choose to do business with a total Jabroni. ??

In the end, selling is a people game more than a numbers game.

Maybe you are NOT be a pretentious scumbag. But I don't know that.

Until I understand your thoughts, feel your style and grasp your philosophy....I can't be sure about you.

Neither can your prospects or customers.

SOCIAL SELLING

So we've now come full circle.

The sales process of the future is really nothing more than remote relationship-management.

However, the WFH/hybrid office creates a stipulation. It requires that you conduct your rapport-building through the digital mediums. Your sales success now demands virtually bonding with individuals to build that crucial customer trust.

This means content.

The first rule of the digital sales jungle is that revenue doesn't simply accrue to the person who makes content. As you get further "down the funnel," quality beats quantity. And in the end, the revenue accrues to the person whose content made emotional connection.

That, my friends, requires talent.

MORE THAN TACTICS

There is a huge difference between "content" and the algo hacks that you're drowning in every day on social.

Your business differentiation begins with your content strategy.

Even before your product or service, your first order of business is communication.

Right now, the platforms are the focus of the content conversation. But masterful selling starts much higher-level. Just like wrenches and hammers, the channels are merely your tools. It really doesn't matter if you prefer audio, video or written. They all work. But whichever you choose, there is a step that comes beforehand.

It is the strategic design of your relationship-building with customers.

• ?I've scripted and hosted podcasts for multi-national corporations.
• I've executed video strategies for authors and public figures.
• I've crafted web copy, penned blogs and managed social engagement for global enterprises.

After seeing the data, I know what works and why.

Unfortunately, most businesses are desperately trying everything that doesn't work.

• Continuous email blasts.
• Automated connection requests.
• Relentless webinars.
• Product-oriented blogs.

By themselves these become shallow because tactics do not equal strategy.

Without a clear content strategy, you will never achieve your goal of expanding revenue. Again, I'm talking to the salespeople, not the Marketing folks.

All sales strategy begins where a company interfaces with its customers. This now involves contextual understanding of the online platforms.

Yes, the social channels.

Because that is where all your customers are sharing their stories....good and bad.

SOCIAL PLATFORMS

Most executives are not trained in platform engagement.

But this matters more than ever.

Because the social platforms are second ONLY to search-engines when it comes to buyer decision-making. Recent data from Hootsuite shows this applies to all organizations - both large and small. ?

Yet most companies are still abusing social as just a megaphone for product releases or industry accolades. We've seen the self-congratulating. "Our organization is honored to accept this year's 'Humblebrag Product /Service / Diversity Award.'"

It is company propaganda, with no customer value at all.

Yet times have changed.

Brand-building matters more now in difficult economies. Branding for both corporate AND personal. Which means that salespeople who neglect the value component, do so at their own peril.

These platforms are being leveraged incorrectly by companies large and small. Just as sales folks are under the most revenue pressure. Like Doctor Strange facing Thanos, sales professionals never use their greatest weapon....because they don't know how.

HUNTERS & FARMERS

The traditional image of the "killer" salesperson is that of the hunter.

It's the assassin who parachutes in to "close " the unsure customer. Coffee was reserved for those folks.

Those days are over.

Sales is now about farming. The inter-connection of people via social platforms is why. ?

There is no more "closing" anyone. Your buyer can no longer be bullied with informational facts about your product.

In practical terms, this means increasing your revenue will demand more from:

???????????1) content impact

???????????2) repeat customers.

The "low hanging fruit" are your well-established base of longtime supporters. This requires scaling the relationships you've built with the folks who already know, like and trust you.

Again, this means content.

But the majority of Sales folks are not trained in this.

Most companies have no formalized strategy for social-selling as a driver of business objectives. Growing revenue takes more that SaaS tools for customer-targeting. There's a bigger skill involved here than simply filtering spreadsheets.

As an aside, many corporate organizations discourage their own salespeople from posting on social. Quite simply, those businesses are losing sales. Period.

Yet thought-leadership insights will drive more sales for you than videos of your widget's features. The data is irrefutable. Back on Wall Street, I was pulled into many a glass-room scolding for consistently posting innocuous content. Yet it made me the most recognized name on that desk inside my industry. Indeed, I eventually launched my own content firm. That's not a gripe. It's an indictment.

The social platforms drive business. Period.

Indeed, they are a primary sales tool for you.

The only question is whether you have the skill to execute this in a business capacity. Because any salesperson not leveraging social-selling is falling down on their company. And themselves.

The responsibility to grow revenue rests upon Sales. ?All salespeople are responsible for discovering the best practices in their discipline, despite the changes in business. This truth is incontrovertible.

REVENUE

In the end, revenue numbers are like Shakira's hips.

They don't lie.

You can pretend you are properly selling. You can think you have a social media and content strategy. Heck, you might even have a small following.

But are you driving measurable results?

Have you personally built a name in your corner of your industry? ?

Are your biggest customers seeking you out to get your opinion?

Make no mistake. Sales has changed.

The Sales professional needs to change as well.

CONTENT STRATEGY

You're living in a world where all your prospects and customers are connected with all your prospects and customers.

And people talk.

Which is why sales is no longer about slick selling as much as social engagement.

So maybe it's time to focus less on your golf strategy and more on your content strategy.

According to the data, this remote thing isn't a temporary blip. Your customers aren't rushing back into the office.?

So you need to start reaching them more effectively in your content.

CONCLUSION

The reason Sales has changed is because the very structure of business has changed.

It's time to craft a strategy for growing your revenue in today's business reality.

It's time to ask yourself the hard questions:

• Do you have an integrated sales strategy?
• Are you properly leveraging content creation?
• Have you operationalized your outreach, engagement and followup?
• Have you aligned Sales with Marketing?
• Do you have a process for leveraging the social platforms?
• Are you messaging your value effectively?

If this sounds like work, it is. I know because I help companies with this every day.

As we enter the future of business, it's time to modernize your approach to selling.

Because it's never going "back to normal."

So turn that to your advantage.

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Marc is a longtime sales professional who teaches digital transformation of the sales process. His firm, Anvictus, provides entrepreneurs and business owners content and sales training.

Marc has published several hundred articles and videos around sales process and business. His work has been featured in major media such as Bloomberg, Traders Magazine, CNBC and the business podcasts.?

[email protected] ??|??www.anvictus.com