Selling: The Survival of the Fittest
There is an air of inevitability that at some point, in the not too distant future, many of the tasks now routinely handled by “salespeople” will become automated – in fact, it is already happening.
Commoditization virtually eliminates seller-buyer human interaction and, at the time of writing this, it is a B2C “phenomenon.” It is of course due largely to consumers’ new affection for online shopping via the Internet and sales organizations desire to capitalize on the breadth of audiences they can reach, and the lower costs of sales and delivery.
However, it would be foolhardy to not anticipate that, as buyers continue to become increasingly self-educated about our products, companies and our market sector, the sales role in many industries will undoubtedly become diminished. The role of sales is shifting to a consulting model that brings expertise in the areas of business, industry, company, stakeholder, and capabilities.
While the role of the order taker salesperson will go the way of the Internet, for the complex sale for the foreseeable future, the role of the salesperson is secure. There will always be a place for professional business consultants. As their job title suggests, these people consult more than sell, as they assist their clients in making sound buying decisions.
I am not a clairvoyant, but in working with salespeople, sales leaders and customers, a vision of sales is emerging. Let me share those ideas…
The ability to gather and analyse data will help salespeople be more precise in identifying customers and anticipating their needs, so they get to them before those customers get to the market.
Everything will be more precise. I see sales organizations not having a defined sales process but rather multiple processes for renewals, new business or accounts at risk, etc.
Telephone and online conferencing will be the way of the sales, and face-to-face will be reserved for major deals and major milestone points in the sale.
Sales training will go to the Universities as the foundation with majors in sales (currently this is starting to grow).
As machines get smarter, they will do more of the work – will they be personal assistants, provide sales coaching, figure out pricing, set the sales strategy and so on? How far am I looking out—maybe 10 years?
So how does a sales organization survive in this current changing world?
I see two avenues that are vital - the first is expertise and the second is relationships. I see the second as the greater challenge.
Expertise is exactly what customers are looking for today. The bar has been raised for sales organizations in how they select and develop their people. Customers will spend time with salespeople who they believe will bring them relevant expertise, and who will help them solve their business problems. In the content era, expertise was product expertise, but today it goes far beyond that to business acumen, industry knowledge, company and stakeholder knowledge, and team leverage knowledge and access, etc.
Relationships: Technology has given us so much, but as young people rely more and more on on-line communication, they are not developing relationship skills such as being able to read people’s expressions, read body language, or tone of voice. People need to relate, they need to trust and to use intuition in making decisions. Research shows emotions are more a factor in decision-making than data (David Brooks). The need to connect is hard-wired into people.
But my concern is salespeople and customers alike will not have the skills needed to connect. The ability to connect and build relationships will be the big differentiator.
It is the ability to earn trust and connect built on transparency, vulnerability and genuine concern in working with customers to bring value, that will help them grow their business. Young people would rather send a text than use the phone. Face-to-face is warmer than phone and video, and both of those are warmer than text. Computers will win out with data, but making emotional connections is the advantage humans bring to the table.
Sales 2.0 gave us improved technology and did accelerate the rate at which more and more sales teams went inside. The image that we had of an inside sales professional performing routine tasks, cold- calling, dealing with account administration issues, and all the time looking enviously out of the window as their external sales colleagues drove away in the expensive company cars to wine and dine clients, has now been replaced. Today’s insider is a career professional who is able to manage the entire sales/buying process from open to close, utilising video technology when required – they are no longer simply on the first step of the sales career ladder.
Obviously, economics has played a big part in this lemming-like rush for companies to convert their sales teams – it is not all technology influenced. Typically, an outside sales team costs twice as much to run as an inside one, which makes it a no-brainer in most scenarios - especially here in the UK, where one could be forgiven for thinking we are attempting to create the largest car park in the world, stretching from John O’Groats to Lands End, and sideways from Felixstowe to Anglesey!
Survival, let alone reaching a Sales Superstar status, requires significant changes in our worldview, how we think about ourselves and how we think about our relationships with key stakeholders. We are faced with new ways of thinking, many of which directly challenge what has proven successful in the past.
Despite my predictions, we all know that nobody has a crystal ball! Perhaps the way to look at the future of selling is to compile a team consisting of a sales and marketing professor, a technology professor from MIT, maybe someone from Apple and Disney, a few buyers and, for good measure, a science fiction writer – history has shown writers like Ray Bradbury have been truly prophetic.
Sales organizations have a long way to go!
Jonathan Farrington is the CEO of Top Sales World and the editor of Top Sales Magazine. TSW is a unique, international online community dedicated exclusively to the profession of sales, bringing together the industry’s best-known sales experts to provide information in the form of how-to-guides, articles, webinars, podcasts and so much more. He is also the principal of Jonathan Farrington & Associates, a consultancy focused on helping clients prepare sales teams for the future. For more articles, thoughts, white papers etc. please visit Jonathan's personal website, Jonathan Farrington.
0-1 sales team building, new business development in domestic China and overseas, direct sales and channel sales platform management, good English and German.
8 年Expertise and relationship, very good description. sales as technology expertise gives customer the reason to trust even it is the first business or discussion, as long as your professional suggests are accepted by your clients, you are not only gain more orders but stable relationship even goes to friendship and this business friendship is much more stronger then other type of relationship it the best win in sales and business!
VP | Executive Coach | Speaker | Helping Leaders Drive Change & Command the Room
8 年Excellent article on the future of sales. I've been talking about these very points with my sales team since last year. Product knowledge and a low price will be phased out in the near future. The ability to guide clients in areas of business acumen, total cost of ownership and, in our case, calling on higher level personnel will be differentiation.
Manager TIM Venture Capital, I am inventor of a new economic model at quantum leap level combined with a virtual central bank in dimensions made possible in 2019 through EC and EP the acceptance of virtual.
8 年Excellent article, my compliments to the author Jonathan Farrington .
Strategy Consultant
8 年Great thoughts...It seems to me that a lot of the evolution of sales is really more the refinement of sales and the recognition by many of what the sales role should actually provide in an organization. There have been and always will be people who want to make a quick buck who fire all the guns hoping for the best. It's called sales but what it is really physical marketing. It works about as well as passive digital marketing. The more important part is the quality of the people you hire in the sales role. Unlike other professions where competency trumps personality and the focus is internal, sales has to have competency and personality or at least the ability to be personable. Good salespeople learn how to sell a product and apply personality to an often cultivated opportunity while great sales people learn the product or application and they create opportunity by recognizing need and communicating benefits. Because they understand the need, they can focus more on the opportunity and less on the relationship which builds from respect and is not dependent on a personal connection. This takes away the pressure on both sides and allows an organic relationship to build that is much stronger than a forged one for mutual gain. Companies who recognize the difference can create an extension of goals which is consistent throughout an organization and because each role then is fully utilized, there is no internal conflict, primarily because everybody is busy doing what they do best. It doesn't happen often because it requires that an organization train sales and give them the lead. Where it does happen, you have a happy and productive organization. While you can train people in methods, there is still a need to train teams on the products and services from a variety of different perspectives and the need to have sales people identify new and different applications that expand use. Everything comes full circle eventually and perhaps we are back to a point where sales can drive business. If that happens, we will see economies steaming and productivity thriving because needs are being met and the next step can happen. It's a real possibility in an economy where innovation is starting to drive markets and owners are invested in their companies and products rather than the stock market.