The way we sell needs to change

A fact few people know about me, is that one of my first sales jobs was selling cars. I was New Zealand’s #1 hybrid vehicle sales person… I sold two of them ;)?

Nowadays I work in sales strategy, specializing in B2B solutions. As I’ve studied vendor sales processes, I’ve realized that something is very wrong. The way vendors sell has barely evolved over the past 3 decades, even though the products we sell have. There is in fact something we could learn from car sales. Let me explain.

Clearly this imaginary car buying scenario is ludicrously over complicated. Yet this is exactly how B2B solutions are sold today.

In a typical car sales process, the customer sits down with the salesperson and is asked a series of questions like:

“What sort of vehicle do you drive today?”

“What sort of vehicle are you looking for?”

“How many people in your family?”

“What kind of budget do you have?”

etc…

These questions are designed to qualify the customer and discover which vehicle would be most suitable. This part of the process is very similar to what is done in B2B solution selling.

In a typical car sales process, the salesperson would then demonstrate the appropriate vehicle in order to gauge the customer’s reaction and get them interested enough to take a test drive. If the test drive get’s the customer excited, negotiation and close begins. All of this can take place within an hour or so.

The way we sell has barely evolved in 3 decades

However, in our imaginary car buying experience, that resembles B2B solution selling, things take a very different turn. Instead of demonstrating a vehicle, the salesperson suggests a workshop meeting with the engineering team.?

“In that meeting we will validate your requirements and agree success criteria.” the salesperson confidently states.?

“You should bring your entire family to the workshop so that everyone’s needs can be canvassed.” Mum, Dad and all the kids would be invited, so that they can all have input into the perfect vehicle for their needs.?

“We may in fact need a series of workshop meetings that we will run over a period of weeks.” the salesperson explains. “Eventually, we will draw up success criteria and a timeline for us to build a prototype vehicle that we will demonstrate to you in a few months time. How does that sound?”

“Could I just take that one for a spin?” asks the customer as he points to one of the vehicles on the lot.

Clearly this imaginary car buying scenario is ludicrously over complicated and would stifle any chance of the dealership being successful and profitable. Yet this is exactly how B2B solutions are sold today. But why is this the case and what are the lessons we can learn?

Shouldn’t the salesperson be aware of the problems their product was designed to solve?

This method of selling evolved 30 years ago, when there were very few out-of-the-box business solutions. If you wanted an ERP or CRM solution, you would need to go through a lengthy consulting type exercise to define requirements. Get that wrong and the solution that would eventually be built for you wouldn’t meet those requirements. I witnessed this myself in 1998 when I took part in a CRM design. We got the brief wrong. The solution that was delivered 6 months later was a complete disaster. It was a very costly mistake.??

But times have changed. Whilst every business is unique, vendors have realized that the problems they need solutions for are not dissimilar to anyone else. With this in mind, vendors have developed solutions that cater for a specific set of problems that can be addressed “out-of-the-box”.?

This started with Microsoft and their Office suite of products. In the early 2000s Salesforce took things even further, delivering their solution as SaaS (Software-as-a-Service). By its very nature SaaS products are standardized solutions delivered at scale. While there may be unique configurations to get things working in the customer’s environment, the solution itself is the same for every customer.

In order to develop a SaaS solution the vendor must design with their customers in mind. Not just one customer… ALL of their customers. The solution must address EVERY customer’s needs.

Taking this kind of approach would dramatically reduce sales cycles

This being the case, shouldn’t the salesperson be aware of the problems their product was designed to solve? Couldn’t the salesperson simply direct the customer to a smorgasbord of these problems and ask which one is the most pressing concern? Couldn’t the sales person then demonstrate in a standardized way how their product addresses that need? There would therefore be no need for workshops, prototypes and a bespoke demonstration. The salesperson could simply give a standard out-of-the-box demonstration.

Taking this kind of approach would dramatically reduce sales cycles and give customers a much more pleasant experience. After all, cars have been sold without prototypes since Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908. Why should B2B solution selling be any different?

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Chris Marshment is Director, Sales Strategy and Global Accounts at New Relic.?The views and opinions expressed in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of New Relic.