When it is all about sales

Is sales as effective as it used to be?

There is a significant debate why organizations sales drop, are the conventional sales techniques still valid? How important are the presentation skills and sales pitches? In reality none of that really matters now a days as much as it used to. In the past, sales representatives who used to call the customer and go to present a product/ solution with a prepared set of ice breaking yet professional jokes, repeating clichés of preset sentences trying to steer the prospect buyer into a specific area, where the sales person can end up presenting his finale has – in my opinion- ended.

The level of education/knowledge the buyers are at these days is far more advanced than what it used to be, previously, buyers used to call the sales representatives to get information over a product or a service, the level of exposure the buyer used to have was significantly limited as opposed to what the internet is offering today. The point at which the sales representative used to be engaged with the buyer was at an early stage, however, in today’s world the buyer would actually have a pretty decent understanding in most of the cases even before the sales representative arrival.

Today’s scenario

The concept of an organization or a company started with the idea of answering a need or in reality creating a value, hence, organizations are meant to add value, regardless of its nature; whether it be a service or a product.

Oddly enough, some companies end up losing sight of the value they are meant to create in the first place in favor of maximizing their profits. Manufacturing companies take raw material, process them through their production lines to end up creating a product that is perceived of higher value to the end customers (or the next level in the downstream of that specific supply chain) hence giving those manufacturing companies the opportunity to demand a monetary value that is in reality higher than the actual value of the raw material & whatever depreciations and overheads those firms end up paying for (i.e., their cost). The same logic applies for service providers who are born to serve their clients with a specific need.

In today’s world, many companies are driven by their financial performance. The bottom line and revenues are the main driving forces in the majority if not all the decisions made by corporates. In the absence of what might be described as a ‘ balanced view’ in decision making or even the value they are meant to create, those companies face symptoms that can reach cancerous levels that creep within the body of the organization, if not treated at an early stage it could prove to be very difficult to treat later.

Misalignment is a direct result of the aforementioned culture. In reality, objectives have to be set to groups/products rather than subdivisions, having operations departments with objectives to reduce over heads while sales are set to increase revenues creates a misalignment that eventually translates to interdepartmental conflicts.

The risk starts when financials take the steering wheel alone, in reality, companies should focus on the value they are creating and the revenues are a result of delivering that superior value. Seeing the customers as dollar signs – while it has some merits in it – can be quite dangerous, clients are well educated nowadays and what they look for is not another sales pitch, they are looking for further engagement from their suppliers and a true answer to their problem statements.

By no means should the above be understood as; organizations should remain still in the face of change, nor should organizations ignore the continuously changing requirements of the customers. However, care should be taken to maintain the alignment within the departments to make sure its response is consistent.