You're selling software, but they're trying to buy change.

Article #3: You're selling software, but they're trying to buy change.

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So we've seen how getting selling wrong causes untold pain for you and for your customers. How then, can we learn from this and change our relationship with customers?

First off, there's some fundamentals that we need to clear up.

Customers do not see themselves as customers. They see themselves as people trying to get their job done, sometimes that job involves change and this change comes in a few flavours:

• Performance gaps. Failure to meet existing targets, or a requirement to extend to new higher targets means these gaps must be met somehow.
• Identification of opportunities. In order to increase competitiveness, sometimes companies must change when new opportunities arise.
• Internal and external pressures Market forces, shareholders, government regulations, competition and customers can often excerpt pressures for change, as can similar forces within companies like new employees or management.
• Mergers and acquisitions. As companies merge or become acquired, the need for change can arrive at speed and often it's an unsettling time for employees.
• Change for the sake of change. A change in leadership often brings with it changes. Sometimes for no reason other to impress the board when a new CEO or other executive makes their impact felt, or when internal communities need bringing together under one banner.
• Something sounds good. Hey, have you heard? There's this cool new thing everyone's doing. Don't want to miss out do you? Sometimes change happens just because it feels like change is good.
• Planned abandonment. A decline in success, product applicability to a market or a change to priorities. Sometimes change happens because it's dangerous to continue.

None of these changes are because software exists to enable them. But software does exist to aid this change, and sometimes in spectacular ways.

One spectacular way was how the Intelligent Demo Automation market was born. From the ashes of far too many failed bids, under-qualified demos and costly misalignment of sales methods to buyer needs, Consensus came along with a refreshing approach: If people want to affect change, help them. Be surprisingly helpful and make buying software easy, pleasant and fast. Sounds too good to be true?

So if we're not ringing the bell on just 'selling software', how do we help our buyers through this change?

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