I speak and do workshops on how social technologies are impacting the field of sales quite a bit these days. It is very interesting to me to observe how the field of selling is changing – the big picture. Before making any comment about how salespeople and organizations need to be using social tools, it would be wise to acknowledge the larger perspective, that person-to-person selling, as we have known it, is dying. For decades many companies have employed human beings to be the revenue generators, arm twisters, peddlers, or bag carriers. These people had one very clear mission – to engage people man on man (so to speak) to get customers to buy a product or service. We are very familiar with the techniques that car salespeople use to this day. We have experienced it from the insurance industry, software companies, door-to-door vacuum cleaner operations, and even realtors. In most cases, we have this sneaking suspicion that these people probably have less of our best interest in mind, then the commission they would earn.
It does not take a horribly observant person to see that the field of selling is changing. People are tired of being arm-twisted. In a McKinsey report on where sales reps go wrong, 35% of buyers said buyers felt they had too much contact from the salesperson (in other words, annoying them with arm twisting.) Another 29% said that lack of knowledge was the reason they would not buy from a person.
Whatever the reasons, it is getting tougher and tougher to be a salesperson. The natural question to ask is, what do we need to do in order to get our products and services sold if not by a salesperson?
Good question, and that is where we can segue smoothly to social technologies. Let’s look at each of the reasons buyers get annoyed with salespeople – the first is that there is too much contact. This can be remedied by a salesperson learning to use social networking as a way to stay in touch and provide value to a buyer without interrupting their day. Instead of calling and emailing constantly, getting a buyer to follow you on Twitter, or read your blog is a much less intrusive activity. Yet, there is a problem here that you might have seen and that is the issue of a salesperson providing a social networking conversation that would be valuable enough for any buyer to sign up for. That is an issue. If a salespersons only skill is arm-twisting, and they lack industry knowledge, then they are perceived for the peddler they are. If the salesperson is an industry expert, then they might have a chance of providing content that someone would read.
The second reason buyers don’t buy is lack of knowledge so couple this with the first area, and you have a clear picture of the standard arm twister. Lack of knowledge means the buyer does not trust that the person selling to them actually know anything about the product area. This can easily by remedied if the salesperson would use the Internet and social tools to create a river of information into their brain about their industry. If they would spend an hour a day studying content flying around the Web, they would then have valuable information to deliver and could transcend past being viewed as a peddler.
Maybe an example would pull this all together. Let’s take the scenario of a car salesperson. Instead of grabbing people off the lot, bringing them into the office, and then hot boxing them into buying a car right at that moment, what if the sales process went more like this… Bob the car expert visits with the potential customer on the lot and offers to help them with any questions they might have. If they have no questions, Bob let’s them go. If they have questions, Bob invites them into the office and answers them all himself. He does not go ask a manager, or do anything else that makes him look like he is clueless. In fact, Bob is an expert on the car space because he spends an hour a day reading content from the top bloggers, twitterers and newsletters in the space. If a sale is to be had, Bob closes it. If there is not a sale to be had that day, Bob asks the potential customer if they would be willing to follow him on Twitter/blog/Facebook while they are looking for a vehicle. He offers this because he provides information on the car business daily and it might be helpful to them. After the sign up, they see his daily posts with all kinds of information and resources on the car business. Within a couple of weeks, they value Bob as an industry expert, and feel comfortable emailing some additional questions to him. In the end, if they buy a car, they give Bob the first chance.
Yea, it could be this way…
There are good reasons that the traditional methods of selling are dying. A salesperson without social networking skills, and the ability to become an industry expert through a powerful river of information is a dinosaur at this point…