MAIN INSIGHT 60
David Fish
SALES DIRECTOR UK&I
AND SOUTHERN EUROPE
How has the sales landscape changed in recent years?
Sales is becoming increasingly digital. Many buyers are now happy to make smaller B2B purchases without any interaction with a human sales representative from the vendor. But there still remains, and always will remain, a strong need for human engagement in more complex B2B purchases. The very best salespeople are those that recognise the new opportunities increasingly digital sales journeys can bring and welcome them with an open mind.
When you think back to the ‘olden days’ of sales, where sales people were targeted on the number of cold calls they made per day, it’s a very different game now. The last thing that prospects who are navigating complex issues that affect their whole business want is an unsolicited call out of the blue! So therefore sales representatives need to reconsider how their initial message reaches a potential customer. This is where digital comes in. Prospects will undertake considerable research themselves now before identifying potential solutions to their problems and reaching out for more information. With this in mind, great sales people are adapting to become more consultative. Instead of pitching their offering, they are taking the time to understand the prospect’s specific challenges and then guiding them through a collaborative process to win the sale.
What did successful businesses do differently during the global pandemic?
The pandemic certainly made businesses think about ways to stay in touch with their customers without physical meetings being an option. Many meetings took place on video call services like Zoom or Teams instead, and those that adapted quickly certainly put themselves in an advantageous position. But the real success stories are those who had already put their customers first long before the global pandemic. The same is true now as we emerge from the pandemic - businesses who put their customers first stand a higher chance of success.
Businesses that want to start putting their customers first should begin by mapping out the buying journey of their customers. This is a collaborative process between sales and marketing that allows everybody in the business to see the typical steps that a customer takes from initial awareness through to becoming an advocate of the business. Once these steps are known, it becomes much easier to provide the customer with the right information or content at each step of their journey to keep them progressing along.
Businesses who put their customers first stand a higher chance of success.
The very best sales representatives do their homework on a very deep level.
What separates good and great sales representatives?
The very best sales representatives do their homework on a very deep level. Most reputable sales people will do at least some homework on prospective customers, but normally focus solely on what the customer’s pain points might be so that they can directly sell against those pain points. But the best sales people go even deeper. They learn about the buyer on a personal level, including how they prefer to be communicated with. This way any messaging or content that the salesperson shares with the buyer, is done with the confidence that is being delivered in a way that the buyer will not find intrusive. And then the very best sales people go deeper still by recognising that within complex B2B sales, there is very rarely just one decision maker involved with the purchase. The very best sales people research to identify the individual decision makers, what matters most to them and how they prefer to be communicated. By creating a tailored and meaningful sales journey for each decision maker involved with the purchase, the sales person creates a much greater likelihood of converting the sales.
ECT is a tech company dedicated to better business outcomes for communications service providers and their customers. Through the combination of their Telecoms Low-Code Application Platform, Packaged Business Capabilities, ready-to-use apps and agile co-development, ECT enable communications service prodivers to compose, enhance and individualize telecoms services and products implemented within their telecoms network.
