How many of your sales team are really consulting, helping, and advising your customers? How many know how to target the best prospects and how to open those doors to get an appointment? How many have the skill set to serve on technical issues and complex problems and not just walk around talking like a glorified catalog?
Loved this article about salespeople and how they are going soft and squishy.
I saw this phenomenon up close last month at a major trade show, read the article here, and yes many trade shows are still very much alive and doing very well.
We have a client that recently shifted resources from outside sales to a mix of inside sales/customer support and outside salespeople. Why would they do that? Because this is what their customers wanted and needed. Here is the case study story.
Their customers wanted this for some very good reasons:
- time - they only want to see a salesperson when they add the most value when they are specifying the right machine or developing specific plans, not just catching up or on an arbitrary schedule, if they are going to see a salesperson it has to be a high-value reason
- communication - customers have lots of questions and need answers fast, this type of support is a huge part of the sales process and is best handled by specialists back at the office that can get the answer the customer needs quickly
- relationship - the customers want a partner that will be with them through thick and thin and that knows their business, they needed a team of experts with the salesperson being the facilitator of the relationship, not a salesperson that sold the machine and was off to the next one only to come back when it was time to buy another one
Our client is building their sales team and process around what the customers want, sales people need to do the same.
What Is Wrong with Salespeople? Salespeople need to take the initiative and build their skills or risk being eliminated. There are other options.
Topics: Sales
