Find in China: July 2016

Thursday, July 21, 2016

What does the future look like for sellers?

“What does the future look like for sellers?”

There will be fewer salespeople, with a more of a well-defined focus on what they are there to do.
Skills will be hybridized.
Sales structures will be imploded and rebuilt to redefine what a team is and how they are paid.

Fewer and focused

There will be fewer sales people primarily because less early-stage opportunity management will be required. That shift is already happening, thanks to dramatic improvements in automated lead generation and greater quality from marketing to produce more qualified leads in less time. This translates into accelerated results: excellent news for top performers, but also fewer sales resources needed to hit corporate targets.

Technology is also encouraging buyers to favor virtual meetings. This means the market will need fewer sellers to get better results, because of sales process efficiencies. A client in the financial sector closes all their new business by video conference. They accomplish 30% more than the average sales rep in their business simply because they don’t have 1-2 days of travel time in their schedules. Rather than waiting for their plane to land, they are landing new deals.

Lastly, vendor consolidation with the biggest buyers will result in seller consolidation. As the biggest buyers start buying from fewer companies, there will be fewer sellers in the market generally. Fewer sellers at your company, too.

Hybrid skills

As is the case in many professions today, sales is becoming a place where a hybrid mix of skills is becoming mandatory. IT professionals, for example, are being told they need to be better sales people. However, sellers are also expected to have greater mastery of IT and a deeper knowledge about the application of the product or service they are selling.

Buyers want experts: not sales people. They want facilitation, not presentations. They want knowledgeable insight and collaboration, not pitches.

It explains why we’re seeing people from highly specialized fields (i.e., engineering, science and math) successfully migrating to sales and thriving because they are able to fuse that hybrid mix successfully.

This shift will have a cascading effect on sales departments: there’s going to be fewer spaces for junior sales people. Instead business leaders are going to count on having access to expert bench strength from their organization as hybrid sales performers and knowledge workers.

This skill shift is complemented by a greater focus on team selling. Gone are the days when the seller acted like a maestro heading the orchestra for managing a relationship with a client. Now, teams bring deeper knowledge and relationships to the table. This means sellers can do more as they can easily facilitate specialization, faster troubleshooting and more substantive consultation to every transaction.

Sales structures will change in a big way

To support the marketplace of the future, we need to fix our current sales structures. This is more than a renovation project: they need to be imploded and rebuilt.

One place where this will happen: compensation. Recently, I talked about changes to the way we pay salespeople. The marketplace today rewards speed and acceleration, not just simple quota attainment.

While it will always be true that sellers do what they are paid to do, what leaders need them “to do” is changing and thus, compensation plans must be radically changed to reward the new behaviours required for speed and client retention

Just as important, the job of selling is no longer going to be limited to just the sales department: every part of your business needs to become a profit center, because every part of it will have that capability.

Already, the sales function of business is much more transparent than before.

The metrics of how a business is performing and where it is growing used to be something very few people had access to in an organization. Now, salespeople have to get used to a future where that data is available to anyone, anytime.

The direct consequence of that shift: more opinions—and informed ones at that—on how to keep growing that business and capitalizing on every opportunity. These opinions will inform coaching session, help to build the right teams and ensure you receive the best quality leads. In essence, data everywhere for everyone will affect every stage of your sales cycle.

The future of sales isn’t about glimpsing into a crystal ball and speculating. The changes I am talking about are already afoot in this marketplace. What’s left to decide is how we fully capitalize on these shifts and create a profitable tomorrow together.

For sales,It’s B-2-All Now!

Today, the way people buy multimillion dollar products and services is no different than how you and I buy a pair of jeans.

It wasn’t always this way. Selling used to fall into one of two groups: B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer). Each had its own set of rules. Selling to business took place in a fact-driven, risk-averse environment. Selling to consumers was a much more impulsive, emotionally driven exercise. Today, B2C is having a major influence on B2B. And vice versa.

It’s creating the democratization of the marketplace. Everyone is equal in this new way of selling, whether you’re a business or a consumer.

IT’S A B2ALL WORLD NOW
Look at how this great levelling of the marketplace is playing out today.

Convenience is king: It’s now much more convenient to buy consumer goods than ever before. This used to be the exclusive domain of B2B sales. Today, you can buy a toothbrush on Amazon and have it shipped to your home with the same ease a business enjoys when ordering stationary.

Access to information: Selling to businesses used to be an insider’s club: you needed to know the right people to get the inside scoop on a product’s performance. Not any more. Consumers and businesses alike today have unprecedented access to information: and that’s well before they ever make the decision to buy from you.

Scarcity of time: Corporate buyers and consumers alike are time starved now. They don’t have time for a “dog and pony show” sales process. They expect a buying experience that respects their right to make decisions on a schedule that suits them: not your sales team. For some, that means after hours, while travelling by plane, or on weekends at home.

Showrooms never close: Shopping tools are everywhere now and all business is a 24/7 job. Brick and mortar showrooms are no longer where you meet your customer for the first time. If you see them there at all now, it’s now at final stage of the selling process. And remember: no one is researching products only from 9-to-5 anymore. They visit your online showroom at hours convenient to them, which is mostly afyter traditional workshours and on weekends.

WHAT B2ALL MEANS FOR YOU
Let’s look at how all this change means major opportunities for you and your sales organization today.

Serve every platform or die: In a digital economy where everyone connects to you with the device of their choice, you cannot afford to have an online platform that’s picky about whom it will serve. One study found that on average, six out of ten users are unlikely to return to a website that they had trouble accessing on their phone. Think about what happened the last time you looked up a new restaurant on your phone, only to discover it wouldn’t load because the site was running on Flash or was only readable on a 27-inch PC screen. Odds are good you found somewhere else to go. Don’t be that restaurant.

Build a seamless experience: Your customers should never pay a penalty for switching between devices—whether they’re at a desk, at the airport or on the couch at home. Example: a client of mine builds an educational product for math teachers. They discovered that teachers would start their product research on PCs at school and then pick up at home where they left off but this time using tablets and phones. By ensuring there were no speed bumps in the buying experience caused by platform switching, sales went up.

Treat product marketing as the new front line: It used to be salespeople were the front line of your buying process. Not anymore. Buyers today expect to make decisions without a salesperson involved. They know what they want before they talk to you, and most often they’re right. This is why it’s important to invest in well-crafted product marketing now. Much like how B2B used to work, consumers today want you to provide compelling “use cases.”

Think like a retail buyer: In a connected marketplace, people talk. A lot. Everyone is an expert buyer now. This is how B2C is influencing B2B. Buyers are unswayed by testimonials from strangers. But they do sit up and pay attention when somebody they know tells others they like what they see in a particular product or service. Create a community of peers for your products attended by industry leaders: it’s critical for those word-of-mouth recommendations.

Your brand is everything: Brand defines how you want people to feel about using your product. In a marketplace that never closes, you must ensure that your brand continuously builds a community that reflects the feelings and values consistent with your business. You don’t have to be the #1 manufacturer of anything, but you do have to make your customers feel that their #1 buying experience is with you.

Better, faster screening: In this B2All world, it’s vital you develop a deep understanding of your target buyers. Just because a prospect wants your product does not mean they’re the right fit. Selling to the wrong buyer reduces your leverage in this hyperconnected marketplace, eroding your brand with poor reviews and limiting your ability to build a community of peers. Screen carefully. Select wisely.

Hire brand ambassadors: Recognizing how much the marketplace has changed, you need salespeople capable of changing the way they sell. In a B2All world, every seller you hire today is a brand ambassador: delivering a consistent buying experience and communicating benefits that resonate with this well informed, highly mobilized customer base.

GETTING TO B2ALL
Brush up on this democratized marketplace. Get reacquainted with your buyers. Learn how their needs have changed. In a world where every buyer is equal, it pays to know what your customers now expect every time they do business with you. Get it right and opportunities will open everywhere. Get it wrong and you risk hurting your position in the marketplace.