21st century selling
Please, Please Please. Stop selling likes it’s 1999! There are far too many salespeople who still think that the things that were successful in the 1990s still apply to effectively selling to customers today in 2020.
Breaking news the 20th century is over. If we want to keep helping our customers solve their problems, we need to start thinking like 21st century professionals.
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The Covid Opportunity
While a global pandemic is a terrible thing there are also some great positive possibilities.
I have helped business build very successful remote sales systems for more than 2 decades. While the world has rapidly changed for many people, those who had already embraced remote selling didn’t skip a beat.
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Service is everything
To lead is to serve. I know some people would disagree but if you really think about it, the leading businesses all have one thing in common. They all serve their customers better than anyone else.
How can you develop a business culture of service? It starts from the top. Lead by example. As the business leader you must serve your people just as much as you serve your customers.
Here are 5 ways you can improve your level of service.
Needs without Wants
Far too often sales leaders teach their reps to uncover their customers needs. Unfortunately, there is a big problem with this. Think about it in your own life. When you need something to you go out of your way to get it right then and there? Or do you put it off until later?
For example, if you have a leaky faucet do you fix as soon as you discover it or do you wait until it gets worse? For most people if the problem is not to painful, they wait until the pain becomes unbearable. Then and only then are they ready to do something about it.
But when you want something. You will do what it takes to get it as soon as possible.
The same principals apply to sales.
What is Value?
Too often sales professionals are told by their leaders that they must create value. However, there is a fundamental problem with this advice. Value is not what you say it is. Value is what the customer says it is. If you don’t understand what is of value to the customer you are just doing a lot of talking.
The Challenges of Sales Enablement
There are a lot of companies talking about sales enablement, but what is it? To many sales enablement is just a way to get more accountability from the marketing team. To others it’s investments in training programs. Then there are those who think better technology is what sales enablement is.
The truth is these are all elements of a successful sales enablement strategy. Before you can develop a strategy that is right for your business you first have understand where you are today.
The real way to make Customer Success work.
As more companies move to a SaaS model you must make it easy to set up, and use. In many cases this initial set up should require little to no cost to the customer.
Why this is important to you? If your customers purchase your solution and cannot get it work the way they want they will not stay your customer. Customer churn with SaaS companies is a significant challenge. The reasons vary, but one of the top reasons is they never figured out how to use the solution.
Making customer success work means you must be 100% all about the customer.
Is Your Organization Engaging?
Everyone is talking about engagement. Customer engagement member engagement, student engagement.
But what does all of this really mean?
I think Stephen Covey has the best description of what engagement really is.
“You must first seek to understand before seeking to be understood.”
Engagement is about listening first then providing exactly what the other person wants or needs.
This is not easy. Too many organizations think they can handle this on their own. Many think if they just invest in enough systems they can be more engaging. Others see it as a marketing problem. Then there are those who are just ignoring it.
Truly engaging your audience requires a new way of seeing. The truth is, if you think you are engaging, you may find you are wrong. The people you are supposed to be engaged with may tell you a very different story. The worse thing is most of those you think are engaged just go with the flow, so you never get the real deal. The only time you get real engagement is when you do something wrong.
Engagement requires communication. Communicating in an engaging manner takes time, and effort. The good news is if you work with someone whose only job is to help you, you’ll find new ways of communication you never thought were possible.
Then you truly will be engaging.
Efficiency is the key to Profitability
Buy it today, and get it tomorrow. That seems to be the mantra of many businesses in 2019. I call it the Amazon effect. How can you compete in a world where everyone wants the solution to their problems tomorrow? Be more efficient.
In order to build, and operate an efficient business you must have well defined, and fully developed processes, and systems. In addition, your employees must be fully trained on how to effectively implement, and execute on those processes, and use those systems. Most business owners however don’t understand that they really don’t have any processes, or systems in place. What they have are a set of ideas that their employees loosely follow.
Because your employees are following these ideas every day the illusion of real processes, and systems takes root. You may have found that in the beginning you were generating revenue consistently, and delivering to your customers’ expectations. Then things started to change. Sales slowed down, and you started losing customers. At first you blamed the economy. Then you blamed the competition. Most business owners never look in the mirror, and think maybe the problem is me.
In order to incorporate efficiency in your business you have to take a good hard look at where you are today, and why you are in this place. Did you have something in place that was working well, but for some reason you decided to change what you were doing? Maybe you were just lucky, and now you realize that you never implemented any true processes, and systems.
If you are not sure if you really have processes, and systems in place the best thing to do is ask for impartial help. It can be hard to see what needs to be updated, or adjusted when you are so close to things. As a business owner you may feel that you don’t need any help. You may feel you have everything under control. You may feel that you can find a way to resolve your current challenges on your own.
What if doing it on your own does not work? Or worse what if doing it on your own causes you to lose precious time doing the things you do best? What if you miss out on extremely profitable opportunities because you didn’t seek the right kind of help? What if the help you needed was a simple phone call away?
Increasing sales is the key to profitability. The key to increasing sales is efficiency. The key to efficiency is fully developed, and documented processes, and systems. You want to be sure that you have the right tools to consistently win new business, keep your current customers happy, and grow your company. The only way to be sure you have what you need is to get an honest assessment of your current situation.
When you are ready to increase your productivity, efficiency and profitability you should schedule a no obligation initial business assessment.
Taking the short business owner survey right now is a great place to start.