Where the “back-slappin’, glad-handin’” relationship network used to be enough to succeed in sales, a new era has dawned.  Today’s hyper-competitive business environment has dramatically changed expectations since the order-taker days.  Requirements now include a strong perceived value proposition or rock-bottom widget prices, delivery just-in-time with superior customer service on the back-end. You might have spent hundreds of hours perfecting your widget and hundreds of more hours perfecting the elevator pitch to sell that widget, but the simple truth is your customer really doesn’t want what you sell.

It happens all the time.  A sales person meets with a customer and presents all their company’s products and services packaged really slick in a glossy brochure.  They pull out the “blue widget insert” or the “value-packaged 2-for-1 insert” and go on ad nauseum about the greatness of their new blue widget.  The sales person is ready for the order.  However, the customer gradually loses interest in both the presentation and the products offered.  They’re  probably not going to give them the order.  Why?  Because the customer really doesn’t care about the sales persons’ company and what the sales person has to offer - they really only care about their customers and their needs.

Your customer gets several phone calls a week from sales people trying to sell their widgets. Maybe it’s green instead of blue, or comes with a bell instead of a whistle.  Nonetheless, it’s a widget similar to yours.  The plain truth is, unless you understand your customers and their needs and link them to your product, you’ll be just another salesperson selling another colored widget.  You’ll be just another salesperson who knows everything but knows nothing.  If you want to sell to your customer, you must think like your customer.  Link your product to your customer’s need and sell the solution, not the means. 

Liken the sales scenario to a doctor’s visit.  You go to the doctor because your knee hurts.  He takes a few minutes to say hello, inquires about the family and then asks what’s wrong.  You tell him about your bad knee.  Can you imagine if he then prescribes a new drug that is great for migraines and a new procedure to reduce chronic back pain?  Does he understand your pain?  Has he resolved your problem?  Do you really want the new drug; the new procedure?  Might you go elsewhere?  Same as the customer who feels underserved and overwhelmed by products and services that aren’t linked to his needs.

In the good old days you may have had solid relationships with several of your key customers and the sales came fairly easily.  You waited for the phone to ring...you took the order.  Today, although the relationships are still important, it’s not enough.  Your customers are more demanding - they want more for less; they want everything just-in-time; they want superior customer service; they expect perfection.  Your customer’s competition is tougher - they outsource globally, they have aligned with vertical players; they have initiated Lean practices; they have trained their sales force; they have added value to their services and products.  Your customer needs help to be more competitive. 

Now you must begin to think like your customer. You need to stop talking long enough about your company and how smitten you are with your products and begin to learn more about what your customer does and what they want. Your customer is looking for a partner.  Period. 

So, recognizing that a disconnect might exist between how your sales force sells and how your customer buys, what can you do about it?  First, understand there are some salespeople who are incapable of re-tooling their skill sets to succeed in today’s more demanding atmosphere.  They are incapable of a “fresh voice”.  They are in love with their products and believe that if you just paint the blue widget pink, it will sell.  They cannot and do not think like a business person.  They are selling a commodity, not a solution.  And, they need to go.  As Jim Collins says in his book Good to Great, “It is important to get the right people, on the right bus, at the right time.”  

For those sales people willing to take a new look at how they sell, there are a few tools that could be used to help them reposition from an order taker to an effective sales person.  Most of those tools are right at their fingertips: 

• The customer is their first and best source to help them understand their business.  They should take them to lunch for no other reason than to ask questions about what keeps them up at night; what are the top three things they’d like to change about their business; what is their strategy; where is their focus?  Understanding where they are coming from and where they want to go is key.  Listen. Assess. Solve.
• The internet is a great resource to help them get in touch very quickly with their customer’s industry, trends and competitive threats.  Pull up the customer’s website, read the annual reports of the customer and their competitors.  Read press releases, news articles and white papers.   
• The customer’s vendors and customers are always a good source of information and usually more than willing to talk about the business and trends.
• Industry associations are a fertile source of knowledge and usually have a good understanding of the competitive environment and the future industry trends.

It is not enough to just understand your customer and their needs - you must also be able to provide the solution.  The value proposition today is…the solution.  It is the salesperson who focuses on the result and not the sale who will be able to win the business, and not necessarily at the lowest cost. 

If you want to land your customer, you must think like your customer.  You must understand their business and their needs and be able to link your products and services to solving their problems and challenges.  Your fresh ideas, value-added services and desire to be your customers’ partner will win you the business each and every time.

About the Author

Kathryn Hendershott, MBA, has been evaluating and advising businesses from a classical marketing perspective for more than 25 years.  As a Vice President and Senior Advisor with Manchester Companies, she drafts, recommends and implements strategic marketing programs for companies that are growing, evolving or exhibiting symptoms of stress.  She also assists organizations in assessing the effectiveness of their marketing programs/expeditures and their sales channels.  Her experience spans a broad range of industries and organizations of various size and complexity. She is adept at both consumer and business marketing.

Ms. Hendershott earned her Bachelor’s degree in business administration from Yankton College in South Dakota and her MBA in marketing, with a finance emphasis, from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.

Please contact Ms. Hendershott directly at 612-436-2809; or kate.hendershott@manchestercompanies.com