A NEW KIND OF SELLING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

Hands up everyone who remembers the days when Sales was all about Features and Benefits! The salesman would sit with the customer, describe the facets of his product or service, lay out the reasons why the customer should buy and then move on to the close. What’s that? Some of you believe that Sales is still about Features and Benefits? Forget it! Many sales people still behave as if it was still all about F&B but customers have moved on and to be successful in today’s markets Sales and Account Managers need to move on as well

So what has changed? Essentially technology. Before the dawn of the internet age customers needed sales people to tell them about products and services and keep them informed of the latest developments in the market. It often did not matter if your product or service was not the best in terms of quality, price or value since customers could easily be unaware of the competitor offerings so that the salesman who visited the most customers usually ended up with the most orders. “Traditional selling”, to give it a name, was generic, often confrontational and adversorial and most definitely entirely transaction based. You did not necessarily need to be differentiated, you just needed to be visible

The internet age has led to the commoditization of many products and services and, in the process, it has changed the role of the sales force. Most customers can now find out more about your product before you set foot in their premises than you probably know. So talking about Features and Benefits to an already informed customer will likely earn you little more than a quick exit. To stay in the picture Account Managers need to leave the F&B crib sheet at home and look to add and create value for the customer which is the real differentiator in today’s hi-tech world

So how do you create and add value? The first thing we recommend is a complete change of mindset and a move to looking at things from the perspective of the customer rather than from the usual introspective company viewpoint. Traditional selling was all about “us”, “our products” and “our objectives” which the sales force was taught to mould into a supposedly customer-centric proposal. Even the ubiquitous phrase “USP”, allegedly describing the unique benefits a customer will derive from the company’s offerings, is us-focused (USP!!). The “new selling” we talk about involves the Account Manager becoming a provider of insights not information and solutions not products and services. In this way, we move from talking of USPs to looking for UBPs (Unique Buying Propositions), a subtle but important shift in perspective and one which is focused entirely on the agenda of the customer

“Isn’t this “consultative” or “relationship” selling, you might be asking? Partly. However, to create real value for your customers you need to become what might be termed a “trusted advisor” rather than just another salesman and trusted advisors look beyond their own self-interest to see how they can help customers in other areas of their business and demonstrate the willingness and ability to be more than just another Sales guy. To do this the Account Manager needs three key attributes; firstly he must possess real “business acumen” and be able to talk and advise knowledgeably on a broader range of business-related challenges. Secondly, he must possess excellent industry insights since he is uniquely positioned to get a broad view of what is happening across the customer’s competitive landscape. Thirdly, he must develop a great network of contacts and then use these connections to potentially solve his customer’s business issues by referring a competent solution provider. This is why the “new selling” approach moves beyond both Features and Benefits and Consultative or Relationship Selling. By taking this new approach, which focuses entirely on the customer’s agenda, Account Managers actually create the conditions for a relationship which makes traditional selling unnecessary and leads to the creation of a trusting partnership whose end result is profitable business for the Account Manager….and lots of it!!