Has Sales lost its identity?
Sales is no longer the “fire and forget” process like it was in the old days. In fact, it’s changing because of two very strong forces being thrust upon it:
- The ability to differentiate at the product level
- Buyers knowing more about your product/service than ever before
Are all products created equal?
The competition is an easy one to understand — competition brings differentiation into the fold — and if you aren’t different, you are the same. And same is really tough to sell because, really the only thing that sets you apart at that point is price.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the well informed buyer
And then there’s the buyer — unfortunately today’s buyer is way more educated than the buyer of even five years ago. Everything, everything is now on the internet — from your price to how well your product/service performs to your success and yes, even your failures. A recent study confirms, that over 80% of B2B buyers have become fully informed and educated on what your product/service does before they ever reach out to you. No chance even that first meeting is going to be a lay-up. Time to get your game on.
Wow… sales is hard!
But to those of you who are successful, you can absolutely influence the buyer. And that influence starts with the education of your prospect about why your product/service is the best solution to address their business need. By building empathy with the buyer, trust begins to take hold. With trust established, you are now well on your way to helping influence what’s most important and critical to be addressed in the final selection of the solution selected.
And that sales rep who influences best usually wins the deal.
Here at Illumineto, we understand that differentiation is all about identity and personalization. Identifying with what the prospect wants. Identifying the correct content so there is no “hope that it answers the questions” and in fact, with our product Spark, presenting the content that is unique for the prospect, thus immediately differentiating yourself from the competition.
Remember the post from a few weeks back about telling the story the way you want? Well, isn’t that a part of differentiation? That you are answering the many problems, questions, and concerns that your prospect has? The first time; in an easy to understand format? You bet it is!
Illumineto Spark lets you preempt your prospects questions, immediately building empathy and trust with your prospect — you are providing the right content and laying it out so they can easily consume it. By sharing a Spark Page with your prospect, you immediately build an identity that your prospect will remember and want to learn more about — isn’t that what sales is all about? A prospect wanting to work with you, wanting to know more — not because you didn’t provide the right information (which is frustrating), but because you were responsive and “showed” that prospect that you “knew their business.”
Don’t be one of the many sales reps out there that doesn’t have an identity — be a sales professional that does.
