Let business happen by itself!
This article comes from a person that is not fond of the word “sales“ (and yet I do it for a living). The real reason why I don’t like it is that most people define it as “making someone buy something“.
Try googling phrase “sell meaning“
In my opinion, it does not have a positive note to it, and business should be a positive experience for all parties involved.
Furthermore, all of us are exposed to various sales activities in most of our everyday life. Whether those are the ads in traffic, shop windows, emails, offers, discounts, cold calls, social media, paid articles, TV commercials, pop-ups — it does not matter, it is all around us! The effect of it is that our potential customers are getting more immune to it and becoming pickier.
In B2B world, pickiness is even higher.
We are all clients in different spheres of our lives on a daily basis — probably at least 4–5 times a day. Whether it is by using our regular day-to-day products, going to doctors, or by using any kind of service — we are clients in each of those experiences.
Pure and simple, clients do not like to be sold to, that “selling” experience alone triggers a defensive mechanism in them — and the same goes for me as well.
Now, do not get me wrong, old-school sales are well-proven, and have worked for most businesses for ages. But in a world where customers have more choice than ever, they are changing and wanting something more, and businesses should evolve with it as well.
Conventional sales are a number-driven philosophy, it is all about odds. The formula is simple — contact as many clients as possible, pitch as best as you can, and hope that you will have an industry average conversion rate regardless of everything (of course, there is much more to it, but I am making a point here).
On the other hand, if the word “sales” means building a network, good brand recognition, great customer relationship, empathy, generating value, and solving problems for your partners, then my heart and mind are in the right place.
Now, a couple of thoughts that I would like to highlight!
Sales should be an outcome, not a goal!
I truly believe in this. This does not mean that proactiveness and activities should stop — quite the opposite! This means that we should step up and change our game. Focus on the client and our solution (whatever it is) and measure outcomes.
This also does not mean that we should not close deals, but we should time them to be an outcome of discussions, and not be driven by them through the entire client’s experience.
In order to make this successful, one more thing is important.
Sales should be an outcome, not a process!
I am all for having a sales process, but it should be an internal process — for tracking metrics, having an overview, connecting departments, etc.
As for the client, it should be a stageless (or at least less “stagy”) relationship and open communication with a clear goal to hear out the client, solve a problem, and propose and present a solution that can bring value to their business or their everyday life.
Getting back to what we mentioned before — our clients recognize our intentions and they value us based on EVERYTHING they experience!
There is a reason why many of us have favorite cafes, bakeries, fashion brands, cars, restaurants, products, etc. Subconsciously we are 24/7 summarizing pros & cons for everything we consume and buy, and that is very much being affected by the “sales” experience we are going through, (as well as by many other things, of course).
All of this means that this is a play for the long run and it takes investment (of time, efforts, work, and money) to make it successful.
Every time I’ve invested myself personally in a business deal and had the best interest of everyone in mind (to any possible degree), it had better outcomes than expected.
I know, most people have heard something like this before, and it’s not like I have something new here! But, everyone talks about it, but is there anyone who actually applies it!?
It is very important that everyone in the company is aligned on this, not just the business department. Or, it will simply not work!
Maybe for some retailers or big companies that have thousands (or millions) of clients, hardcore selling is the only way to go (though I strongly believe this approach can and should be implemented anywhere and to any possible degree).
But if you don’t have a dozen of hundreds of clients a year, then this mind-shift is a must!
How to align the entire company to do the same?
Well, this should be a part of the culture and a strategy of the entire company, not only a business development team. Even though it can come as an initiative from a business development department, definitely it should be implemented through the entire company — top to bottom, literally to each and every department (of course, in a way that fits their activities) and to each individual (as a part of a culture). It does take time to do so, but even getting there will make a huge change.
In the spirit of this topic and article, everything we mentioned above can be narrowed down to 3 questions, which can be related to both B2B and B2C:
What kind of experience are you putting your clients (partners) through?
How do they see you?
How do you help them?
Try asking some of them — I am sure you will be surprised. And by being asked — they will be surprised as well. That can be the first initiative to step up with your business culture.
In the end, in order for this article to have an outcome as well, I would like all of you to do one thing:
Test it out. Try going to a meeting with a clear goal to hear out your client (or any counterparty) and genuinely talk about their problems and needs (I mean literally!).
- Listen
- Relate
- Ask questions
- Tell your experiences
- Share ideas
- Work towards solving a problem
I guarantee that by the end of that meeting if it is a right fit businesswise, both of you will have a clear picture of what can and should be done.
It is very simple:
