Why the new era of sales is Challenging
The new era of sales is Challenging.
Now I don’t mean that it is hard. On the contrary, today we have more tools than ever. Tools that automate, eliminate, migrate, and motivate. Tools that purport to make life as exciting as the Olympics: faster, higher, stronger. Sometimes better.
When I say that the new face of sales is Challenging, what I do mean is that as consummate sales professionals, we should be challenging our customers to be innovative; we should be challenging our customers to ideas that they have not had before; we should be challenging our customers to try new things, to innovate, to manage risk better.
It is very unfortunate that the large majority of sales people today do not understand that point or have an easier time not doing it. Sales professionals should be less about the “selling” bit and more about the “people” bit.
There are many sales methodologies out there — sales processes, sales matrices, sales guides. They all avoid the elephant in the room, namely that sales is the bit between one person and another person.
It’s not a module in your product portfolio.
It’s not a line item in your service delivery catalogue.
It’s definitely not a feature shoot-out with your competitors.
I see this behaviour in sales teams all the time — including my own. In fact, I've done it too. It’s too easy to fall back to the list of products and try to cram one more into a customer’s solution. It’s too easy to make up a problem the customer might have and propose to them the solution to that made up situation.
It’s wrong.
I've had to re-learn and re-train my thinking. In fact, I encourage my sales team to do the same.
So what does it mean to challenge your customers? What is this ‘challenger sales’ model all about?
Quite simply, it’s about knowing three things better than anyone else:
- Your customer’s business today,
- Your customer’s business tomorrow, and
- Your customer’s business the day after that
That’s a pretty trite list, isn't it? Let’s explore!
In order to challenge your customer to do something different, you need to know your customer. Let’s take an example of improving a business process of hiring someone new.
Every company needs to hire people — when they are hired, they need to fill a form, get a computer of some kind, get some login credentials, install some software, be shown around the (virtual) office, and usually be paired up with a mentor or peer.
Let’s say our great solution, comprising a product and a bit of consulting, is to automate a huge chunk of that process. We propose that after the letter of offer is signed, most of the prep work is done. When the new employee arrives at 8am, they have a computer waiting for them, pre-loaded with their software of choice, ready to go.
If we know the process our customer is going through now; if we know the pain points, the bottlenecks, the one and only person going on annual leave who can run the computer system that we need to use; if we know about our customer, then we are in a position to be able to help them transform their business, to give them the competitive edge they need.
That is why we need to know three things about our customer. What they are doing today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. We need to know their journey to be able to be part of it.
So that is why the new face of sales is Challenging. It’s no longer sufficient to just be a relationship person. It’s no longer enough to always have an open bar tab on your corporate credit card.
Building rapport with the customer needs to happen across key parts of the organisation, not just with the procurement person who likes a coffee or a drink. It’s no longer enough to have an open bar tab and expect to be successful.
Challenger sales people today are a new breed, reinventing themselves to bring solutions to customers that give the business the opportunity to go faster, higher, stronger.
