Sales and Marketing Training in Malaysia | Recognize That Buyers Have Changed
Yesterday’s paradigms and yesterday’s customers and yesterday’s selling approaches no longer apply. Sales and selling are evolving, largely because buyers and buying are evolving. In many cases, buyers are bringing sales reps in much later in the process (the extent to which this happens depends in large part on the complexity of the sale). By some measures, most of the traditional sales process is already done by the time a customer even contacts a sales rep.
Faced with such data, it is useless to deny the facts that sales is changing and that customers have changed. Today’s customers have little desire to have their hands held by sales reps who usher them through a lengthy decision-making process. Rather, buyers already have access to a lot of information, and chances are they’ve figured out their needs (or at least they think they’ve figured out their needs) before they’ve even reached out to you. Many likely have even already begun considering specific products or services that could meet their needs, solely based on what they’ve learned about your company.
Customers can do this because there’s so much information out there. Your website; your competitors’ websites; industry websites; online social media; traditional media; online, personal, and professional references; and so much more: all of these sources provide customers with avenues to conduct their own research in order to determine what products and services are available to meet their needs. As such, customers are doing much of the legwork that sales reps used to do. And, as a result, the customer may well be further along in the process than sales professionals are used to.
Not only have customers done much of the research but they’re also often crafting their own solutions. The research they’ve conducted and the information they’ve gleaned from various sources allow them to identify their needs and determine what products and solutions will meet those needs. Today’s customers know what they need, they know what they want, and they know how to get it. Furthermore, today’s buyers not only know that there are various options available to them but also may even understand how they vary from one another. They have the ability to do the research and at times can determine what the points of differentiation are on price, features, and benefits.
In addition to all of this, buyers are busier than ever—just like everyone else. We’re all doing more with less, working on tight deadlines, solving problems in a 24/7 world from which we can rarely, if ever, disconnect. Like the rest of us, buyers are busy and demanding. They have less time to spend (and less inclination to spend time) with salespeople.
Faced with all of these changes, top-performing sales professionals recognize that their world has changed. Top performers don’t waste time pining away for the good old days when they could share select, scripted information with less knowledgeable buyers. They don’t bother to “always be closing” or go in for the hard sell. Instead, they accept the fact that buyers have changed and that, as a result, they have to change, too. Sales and selling must evolve along with buyers and buying.
With that, top performers understand that today’s buyers want salespeople who are ready, willing, and able to meet them where they are in the sales process. They don’t want a sales rep who will waste their time going over ground they’ve already covered on their own. Instead, today’s top-performing sales professionals understand that in order to sell to today’s demanding customers, they have to adopt a new approach.
