The Way Buying has Changed
By steve | June 14, 2008
Here is an old article from the Sydney Morning Herald back in 2006.
The Title was Brave New World by Owen Thomson
Date: 29/07/2006
This is so true and is a solid reminder today.
The way we buy has changed and the role of the sales professional has evolved as a result, writes Owen Thomson.
Money-making opportunities abound in the world of sales, so it’s hard to imagine a shortage of eager professionals looking to capitalise. But according to experts, that very scenario is one of the challenges facing Australian businesses.
The number of sales positions has increased markedly in the past year, aligning with the growth in the economy generally.
James Fennessy, managing director of sales performance improvement organisation Huthwaite Asia Pacific, says there are often more sales positions than there are quality people to fill them. The biggest issue facing organisations, he says, is not only finding, but also retaining top sales staff. “Competitors are coming in trying to throw them an extra 10 or 15 grand a year to attract them away,”
Fennessy says. “We’re seeing that right across the board, whether it’s in health care, financial services, IT or the telecom sector. Job prospects are absolutely excellent.”
Lenga agrees that the skills shortage at the top end is a real issue; expert salesmanship is a vocation, he says, demanding several key attributes. “It’s a particular skill-set that’s required, involving a lot of relationship building and a lot of comfort around numbers; the ability to make cold calls; the ability to sell as well as the confidence to sell.”
As if talent shortages weren’t enough, Fennessy says all industries are also having to take a different approach to selling. In an overcrowded market, products lose their individuality, so winning over customers is not as easy as it once was.
“What’s happened over the last five or six years is that products and services have begun to look more similar, so the importance of a quality sales force has become more important,” he says. “One of the big challenges in the sales game is now creating competitive distinct value.” Because the nature of the sales role has also evolved enormously in the past five years, many sales reps who were successful in the old world are ill-equipped for the new one. “Five or six years ago, all sales guys needed to be was a talking brochure because their products had something unique about them,” Fennessy says. “Today, salespeople need to create value through their ability to help customers understand problems, issues and challenges that they don’t know they have. Customers are looking for a different kind of relationship. What they’re saying is, ‘Don’t sell me a product, be a business partner.’ “
Peter McKeon, managing director of sales training and solution development company Salesmasters International, says it’s not only salespeople who need to move with the times. “I think that many organisations lack the necessary accountability and discipline in their sales forces,” he says. “It’s, ‘Here’s your car and mobile phone, go out and sell.’ Most are under-trained and simply not maximising their opportunities. We need to get a lot more customer-centric: ‘Here’s me and my car, dropping into do a PR call’, as opposed to a true sales call.” McKeon believes many who are already in the sales field need to improve their game. “The vast majority of people in the sales fraternity in this country, if you were to rate them on a scale of one to 10 … I would suggest that the majority of them would be running at around a four or a five,” he says.
“I think people could do a lot more with their customer base than what they’re currently doing.”
CASE STUDY: CHRIS LAMBETH, PHARMACEUTICAL SALES REP
Chris Lambeth has been a pharmaceutical sales rep for drug company Aspen Pharmacare for 12 months. A former vet, the 30-year-old Sydneysider switched careers after realising his original choice wasn’t for him.
“It was a brand new challenge, completely different to anything I’d done before and so I just ran with it,” he says of the change in direction. These days Lambeth spends a lot of time on the road, visiting medical professionals in his prescribed
territory and keeping them up to date about what his company has to offer.
“I do part of the inner-west, extending down south a little bit and also part of the city,” he says. “I take care of all the GPs and hospitals in that area. We also have a country territory where we go for a week or two a couple of times a year.”
Lambeth’s favourite aspect of the job is the independence. “You’re in charge of your territory,” he says. “From Monday to Friday, you plan your week, how you
structure things and how you make appointments. You have quite a bit of control over the way you do things … while at the same time, you’re constantly seeing people and meeting new people as well.”
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Pro Sales People Make Money
By steve | June 12, 2008
It was not by mistake that Xerox Corporation in the
Anne Mulcahy has turned round the fortunes of the one time copier giant that has been the training ground for many super sales people and entrepreneurs.
If any sales person has any doubt about the ability to make a fortune from this exciting career just think again. Anne was paid thirteen million US dollars last year in salary and bonus for the effort she put in to this sensational position in the company.
Her great attributes that head her priority is never forgeting a persons name and continuously being in front of customers to access the company performance.
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Quote of the day
By steve | June 5, 2008
There is only one certain thing in life,
Death and taxes
Bejamin Franklin
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Responsibility
By steve | May 29, 2008
If you are a self employed sales person or if you are employed by a company in a sales role you have a responsibility either way.
Any representative sales role in any field normally means a great deal of self discipline. It means organizing your time in an effective way and it also means making the best possible use of that time available. Generally the more people you can get in front of means more sales.
If you are employed by a company you have a responsibility to understand their requirements from you as their representative. Remember you are the advertisement for that company and most companies would like the best possible image.
If you are self employed and your income depends on the amount of sales you make then you need to make certain your presentations and preparations of such are impeccable.
I have been doing a great amount of traveling lately and I am delighted to see many retail stores in many countries are finally getting the message about professional displays and stock presentation.
I have also received a copy of a report sent to my son from a real estate agent in New Zealand who is promoting one of my son’s properties. It is most gratifying to see at last sales people and companies involved in making major sales are making the effort to do that little bit extra.
I do believe however there are many companies out there with a long way to go yet. For instance it is still impossible to phone some organizations and speak to a live person during normal office hours. Studies in Australia showed that 35% o people hang up when confronted with a robot phone offering choices by pushing buttons.
We live in a fast age where people want answers now. If I am selling a property I expect my agent to report to me weekly in detail. As a regular property investor and developer I expect my agent or agents to keep in contact with me on a regular basis.
If they don’t I simply replace them and that is what most customers do when they are dissatisfied with service.
Therefore my tip of the day is to think seriously about your responsibility if you are a professional sales person.
Topics: Retail Sales, Sales Pro's, beginners | No Comments »
Super Sales Profile
By steve | May 23, 2008
Over the
However common sense is prevailing with the general public that market correction is part of a normal cycle, and life goes on.
What happens when world markets get like this? Well “When things get tough the tough get going”.
I am pleased to announce a very special person has just been added to our super group of sales professionals.
Real Estate Sales Star PENE MILNE from Kelland’s Real Estate in
Along with a number of recognitions, she was also successful with the auction award and overall marketing excellence.
This is just one example of what a person is capable of in the sales profession and regardless of market conditions Pene has not given up.
This is a credit to Pene and her company.
Congratulations Pene.
Steve
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Where Major Sales are made
By steve | May 22, 2008
Many people have no idea just how sophisticated Bangkok in Thailand really is. This is a city with stunning shopping centers and wealthy people. The Paragon shopping center is the latest multistory complex to open.
It is in this complex you will find people capable of making major sales. Not only can you buy the latest Porsche or Ferrari at authorized dealers but you will also find RSGB Laser vision.
This company is the brainchild of Krisda and Chalailk Chatikavanij, and they sell the very best home entertainment systems on the planet.
These charming people know how to set their organization well apart from competitors and differentiate themselves in a climate where most companies are struggling and fighting each other on price.
In the twenty something years I have known these people I am constantly surprised by the efforts they make to stay up to date with the latest trends and the endless amount of sales training and presentation skills they provide their staff.
It is a fact very few sales people or companies, have recognized how dramatically their market has changed over the last few years.
Most sales people cannot grasp how value is interpreted by their customers. There are even less sales people who have adapted to the new skills required to make major sales.
Well there is some bad news and some good news here. The bad news is that most salespeople are still operating under the old idea that just handing out information is the way to communicate value to their customers.
Unfortunately for them, this is now the path to just selling on price. The good news is that for those companies, sales forces and individual sellers just like RSGB Laser Vision who make the transition, there is a unique opportunity to capture a greater share of their market and to do so with a lower percentage of customers who make purely price driven buying decisions.
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The Price Driven Sale
By steve | May 21, 2008
How many sales calls have you attended that are not about selling “value”?
Most sales people and companies talk about offering “value added services,” “value selling” or they claim to be selling “solutions”.
However, do these sellers really understand what their customers would define as value?
How many sellers can accurately identify what kind of “value” their customers are willing to pay a premium to receive?
If value is defined as something that causes a customer to reduce their price concerns, then effective sellers should be able to answer with a list of specifics.
The unfortunate reality is, most will answer with guesses and just point out the advantages of their product or service.
Research carried out by Huthwaite Research has revealed a compelling over use of the words, “concept of value”. Their research has shown the average sales person just does not understand their customer’s real needs.
When a seller employs the correct selling tactics, three outcomes can be achieved:
Price will become less important to the customer.
In situations where the seller genuinely seeks an ongoing relationship (and is successful) with the buyer, the customer will then normally put up a barrier to the seller’s competition.
The seller should uncover areas of opportunity available to them from each customer by asking the appropriate questions and being able to identify them accurately.
This is a major topic for any organization finding itself trapped in today’s marketplace as we constantly see oversupplied with commodities.
In 2008 we can only succeed through real value creation where you can totally differentiate yourself and your product or service from your competitor.
This surely must be uncovered by you with proper questioning of your customer. In future posts I will reveal more on this most important subject.
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Making Assumptions When Selling
By steve | May 20, 2008
Most good sales people know we should always assume a sale has been made when speaking with our customers. However we can make the wrong assumptions sometimes and I sure had my eyes opened on my recent trip to Jordan.
I went there with very little understanding of the country or its people. My lack of research together with articles I had read and heard in the media had me assuming certain things.
In every single case I was 100 percent wrong and if a sales presentation depended on this knowledge it would have been a total disaster.
Look at this comparison between the country of Jordan with a population of six million people and a company we all know about “GOOGLE”. Who would have assumed otherwise? I bet we all would.
Employees of Google receive free meals whenever they please and according to a Silicon Valley insider the following calculation estimates the Companies food budget.
Google employs around 9600 employees in its American offices; it is open for 251 days of the year. Sources from within Google put the daily cost per employee to be $20. The product of these three figures amounts to $48,192,000 for the American offices alone.
That amounts to an annual average of $5020 per employee and that is only for the food they eat at work.
According to a department of statistics survey taken out in Jordan on household expenditure the average Jordanian food expenditure for an entire family is $3828.
The average Jordanian family has 5.7 members. That amounts to an average of $672 per Jordanian, therefore feeding the average Googler costs 7.5 times as much as the average Jordanian.
The moral of this story is if you have a sales presentation anywhere make sure you have all your facts and NEVER assume anything other than the sales has been made.
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The Price Issue
By steve | May 17, 2008
As I have been traveling and observing people’s selling style, I still see that selling on price is a big issue.
We do know that if you ask people to buy something one person in every four will say yes. This is the law of averages.
I just wonder how many more sales a sales person would achieve if they put price to one side for a minute. It has to be a fact that many customers do not buy on price yet many sales people think they do.
A classic example has to be “Starbucks” A bad coffee at a higher price than normal. Yet the places are crowded just as much as McDonalds. An inferior burger at once again at a high price. Surely if everyone bought on price these places would be empty.
My sales tip today is to keep asking the customer questions, before price is mentioned find out how important it is.
As a side issue you can see in the photo I have been suffering from dehydration in the Jordan Sun.
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The Treasury
By steve | May 16, 2008
Here is what I came to Jordan for. The main purpose was to visit Petra and believe me it was well worth while. The lost city is sensational and quite frankly one of the best sights I have ever seen.
This photo has been cropped and resized for the web but I used a Lumix (Panasonic) FX36 digital camera in 16×9 format.
I hope to get back to making some posts relating to making major sales soon but I am overwhelmed by the sights and scenes in Jordan at this time.
By the way, traders here are good sales people, they know how to close simple sales very easily and the tourist is an easy touch especially when these sales people are so nice. They can actually teach us a thing or two.
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