Note: This post originally appeared as a guest post in Rebel Brown’s Rebelations Blog. Rebel’s book, Defy Gravity, will be published soon. It’s an outstanding and pragmatic guide to developing and executing business strategies.
Our guest post today comes from David A Brock, CEO of Partners in EXCELLENCE. David has been a leader in the sales arena for decades now. David and I often chat about the changes facing our sales organizations, how we can take advantage of the dramatic shifts in buyer behaviors and why more people don’t seem to ‘get’ the opportunities that these shifts bring. This article puts it on the table – evolve or crash and burn. It’s your choice! THANKS David!
The world of professional sales is on the cusp of major change. Buyers are changing how they buy—the world of social media has changed the way they are engaging us, it is changing the role of sales and expectations our customers have of us. Products are becoming commoditized, we are searching for new ways of differentiating our offerings. Globalization has created both new opportunities and new competition. Sales/Enterprise/Web 2.0 provide new tools and capabilities to help sales professionals improve their impact. Collaboration is the new buzzword, yet it is becoming a new reality—driving how we work within our own organizations, with our customers, with our partners, and potentially with past competitors. Overlay all of these with a recovering, but still uncertain economy.
This new reality simultaneously threatens and challenges us, but like it or not, things are changing. The question before us is, “Are we going to drive it, or become its victims?”
In her upcoming book, Defy Gravity, Rebel challenges us to find opportunities that provide “lift” and “thrust” for our businesses—things that enable our organizations to outperform others. She also describes those things that become drag—that slow us, inhibiting performance.
The opportunity to provide lift and thrust is upon us. High performers will embrace it. The best will not only respond to the changes in the way customers buy, but will actively engage customers in a new way—helping to facilitate their buying processes. These top sales professionals will leverage the new tools and collaborative capabilities to change the way they work with customers. Products will become a component of the offering, services will complement them, but the real differentiator will be that created by sales professionals themselves—in the way they help their customers identify new opportunities to grow and improve their businesses. Great sales people and organizations will look at globalization as an opportunity to acquire and grow new markets and customers. They will see new participants as partners in growing their relationship with customers, not as “low cost” competition. These great organizations will see the economy as a bump in the road, an opportunity to out-compete those who are diverted by it.
The best sales organizations will not only respond, but will drive the change. They will provide leadership within their organizations, with their customers, in their markets. They will outdistance those who refuse to recognize these changes, those waiting for “things to get back to normal.” They will accelerate past those who wait to respond.
The opportunity for top sales organizations has never been more exciting. It is truly an opportunity to Defy Gravity!
