“More has changed in buying and selling in the past 5 years than in all prior history.” I’ve talked about this a lot, everyone is. It’s becoming almost hackneyed and trite. Much of this has been driven by the vast availability of information available to buyers on the web. Research indicates that buyers aren’t engaging sales people until they are 60-70% through their sales process. Rightfully, the argument is that sales people must change–dramatically! Absolutely, no doubt……….. duhhhhh.
Much of the discussion, however, is misdirected or at least misunderstood. The rise of the self educated customer doesn’t mean the sales person is unnecessary until later in the sales process. The correct part of the discussion is that customers no longer need sales people to do the same old things. Sales people are needed less to inform and educate the customer about the product–they can get much of that through the web. We still have to make sure our customers are correctly and well informed, but the amount of time needed or the value created in teaching our customers about our products has plummeted. If sales people don’t up their game, then they are relegated to being RFP fodder.
If the data is accurate and sales people are being relegated to the last 30-40% of the customer buying journey, then it’s a sad commentary that sales people aren’t upping their game and aren’t redefining their role to support the customer in their buying process. It portrays a dim future for those sales people (but well earned).
However, the data that says customers aren’t engaging sales people until they are 60-70% through their buying process doesn’t mean the customer doesn’t need the sales person to help them with that 60-70% of their buying process!
In fact, I think it’s much more critical that sales people are actively involved and engaged in all phases of the customer buying process! Buying hasn’t become easier, in fact it’s become much more difficult.
No doubt, the web has changed everything (I long for the day when I don’t have to repeat the obvious). The availability of information about products and solutions, the ability for customers to research and educate themselves is skyrocketing. “Content” is the mantra of all but most clueless organizations. Companies are investing in making more information about their products and services available in more and new channels. Users and buyers are engaging in richer and deeper conversations about products and solutions leveraging social media.
But this “explosion” of data, information, opinions doesn’t make the buyers’ jobs easier. It doesn’t make them, necessarily, more informed. In fact in can make them more confused, overwhelmed, and frustrated. The web hasn’t made buying easier, it’s made it more difficult!
Buyers are desperate for help in their buying process. Buyers are desperate for help in understanding, “What’s this all mean to me?” “How does it apply to my business, function, or organization?”
Buyers are desperate for help in navigating the choices, the vast array of alternatives, data, and opinions to get the best and most impactful solution for them.
In the “old days,” sales people used to help the customer in identifying new opportunities, seeing ways to improve their business and better achieve their goals, disrupt their thinking to help them discover new approaches to improving business performance. They used to help the customer define their problems, define and better understand their needs, organize themselves to buy, assess alternatives and make a decision. (At least great sales people did.)
In these days of the “new buyer,” buyers want sales people who help them in identifying new opportunities, seeing ways to improve their business and better achieve their goals, disrupt their thinking to help them discover new approaches to improving business performance. They want sales people to help them define their problems, define and better understand their needs, organize themselves to buy, assess alternatives and make a decision.
Nothing’s changed but everything’s changed.
The customer still needs and want us to help them buy! They need and want us to help them in a much more complex and confusing world. They will embrace sales people who help them do this (a fundamental part of value creation).
But the way we do this has to change! Customers don’t need us for what we used to do–or what they used to do. They need us to engage them in new and different conversations. They need us creating value in new and different ways.
The bar has been raised. Buyers are changing–they have to change to be competitive. Sellers are changing for the same reason. Buyers and sellers doing the same old, same old will become tombstones in the Wall Street Journal or Financial Times.
The fundamentals are the same. The why, what, how are changing for everyone.
Finding yourself relegated to RFP fodder? Letting your customer manage 60-70% of their buying process without you? It’s a wake up call, pay attention. Your customers still want and need you, but you need to up your game to create the value they need.
I wholeheartedly agree with the main point of your blog that salespeople need to change what they are doing because buyers have changed what they are doing.
Two things about buyer change I most often read are:
1) “Sales people are needed less to inform and educate the customer about the product,”
and
2) ” . . . buyers aren't engaging sales people until they are 60-70% through their sales process,”
You have effectively debunked the assumption many people make regarding #1, namely that “better informed” equates to “better understanding.” It doesn’t. As you said, buyers still ask "What's this all mean to me?” That means salespeople have great value to offer for sorting out options, differentiating choices, and simplifying the buying process.
Regarding #2 . . . I’ve read this many times, but nobody who offers these statistics can explain their research methodology. In many companies, the “buying process,” however defined, doesn’t have a distinct beginning, or end, for that matter. Does it begin at the time a need is recognized? Or accepted? Or at the time a formal effort is started to solve a specific business problem?
I’ve worked for many organizations and sat through countless hours of meetings. I still haven’t heard anyone say “Meter’s running. Buying process has now started. Go!”
Because of that, any analysis of exactly when certain milestones occur in the buying process is akin to picking up a raw egg with a fork. To me, it seems near impossible to generalize when buyers begin a collaboration with sellers.
If buyer engineer consults with seller engineer about a nascent product development, is that considered the “buying process?” . . . or, does that start formally when Sales is in the picture? There are no standards as to when buying processes start, and way more questions than answers.
Thanks for the great comment Andy. Like you, I don’t know where the research has come from and would really like to better understand the research.
Specifically, the issue, as I tried to raise in the post, is: Is the sales person truly not needed (I tend to think not), or if sales people continue to do the same old thing, we don’t need them—but we need them if they change how they work with us.
I think some of the research has been “pushing an agenda,” so I am skeptical that a real root cause analysis has been done, or the results happen to fit the agenda, so no root cause analysis was really done.
While I don’t have a research based analysis, my experience is customers are intrested in sales people when they are helpful and create value, regardless of where they are in the sales process.
The web hasn’t changed anything in one sense. If the sales person doesn’t create value and isn’t helpful, the customer doesn’t want to see the sales person period—regardless of where they are in the sales process.