David Fairweather of Experience Business Solutions looks at how the Internet has changed the way we need to sell.
There are no doubt many of us out there that remember the pre internet days of word processing and glossy product brochures but over the past quarter century we have gone from slow dial up connections to high speed broadband and along with that we have Social Media and Social Networking. All of these changes have had a dramatic effect on the way businesses buy and sell.
Customers are now more Self Informed than ever before
The advance in technology and online awareness means that customers are better informed than ever before and historically, buyers relied on vendors to provide them with product information and expertise, usually in the form of product/benefit presentations that provided the information necessary for the buyer to make an intelligent decision.
Now, things are quite different as buyers can get all the product information they want (and more) from the Internet, and as a result, do not want sellers to waste their time providing information that’s easily available elsewhere.
The Web also greatly influences how buyers evaluate pricing. In the past, the simple logistics of gathering relevant data on a range of competitive products (along with price comparisons) was a major task requiring a great deal of time and effort.
In contrast, buyers can now instantaneously compare products online, making it simple and efficient for customers to search for the lowest prices for any number of goods and services that they might require.
The ability to rapidly find alternative products and services tends to drive prices downwards because the customer will almost always purchase the lower-priced product since it no longer costs much to research those alternatives.
Buyers now “Spoilt for Choice!”
In addition, even though the Web allows buyers to research alternatives, many potential buyers find themselves spoilt for choice and can become overwhelmed by what psychologists refer to as “the tyranny of choice,” where too many alternatives can create buyer anxiety, making a purchase less likely.
Many buyers believe (especially those with time constraints) that researching and evaluating sufficient information about product categories to make an intelligent decision is less cost effective than simply calling an expert (i.e., a salesperson) and just having that salesperson provide all the relevant information.
In this case, the seller, in essence, acts as the “manager” of that segment of the customer’s business, ensuring that the product or solution works well in the customer’s environment and creates the measurable results that the buyer seeks.
As a consequence, many customers now look to their vendors to “own” the aspects of their own business that the customers would prefer not to “own” themselves. Customers are thus demanding more from sellers than when selling was mostly delivering information.
The Internet has created the need for different Sales Skills
Not so long ago, many business experts believed that the Internet would make sales reps obsolete because customers would be able to make decisions, order products, check delivery status, and so forth, entirely without the seller’s assistance.
In some markets, this has happened. The airline industry, for example, has become almost entirely driven by price, with consumers and business people alike able to choose the lowest cost flight on a variety of websites, without using a travel agent.
However, while travel agents are no longer responsible for selling the millions of domestic airline tickets, travel agents still exist, but they provide more complex services (like luxury travel) that assume that airline tickets are commodities.
In other words, whilst one market becomes less subjective and the sales role declines, it typically creates another, higher-level market that requires the customer to seek the expertise of a salesperson in order to navigate the complexities.
The Tech or Computer industry is another prime example where most computer hardware is now considered to be commodity product and is largely purchased over the Internet without the need for a salesperson.
At the same time, what companies actually utilise these cheap and easily-purchased computers for has become far more complex, demanding greater levels of expertise from the sellers of software and other services.
The Internet also demands more from Salespeople
Historically, selling was seen by many as a “black art” consisting primarily of interpersonal skills, a hint of psychology, and a varying degree of both product and procedural knowledge, such as how to describe and compare products, configure a deal or write up an order.
Today, selling to businesses still requires business acumen and in-depth Industry Experience, so that the seller can take responsibility for key functions inside a customer’s account. Selling also often requires the ability to build a strong cost justification for ROI.
This does not mean that traditional sales skills are ineffective, quite the contrary as a professionally trained and highly experienced salesperson can always adapt their skills. However, if buyers are to welcome sellers into their business as trusted advisers, the seller must be able to provide the same level of service and command the same credibility as a manager within the buyer’s firm.
The Internet also demands that sellers have a higher level of technological skill as well. Blogs, web conferencing, SEO, SEM and social networking are now common as sales tools, and many sellers utilise the wealth of web-based data to help focus their selling efforts.
The new technology, together with the new demands that buyers are putting on sellers means that buyers now expect sellers to become engaged and enmeshed with the buyer’s own business, an expectation that demands high levels of industry knowledge, technical knowledge and general business expertise.