Howard Mann from the Dig Tank wrote a blog post about how dull and standardized current sales processes are. And boy do I agree! I have been selling large solutions (from advertising to information technology) for some years now, and if something bores me a lot, it is the sales process. That is why I couldn’t stand it anymore and had to hire a university-degree boy to do the hard work for me. A lot of you know what I mean when I say picking up the phone and calling a client can be HARD work!
In fact some of Howard’s advices make sense to me and it would be interesting to hear real-world examples from companies that have reinvigorated their sales process.
Do all companies worldwide follow the same standard for sales? Call, meeting, presentation, proposal, negotiation and then a little prayer? Or have someone already done something? Please tell me.
3 comments so far
Embedded into many companies sales processes is a simple question - how much value is our customer delivering to us? Rarely do companies ask the question - how much value are we delivering to our customer? Companies that do focus on the second question - tend to be in-step and relevant to our times. Delivering value to their customers and consequently delivering value to themselves. These are the “customer experience companies” and these are the companies that are rising to the top. Other companies are trying, which is why you see so many Fortune 50 companies appointing Chief Marketing Officers and linking up Finance and Marketing.
I see many companies trying to reinvigorate their sales processes with a customer knowledge centric approach - knowing the customer or this “voice of the customer” non-sense. Thus, the proliferation of CRM systems that are basically fancy rolodexes, which rarely paint a real picture of customers and their needs. The problem is the measures and rewards systems most use are antiquated.
Sales to me is simple, the communication of value about what you have to offer. Calls, meetings, presentations and proposals make an attempt. Once you have a deep understanding of your customer, communicating outstanding customer experiences (sales) is the synthesis of the following: Utility+Aesthetics+Economy
Utility: Does the product or service offering - offer the highest level of utility based on the customer needs? Function
Aesthetics: Are the aesthetics of the product or service offering mapped to the highest level of utility? Are they mapped to the cognitive architecture of the customer group?
Economy: Do the economics scale to the customer group and company? Do they scale to the aesthetics and utility of the offering?
The sales process should be brought out of the silos and integrated horizontally throughout an organization.
You’ve got some great points there, Jon.
In 1961 JFK said “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”. It would be fitting to rewrite this into “Ask not what your client can do for you; ask what you can do for your client”.
Your process consisting of utility, aesthetics and economy seems interesting. Is that something you just thought of, or have you read it somewhere else? No matter what I would like to hear more about that.
It is part of a design and innovation process that we have developed. The convergence of many disciplines and schools of thought. Design is the invisible fabric that runs through these 3 key elements. Most, simply think of design as aesthetics. Look. Take care…