GBHJ GLOBAL: Sales Is No Longer About Selling

By Robin Mason

A quick browse around LinkedIn will show countless articles about how sales has changed over the last few years, along with the traditional idea of what it means to be a salesperson. True. The traditional idea of a pushy salesperson is no longer acceptable in today’s market, but in reality, not a lot has changed. The key activities and attitudes you need to excel as a salesperson remain the same.

Key Activities

Cold calling: Another cursory glance at LinkedIn will tell you that “cold calling is dead” and “cold calls don’t work.” Not true. Telephone-based lead generation is still the most effective form of generating interest in your business. What is true, is that the way cold calling is conducted has changed.

In the past, it was all about the numbers–bang out as many calls as you can and eventually someone will be interested. This will still work; it’s just not very effective. A successful cold call now is not about telling how great you, your business or your product is, it’s about generating enough interest to start a conversation, and then strong questioning to find out if you can actually add any value. In other words, the focus has gone from talking about yourself to asking about others.

Meetings: Once you’ve generated enough interest that you can gain commitment to a meeting, the traditional idea is to take your product and demonstrate how amazing it is. And like a great cold call, a strong meeting will still focus almost entirely on the other person. It should be uncovering further information, and only towards the end of the meeting should you begin using this information to demonstrate how your product or service can overcome the challenges the customer is facing. Like a good first date, you should avoid talking about yourself more than the other person, and when you are talking about yourself, you really should be interesting and relevant to your customers.

Events: In the past, the main focus of events was to get your product in front of hundreds of people at once. Whilst this is still the case in many situations, there has been yet another shift in the goal of these. You guessed it, attending an event should be about having conversations and unearthing needs, rather than just shouting about how great you are.

There’s also been a much bigger shift towards business networking, with the goal being not on meeting as many people as you can, but on building really strong business relationships–even if the people you’re meeting will never become a customer. Building great relationships is one of the most important aspects of sales; in fact, for the first three years of our operation, it provided 80 percent of our new business.

Key Attitudes

Determination: As with activities, the attitudes required to be a strong salesperson remain largely the same; it’s how they’re used that’s changed. The traditional view of a salesperson is someone who is determined to succeed at any cost, which often translates to being pushy and refusing to accept “no” for an answer.

Whilst determination is still an integral part of sales success, it should now be used to find more ways to add value to your customers, and doggedly do whatever it takes to demonstrate how much you value them and how your service could be valuable for them. Again, make it about them, not you.

Resilience: To be good at sales, you have to be good at handling rejection. That’s always been the case and still stands today. However, what has changed is what you do after the rejection. Instead of just hanging up the phone or walking out of the meeting and focusing on the next opportunity, use your resilience to reflect.

Look at how you conducted yourself: did you ask enough questions and demonstrate value? Look at your product: was it really right for them and could you use their reasons for saying no to improve the product? Don’t just move on, reflect and grow.

Conversing: Being a great conversationalist, in many people’s eyes, seems to mean being fond of the sound of your own voice. Typically in sales, this may involve statements like, “Let me tell you about my product,” or, “I’m going to show you the most amazing things about my product.”

In reality, nobody cares about what your product does or how great it is; they care about how it affects them. So, in contrast to the first sentence in this paragraph, in order to be a great conversationalist, you need to let others speak. Ask your questions and then listen to the answers. Let them tell you why they need the product; after all, they know a lot more about their struggles than you do.

Summing Up Sales Today

So, why is sales no longer about selling? Because to be really great at sales, you need to be great at focusing on the other person. You need to be great at asking rather than telling, helping rather than benefitting. But the result is still a sale. At the end of your meeting, call or event, you still have the same goal: to encourage someone to buy your product.

All that’s changed is now people will buy your product because they actually see the benefits–and for that reason, they will continue to buy your product and tell their friends about it too. Instead of pushing someone into buying from you once and then resenting you for it, focus on encouraging an informed decision and building long-term, loyal clients.