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Barry Wright, Director Grosvenor USA — Grosvenor Training

•market intelligence •WayPoint Analytics •sales practices •sales management •sales management styles in distribution •sales training •eCommerce •Innovate for the Future •innovation •Randy MacLean •sales strategy •marketing strategy •Track Selling •effectively managing people •Merrifield Consulting •sales tactics •business strategy •customer analysis model •Barry Wright

The availability of knowledge and information on a product has gone from being private and valued information to being public knowledge to be accessed by anybody. In the past, salespeople would be the go-to source of information about their own products. However, with Google and YouTube holding such power, the customer doesn't need to learn from the salesperson, as they can simply look up all they need to make a decision online themselves. That holding of information used to be a valuable tool for salesmen to get in the door and get the customer's intrigue, but that simply doesn't work anymore.

So, if providing simple product information is no longer needed of salespeople, then what is their purpose?

One thing to work for is knowledge at a new level. In addition to have knowledge of your own product, you must learn about your customer enough to anticipate their needs and desires, ideally finding solutions to problems that they didn't even realize they had. The goal to your sales calls should be bringing some degree of added value to the conversation.

In order to achieve this, salespeople must be at a higher skill level. One new technique being used is the hiring of specialists. People who know the trade they're dealing with, and can add value through that knowledge. They may not know as much of the skills a career salesperson may have, but their added wisdom makes up for it, and customers often really appreciate this kind of salesperson.

Know your customer to the point where you can provide solutions they haven't yet thought of, and you can dominate sales.

Audio file: wright2-01.mp3