YOUR ROLE IN THE SOLUTION YOU SELL

For more than a decade, “experts” have predicted the demise of the sales professional, arguing that online buying will significantly reduce or eliminate the need for salespeople. Yet I haven’t seen that happen and I don’t expect it will. What I have noticed, to the contrary, is that many online retailers are adapting how they sell to include chat features that offer site visitors the opportunity to connect with someone “live” to answer questions, discuss options, and clarify information. They have found that personal attention and assistance leads to selling more product.

This confirms my belief that there will always be a need for people to sell to people. In fact, as of 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there are over 13.4 million salespeople in the United States alone; and if you’ve checked the job listings lately, you’ll find thousands of sales jobs waiting to be filled.

Why is that? Why do buyers still need salespeople when they have access to so much information? Let’s take a closer look.

With the commoditization of many products and services, combined with the proliferation of information, you are often the differentiating factor in a prospect’s decision to buy. While pricing, delivery, and the solution itself are important, what makes a buyer choose your solution over your competitor’s is often you—your understanding of their situation, your concern for their need, your ideas about how they might best use your solution, and the confidence you give them in your company’s solution. In short, they need what you personally bring to the sales process and solution during and after the sale—both in the business-to-business (B2B) sector, where solutions tend to be more complex, and in the business-to-consumer (B2C) marketplace, where personal experience and ability to relate to the consumer count—a lot. You add value to the solution and that value closes more sales.

Let me share an example from my own experience.

Early in my sales career, I took the advice of a mentor who suggested that I would win more business if I focused on my product, not my expertise, and modeled myself—style, dress, and demeanor—after a certain successful sales professional in my industry. Her message was that the product would sell itself if I didn’t get in the way.

As a young upstart business owner, I thought I ought to listen. If that meant being invisible and just selling the product, well, that was okay by me. But that well-meaning, old-school coaching nearly cost me my first big sales opportunity—a multi-year training engagement in the financial services industry.

I managed to land the project after some quick scrambling, but it ended up costing me dearly—tens of thousands of dollars over a four-year period. Why? Because I was so busy trying to stay out of the way, so focused on the product pitch and being invisible, that I lost sight of the value I added to the solution, and, consequently, so did the client. Bottom line, I did a great job selling the product because they wanted my solution, but they didn’t want me.

I salvaged the deal by hiring a trainer who had the experience the client requested and fit their suggested profile—someone older, preferably male, with gray hair or, better yet, bald!—while I took on the role of account executive. The percentage I paid my colleague deeply eroded my profitability and cost me referrals that went to him as the front man.

Over time, though, I gained confidence and began demonstrating my competence as a resource for the client, finding answers even when it wasn’t my direct responsibility, driving the ongoing implementation, offering my experience and advice, and using my talents to “get it done.”

After one particularly productive meeting where I was able to share some of my knowledge, insight, and suggestions, one of the leaders who had been part of the original selection team asked, “Where were you during the sales process?”

I wanted to stammer, “What? Where was I? I was the one working twelve-hour days to meet your deadlines and compile the information requested by your thirteen-person decision team, each and every step of the way.” But I wisely kept my mouth shut as she went on to say that if the decision team had seen how smart, knowledgeable, funny, and personable I was, I wouldn’t have needed to bring in my training colleague!

Hearing that hard truth was tough, but it taught me a valuable lesson about the importance of being part of what I sell—of letting my personality and unique strengths come through. If only I hadn’t hidden behind the product, thinking that was all that mattered. If only I hadn’t blindly followed my mentor’s direction to focus only on the product and not incorporate “me” into the process and solution. If only I had demonstrated that I was part of the solution and the value they would receive, I would have closed the sale with fewer complications and a much higher profit.