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Death of the Sales Person

Written by: John Brennan

Article Overview: It's a life or death battle in the sales field today. Many will die, but those that live will enter a new sales field, one that promises greater rewards.

Death of the Sales Person

Forces are at work to eliminate your job as a sales person.

* Customers are better educated, better informed, have access to unlimited information and buying tools and simply have less need for you, the traditional sales person. In Business to Consumer (B2C) sales, there was a time when, if your customers wanted to buy clothing, they had to go to your store. You helped them find what they were looking for, told them about the fabric, the garment's construction and the manufacturer, give them feedback on how the garment looked on them and completed the transaction for them.

Then along came catalog sales, but you were still able to provide a similar level of sales service by telephone. Today online clothing stores help your customer find what they are looking for, tell them about the fabric, the garment's construction and the manufacturer, with the help of graphics show them how the garment would look on them from every angle, and complete the transaction for them. These sites have eliminated your sales job altogether.

* Vendor selection has become a very sophisticated process that has virtually shut out your traditional sales role. In Business to Business (B2B) sales, the internet provides your customer with similar advantages, plus it enables them to shop prices with auctions and reverse auctions. If you are still involved you probably boast titles such as capture manager, proposal manager or account manager. You are a manager, not a sales rep. You don't close sales; you simply manage the sales process, like any other business process. You manage the big deals and the big accounts. The small deals and the small accounts are handled by advanced tools on your company's web site or perhaps you are a telemarketer. The traditional outside sales rep's activities are nowhere to be seen.

* Customers have higher expectations of you. The Internet gives your customer information about your industry, company, your products, your key personnel, your competitors and even your profit margins. When purchasing a car today, customers research models and prices on the Internet. There they learn the price your dealer probably paid, the prices and equipment on comparable competitor vehicles, the reliability of the vehicle over the past five years and its ranking in various customer satisfaction surveys. To earn their business, they expect you the sales person to be at least as well informed as they are, to be respectful, appreciative even, of their knowledge. They probably also wanted an appointment, or at least be attended to promptly. If your customer previously purchased a car from your dealer and serviced it there they would expect you to be aware of that and to already have some understanding of their transportation needs.

* Telesales, direct marketing and online stores are decimating the numbers of sales outside sales reps. The biggest impact the e-commerce revolution is having is not on retailing but on business-to-business sales. The Internet enables customers to reduce the time they need face to face with sales people to get information and in small or repeat orders, in many cases eliminate it altogether. When business-to-business customers want to see a sales rep today they expect to see an executive, someone who can problem-solve, create and implement a complex, large ticket order. They do not need to see an order-taker, they do not need to see a product-pusher, they do not need to see a relationship-builder, they need to see a potential a partner who can assist them achieve some pretty significant and complex business objectives.

* Purchasing managers are trained in negotiating skills, buyers are skilled in partnership -building skills, and customers are using sophisticated decision-making models. You need to be able to engage then at this level if you hope to partner with them.

* It's a global economy and competition comes from home and abroad. Your local customer may source its supplies from anywhere in the world. Your multi-national customer may be buying for its worldwide operations. In either case, your customer expects you to be well informed of the global marketplace, their global needs and to show some understanding of and sensitivity to cultural differences. The person across the desk from you may not belong to the same ethnic or national background as you. People buy from people they like - and its easier to like someone who is like you. Failing that, customers look for people who respect differences. You are even more attractive if you are interested in, enjoy and celebrate differences.

Better informed customers, automated sales channels, better trained customers, and more diverse customers demand that sales people today be well-informed, well-trained and sensitive to cultural differences. Those that are will reap the rewards of partnering with their customers, selling broader and deeper into their accounts, and taking the lion's share of the commissions.

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Article Tags: rewards, sales person



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