Tweet

The New Sales Sense is Digital – Sales Training Must Keep Up

Guest post by: Clive Miller

Article Overview: There is a buyer’s paradigm shift taking place. It is sweeping away many sales preconceptions and norms. The furore over the social media opportunity is merely a forewarning of greater change. The Retail world is already grappling with the early effects of what will be looked back on as a titanic revolutionary shift in the way people make decisions and the part sales people play in the buying process.

The New Sales Sense is Digital – Sales Training Must Keep Up

Shortly after listening to Joe Navarro’s narration of his book, The Power of Body Language, someone in an online discussion expressed horror at the risks of being misled online. This made me ponder the subtleties of winning trust and trusting in a digital world.

Well we have all heard the horror stories and perhaps experienced a few of our own. It was acknowledgement of the opposite that prompted the written outburst. I and others posting in the discussion were acknowledging how it has become commonplace to get substantial new business assignments from people we haven’t met in person and in some cases, have never spoken with.

It may have gone unnoticed by many. There is a digital body language. Not literally of course. There are many subtle signals that we use to assess the trustworthiness of both organisations and individuals and we use this information to make decisions.

Woe betide those who can’t or won’t read the subtle signs. In the corporeal world, most people have learnt to recognise the scams and the fraudsters who perpetrate them. Some level of such activity is bound to exist in all societies. In the same way that people become corporeal ‘street wise’, we need a similar sense to protect us in the digital world. Since this new ability does not yet have a convenient name, I shall dare to create one and see if it sticks. Let’s call this new ability digital sense or ‘digisense’. Then we can use this new word like a noun such as empathy. We can say people have or don’t have digisense.

There is a buyer's paradigm shift taking place. It is sweeping away many sales preconceptions and norms. The furore over the social media opportunity is merely a forewarning of greater change. The Retail world is already grappling with the early effects of what will be looked back on as a titanic revolutionary shift in the way people make decisions and the part sales people play in the buying process.

Just as there have been thousands of studies and hundreds of books written about non verbal communication and body language, It seems certain their will soon be a swathe of material explaining digisense. In fact there already is although it is well disguised under a blanket of techno speak. I can’t hope to touch the sides in this short article. I will just make a start.

In interpersonal communication, we make an informal almost instantaneous assessment of every new person we meet. This is an instinctive response probably based on some primal necessity left over from our early evolution.

If you give credit to the research on which Malcolm Gladwell based his outstanding book, ‘Blink’, then we are likely to apply the same principles to online assessment of companies, organisations, and people. That is, use our relevant experience to instantly assess the information in front of us. So let’s pause to consider what that may mean.

Customers are likely to search Google for information about sales people as well as their organisation.

First the organisation – what comes up on the first page of Google search results when someone types in your company name?

One would hope that links to your company dominate the first page. This is true for my Company, SalesSense however; there is still plenty of confusion. When I first posted Company information online in 1997, it turned out there was a Sales Sense PTY, a similar firm in Australia. Since then, one Irish and two American companies have called themselves SalesSense so now there are five of us vying for pole position. To complicate things further, the term ‘sales sense’ is being used as a noun in the same way that I have proposed we use the term digisense.

It might seem pointless to worry about this because there may not be much that an individual can do to address any shortcomings in this area. Yet people will judge what they find. There are a host of steps that organisations and individuals can do to take more control of their Company’s online persona beginning with creating clarity and consistency across all online information that is within direct control or influence.

Staying with the company’s online persona, next append ‘review’ and then separately, ‘feedback’ to the company name. These searches should bring up any independent reviews of the company that have been posted online and any feedback to do with products or services provided. The volume of relevant links tends to relate to the size of the organisation being researched. There may be none or lots of references. Reviews may be both positive or negative and genuine or bogus. Potential customers will draw conclusions from whatever they are presented with.

As for controlling what appears when a prospective customer searches using your Company name, there is much that can be done to change the results that appear when they search for independent feedback. Rogue traders beware! As the majority become more active online, it will become increasingly difficult to survive a bad reputation.

The web has a long memory. The other day, I found pages from our 1999 web site, stored perfectly on the Alexa portal.

Turning to your personal profile, since sales people are in the habit of researching the individual they will be visiting, it seems likely that those individuals will increasingly return the favour and look you up before you arrive.

If you are a private person who avoids leaving digital evidence lying around and you have a common name, fear not. It is unlikely that a prospect will uncover your skeletons. On the other hand, what do you think about a person who seems not to exist? Does it send a shiver down your spine? Rightly or wrongly you might leap to the conclusion that such a person was at best, secretive and at worst . . . well you pain the picture.

If you have an obscure or rare name and a relaxed attitude to digital litter, you may be shocked by what pops up on the first page or two when you enter your own name.

My name is quite common. There are 16 Clive Miller profiles on LinkedIn and 149 Clive Miller’s listed on 192.com. I know this because these were two of the first page Google UK results for the search term, ‘Clive Miller’ at the time of writing this. I have been posting stuff online since 1996 so it isn’t surprising that I do have a page one listing for the real Clive Miller however, I share the front page with two butchers, two photographers, a heating engineer and a firm of town planners who are all called Clive Miller. Perhaps what is most surprising is that on first look you wouldn’t credit any of us as being internet experts.

Buyers are increasingly turning to the internet to carry out their research and due diligence. Sales people are being left out of the loop. Gone are the days when prospects would call on sales people because they were knowledgeable about the options. Sales people may still have the knowledge but the customers don’t need them to provide it any-more. This squashes the opportunity to start up and nurture a relationship before the closing phase. Now sales people are often left with little more than a quote or proposal to prepare. The cheese has moved, to use Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson’s metaphor from their excellent book, ‘Who Moved my Cheese’.

Buyers are increasingly relying on online research and digital sense or digisense to make informed decisions.

Is the age of the sales person over?

There is a new breed of sales person rising, phoenix like, from the ashes. Those who aspire to be amongst their ranks have a new language to learn.

Related Articles
  Sales Training Courses that Bring Lead Generations to Life
  Is Your Sales Training Missing These Ingredients?
  Sales Training Materials that Work!
  How to Select Professional Sales Training
  Sales Training - short term or long term success?
  Sales Manager Excuse: Dreading a Sales Meeting
  Traditional Sales Training is a Waste of Time and Money!
  The Highest Paying Affiliate Programs Make Life So Much Easier
  Sales Training, without supporting Sales Management Training,
  A SALES METHODOLOGY
  Improve Your Sales Training By Changing Fuel
  TRADITIONAL SALES TRAINING LEADS TO DECLINE IN SALES
  The Paradox of Sales Training
  Sales Training Techniques that Work!
  The Secret Of Fastest And Easiest Way To Start Making Money Online At Home For Beginners
  Should You Train Unmotivated Sales Reps?
  3 Reasons Sales Training Doesn’t Work
  Sales Training - Make sure you choose one that understands the stages of learning
  Is 87% of Your Sales Training Investment Wasted?
  Sales Training for Senior Manager Performance Improvement

Article Tags: digisense, digital selling, digital sense, sales 20, sales sense, sales skills, sales training, selling, selling online



Related Forum Posts
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Hello From Marietta GA! - Hello All! My name is Tim Naylor and I am in Direct Sales! I am glad I have found EC's sites and I hope to learn and share a lot!
taxes in canada - Well in Canada we only have a few provinces and the Sales tax is slightly different. Here in Ontario the Goods & Services tax has reduced to 5% from 7% in the last year due to the promises made by the government in place.
7 words or less for Structogram - Some "7 words or less" (more or less) for Structogram for your comments: Training to get your message across(6) Secrets to get your message across (6) Training so people will listen to you (7) Helping you get your message across (6) Training to learn to get your message across (8) Communications training for yourself and your team (7)


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Are You Fulfilled

How To Be Happy at Work? Acknowledge Yourself

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.