Selling — Detangling gibberish.
First things first, what the fuck?
When did marketing and sales divorce each other? Marketing and Sales are often in separate rooms winging it. However, this should not be, they are intrinsic to each other.
What is a sales strategy? A strategy is a plan. A sales strategy is a plan to achieve a sales goal, it directs the selling activities
of a business. How a business will win, retain, and acquire customers.What is a marketing strategy? Sale strategy is a directive from marketing. Marketing strategy is a process that allows an organization to concentrate its resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve sustainable competitive advantage.
The average sales rep was most likely trained by the same types of people with the same types of methods and courses passed down from one institution/person to the other. They know the key phrases and words, they try to identify targets and they sell to them all in the same way. Chances are they are throwing darts into the dark and hoping something sticks. 1 to 5 out of 10 is a success, all 10 exceptional.
They aim with all sincerity and gallantry to try and get you to have a conversation with them, but there is no charm, just numbers. The human intent to help solve a need is missing. Some might ask, does it have to solve a need? I would reply, everything ever made and sold filled a space, someone needed it even that need was simply because they liked it, naturally, a much more in-depth, or impactful need has more value. On that premise, selling has to be about presenting a benefit and the value of that benefit, and yes, there is a business objective.
Mostly trying to sound smart and convincing with words.
When some salespeople speak, it’s like a robotic script and data-driven lingo that no one understands. I experience this on social media — not so much these days, I have tailored my feeds — where people try to sell me and ask silly questions, from bitcoin to design. They find not even make the effort to read my profile, they ask where I am from, what I do for a living, etc. all of this is information exists on all my profiles.
Like most solutions, the customer must never feel the sales or marketing strategy, they must experience the intended result. Let me rephrase that, the customer should not know how or why the experience was seamless and pleasant, they must not see behind the curtain, they must just enjoy it and leave happy.
HOW GOOD DESIGN IS LIKE UNDERWEAR: IT SUPPORTS WITHOUT CONSTRICTING — David Brier
Using what David Brier said about Design, and with my belief that Art & Design, Brand, Business & Marketing (sales included here) are a unified body, means the horrible sales experience both companies and customers experience is a result of horrible strategy, even with quality products. Some sales are made on the only defining factor that the product quality saves the day. In design, this means function first, it must be practical and comfortable. These are often translated to boring, but that’s nonsensical. It simply means, know and understand the desired purpose and use design to help that target.
In many ways, design is not praised because good design is unseen, it’s experienced with great ambiguity.
For example, I deleted a banking app from my mobile phone because the security features designed to protect me were incredibly tedious and not user-friendly. I believe the experience was too visceral for a customer to experience, in comparison to another banking app from a different bank, all I need to do is enter my new debut car number and I am in with the same password, which I am free to change.
A sales experience must be supported by marketing objectives, a company must aim to leverage itself in the market by differentiating itself and its benefits. Therefore, Brand management becomes relevant — Brand representing the company — Marketing develops an overall strategy dictated by a business objective and brand positioning, and Sales develop a strategy to sell these benefits and values through — delivery systems, vehicles — products, and services.
The best marketing managers worked in sales but they were great salespeople, they understood how to build relationships, not just sell products. Relationships are delicate and require nurturing and effective communication. If we perceive selling as a method of relationship building then we must also realize that we are selling to people, and people love to feel love and special.
The one thing most sales strategies miss that the successful ones don’t is a charm, you have to find out what people care about, on the premise that a company developed quality products and services, the focus is not necessarily on selling those, they should sell themselves. Instead, offer customers the benefits of these things, which is achieved through the art of conversation, the ability to listen and ask the right questions, focus on the customer and absorb all their saying, be a good listener, and then respond with only answers specific to their underlying problems.
As a Brand Design & development consultant, I work with various types of clients who express very different problems, but I have observed that most have the same underlying problems. They have a selling and customer relationship problem, no brand management, and very little response to customer feedback. Nothing is perfect, and we can’t help everyone not individually anyway, but if the majority has the same complaint then it’s time to pay attention.
A client I am consulting with from the inside of things confused my purpose and role, they some who added my name to a meeting with the rest of the staff to si tin on an onboarding meeting with a new vendor who is selling them a new software, they are in the accounting space, so think Enterprise resource planning (ERP), CRM etc. I have no problem sitting in and learning about this new product it could help with how I position the brand, that’s my purpose with this client, brand positioning, and marketing.
I have absolutely no interest in becoming an expert in accounting software. I have been observing staff and how things are done on the company, visit in on client calls and I make suggestions on how to make those calls better, as an example. Covid19 is not without its problems, as this company has felt it, but the source of their problems is not Covid19, it’s their approach to how they sell and their client relationships, perhaps having the wrong clients, or allowing the clients to dictate everything.
I digress, back to my story, I am being asked to watch videos provided by the company selling this new product, this is a sales strategy by the company in order to certify others to use and sell the product to customers. I said that’s fine, but I don’t need to be part of this, if you think it will help your company, then take it, I can’t make suggestions about something I am not an expert in.
My purpose is to position the client in the right way to get customers that will add value to their business. I must understand what the company does, what is different? is it different at all? More importantly, what is the value it provides? Develop its communication and marketing strategy, which is then dictated to its sales team. They are heavily price and product-driven, so this will be a challenge. I shared that as an example of a real-world situation to the point of this article.
Instead of following a fill-in-the-blanks template, create a strategy that communicates more value in sales, a lot of deals are lost to no decision being made than to competitors.
You need a value proposition to induce change, share memorable experiences of problems that were solved. Explain the customer deciding journey, stop explaining the sales process, buyer personas are not a sales strategy.
Avoid a commodity approach, even if you sell commodities, lead with insights, not questionnaires — also applies to brand development — Sales and marketing must be aligned, introduce the process of brand definition, and business management. Bespoke, tailor the sales strategy for customer expansion, and support this with training and a defined client management process.
