I have been reading a book titled How To Sell When Nobody’s Buying by Dave Lakhani. Dave has some very good points throughout the book. In an interview with Dan Schwabel on his blog, Dave asks the following question:
“How has selling changed in the last two years?“
The following is an excerpt from the interview regarding this question (emphasis is mine):
“Selling changed dramatically and no one told the salespeople. Most salespeople are still slogging along using the same old ideologies and techniques from the 80’s and 90’s that are based on ideas from the 60’s and 70’s. The result is a bunch of very frustrated salespeople and managers who are not making their numbers. Then, along comes an economic downturn and wholesale destruction of many industries and salespeople don’t know what to do or where to turn. What really changed was buyer mentality and buyer psychology. Consumers and prospects are overwhelmed with choices, markets commoditize faster than ever now and virtually all of them are over-communicated.”
Come on Dave. No one told the salespeople? I am not sure which salespeople you are referencing but I don’t buy it. Salespeople already know this. They knew it before all the smart people started writing about it. The sensed it five years ago or more.
If your income depends on successfully selling a product or service, you know when changes are occurring. Communication with our customers changes. Decisions are being made by different people within the customer’s organization and the time frames begin to shift. Expectations in frequency, responsiveness and attention are all in flux. If you are in sales, you either know about these changes early on, or you are not selling much longer.
Successful SalesMakers don’t need to be told that selling has changed! They are the first ones to know it .
What do you think? Do you need to have someone tell you that selling has changed?
