In Defense of Salespeople

Are salespeople actually necessary? I argue "yes."

Sales people lubricate decision making. They serve a function similar to a personal fitness coach.

Why are purchase decisions hard? First, when you are making the decision, you feel empowered and in control. You fear that after you make the decision, you jump from center stage back into the chorus. Second, the benefit from being right is trivial compared to the damnation of being wrong. If your decision involves a team, everyone will claim credit. However, if your decision is wrong, it might cost you alone your job. Balancing on the edge of indecision, that's where you need a salesperson.

Fielding a direct sales team is very expensive. A business  has a direct sales team only if (1) the price tag of the product is sufficiently high (usually above $150k per transaction), and (2) the product is either (a) "nice to have" (rather than a "need to have"), or (b) in a competitive market with other formidable products. By definition, buying from a direct sales professional involves taking a pretty sizable risk. You might buy something essential. But you might by something unnecessary, or you might buy something that is not best in class.

Smart buyers use one or more sales professionals to facilitate a decision. Buyers use salespeople in the same way that someone might use a fitness coach. The fitness coach doesn't really know anything more than you, he or she just furnishes a reason to exercise, eat better, and to not stop halfway through. Ditto for the sales person. They provide a psychological backstop that promotes a decision.

I haven't mentioned product features and benefits. They don't matter. The world already has more than enough product experts. If your job title is "sales person," spend 100% of your time becoming an expert in prospects and customers.

The coin of the realm is "trust." Sales professionals who accumulate a store of trust will succeed. People make decisions with their hearts, and then back them up with their heads. It sounds like they reasoned their way to a decision, but that is never the case. Most of the time, they are deciding based on a vision or a passion. They are attracted to your vision or passion because they trust you. They buy "why" you do something, not "what" you sell, or "how" it does whatever it does. [ted id=848]People find their own rationalizations for a decision, salespeople don't need to worry about furnishing those. What salespeople need to worry about is gaining trust, because a buyer won't choose passion or vision from someone they don't trust.

How do sales professionals create trust? By being useful to your prospect or customer. Take interest in their world and problems. This sounds simple, but it's hard to do. It's too easy to slip into a product pitch.

Isn't detailed product information useful? Possibly. If it is delivered in the right form, at the right time. When I watch a sales presentation, I quietly imagine the client standing with a beautiful flower (their project) in a average-sized flower pot (one of those 9" terra cotta numbers I see at Home Depot). Then, I imagine the sales person swiftly backing up their dump truck, OSHA beeper and all, and emptying 10 cubic yards of dirt onto the client-and-pot. When the salesperson gets to the powerpoint slide titled "Conclusion," they leap down from the cab of the truck and ask "Will there be anything else?" Bang goes trust.

Here is a quick mental checklist as an example:

• The person I'm meeting
  • Who do they work for (what person)?
  • Where are they in the organization?
  • Who relies on their judgement (and trusts them)?
  • Do they have practice making the kinds of decisions their job requires?
  • Have they updated their LinkedIn profile recently?
  • Do they have a blog?
  • Do they have a hero?
  • How will I remember all this when I'm standing in front of them without notes?
• The world that person inhabits
  • What are their interests, and what does that say about how they make decisions?
  • Who do they consider mentors?
  • What do they consult other people about, and why?
  • Who in their company do they feel is doing a good job, and who a bad job?
  • How secure do they feel in their role?
  • What non-work decisions are they making right now?
  • What news sources do they consider reliable, and why? And what was front-page of those sources today?
  • What does the way they interpret news tell you about the way they make decisions?
• Your world
  • If they are a prospect, what do they know about your firm?
  • If they are a customer, are there any past issues or problems?
  • Who do they contact if they have trouble after a purchase, and how will issues be handled?
  • How can your world make them less alone, less vulnerable?

Use research to help you create context. For example: assume you are about to meet a prospect for the first time. The "default" context for this is buyer-seller. You are the seller coming in from the outside, and that inhibits trust. Imagine that you took a few minutes to know who the CEO of that firm is, or perhaps who the whole management team is. Those are the women and men who are most important in your prospect's professional life. You may safely assume that your prospect knows that information; you should, too. Where does the firm's revenue come from? What challenges are nipping at your prospect's heels at work? There is a whole wealth of information that any sales professional can have at their command before extending their hand for the first handshake. If you share the prospect's world, you change the context of the conversation. Learn everything you can about a prospect or customer by wrote. You will move yourself from "outside" to "inside," where you want to be.

Here is where it gets daunting. The information about your prospect has a very short shelf-life. Assume that it has been three months since the last time you spoke to your client: you may therefore assume that most of your research on them from three months ago is stale. Probably the management team changed. Probably the revenue focus changed. Probably they did something new with their products. Possibly there have been problems with whatever they already bought from you. Relying on old research is worse than having none. You show yourself to be not only ill-informed, but also lazy.

Do continuous research. You must constantly research everything you can about your prospects and customers. You must have it refreshed and ready whenever you interact with your prospects or customers (even when they call you out of the blue). Find tools which constantly scan every possible data source, including internal ones, for information about your contacts and their businesses. Imagine walking into a customer meeting. They ask, "How are you coming on fixing our bug?" If your answer is, "what bug?" you just made things worse. If your answer is, "I know that Bob is working on it, and I'll get you an update right after this meeting," you just earned a bit of trust. Continuously research.

Only review information exactly when you need it. Reviewing everything all the time is the same as reviewing nothing never. Find tools that help you spread out your research. Create a current dossier on exactly what they are up to. If they are a customer, be absolutely sure you know what your firm is up to on any open issues related to the customer.

Finally, figure out some way to make the most critical topics stick in your memory for recall during the heat of battle. Find a technique. Find technology to back it up. Make sure it's mobile.

If you have a strong working knowledge of your client, client's world, and how they see your company, your timing will flow naturally. Discuss their business not yours. Surface their challenges. Ultimately, they will ask your opinion on how to resolve them. That is the essence of trust in commerce.