Wednesday, May 11 2016: Every sales company knows that new technology and the internet are accelerating change in the industry, and the need to transform has never been more urgent, but what is the direction of travel?
Dr Philip Squires, CEO of sales performance improvement specialists Consalia, suggests that we are already leaving behind what he describes as the knowledge era, and entering a new post-information age.
Where ten years ago the range of information available on the internet left the customer as king, choice is now so bewildering and products have converged so much that buying choices are likely to rely as much on emotional criteria, such as attachment to brands, as on logic.
Customer needs are changing so fast that many potential orders are never completed because they are already out of date. In this treacherous world, it takes quick and responsive sales people to act as partners to their clients, co-creating the solutions that will satisfy their immediate needs and add most value to their customer’s business.
“Sales businesses must be much more agile to remain fit for purpose, they must be transformative in the culture and mindset of the organisation,” says Dr Squires.
Citing the research of Professor Julian Birkenshaw of the London Business School, Dr Squires says that the evolution of “emocracy” and “adhocracy” are the biggest current trends in sales.
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Why 70% of attempted sales transformations fail
We always say you have to bring the business on the journey, warns Umar Gill, the head of sales transformation at Vodafone.
“I would go further – they have to start the journey, understand the real competitive advantage to go after,” Gill told yesterday’s APS seminar.
He had seen large corporate attempts at transformation fall apart because they had failed to consider some of the key elements of successful change, he said.
First, the customer remains central to everything. Every decision must be referred back to how it affects the customer relationship.
Ranged around that, the business must develop its sales strategy and its operations model and Go To Market. It must identify who its true competition is, and ensure its sellers have the support and enablement they need.
“If you’re not sure what you’re selling, who you’re selling it to and how you’re selling, you will probably not get this journey right,” said Gill.
But perhaps most important of all, the business must convince everyone from the most junior sales staff to the CEO that they are all in it together, he warned. It was vital to recruit the right leaders and work in a coaching culture to get people motivated to want to change.
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Why the marketing department should be a friend, not a rival
Too often, damaging suspicion exists between the sales team and the marketing department, warns Lucy Plisson, Vodafone’s senior strategy and proposition marketing manager.
Instead of co-operating, they compete. But when the two work together they can have a powerful impact, says Plisson.
She quotes the example of Salesforce, whose marketing and sales teams launched a joint operation to disrupt its rival’s conference in Cannes. The marketing team hired and rebranded every taxi in the area, and placed a sales person inside each one. Every delegate travelling from the airport to the rival’s event was treated to their own personal one-to-one on the benefits of choosing Salesforce instead.
Plisson objected to the term ‘sales transformation’, suggesting: “It should be called commercial transformation, because it takes every element of the organisation to make it happen.”
Seminar attendee Elia Giovanni, a marketeer with Sharp, said sales often view marketing as just the people who produce the brochures. But the up-to-the-minute insights that marketers gain from contact with customers could help sales people with the problem of articulating the value proposition.
Plisson agreed: “We can help sales people move from a product-led conversation to a solution-led conversation. We win their trust because they see it works for customers.”
At Vodafone, sellers and marketers work on the same teams and a joint committee meets regularly to share insights.
Dr Philip Squires, of Consalia, and Umar Gill and Lucy Plisson of Vodafone, were speaking at the Association of Professional Sales seminar on sales transformation on Tuesday, May 10.
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