1. We all want everything faster, but buying decisions are taking longer than ever. At times, it seems that there's little planning. When customers are ready, they want it now. Reviewing a graphic design firm's job tracker reveals a list of jobs that have been on 'client review' for many weeks, some for months. The art director explains that there's urgency in getting the rough layout ready 'and then it often sits and sits and sits until it pops up on the client's screen. Then they want it now-right now.'
It isn't just in the graphic arts business, of course. The 'rush-and-wait' style of decision making is everywhere. Many salespeople have trouble understanding the process, interpreting an absence of action as a lack of interest. In most cases, it isn't.
2. Contacting customers is easy, but connecting with them is increasingly difficult. With voice mail, direct mail, E-mail, faxes, and advertising, contacting customers has never been easier. The techniques and technology have broken down one barrier after another. But getting the sales message to the customers doesn't necessarily mean that you'll connect with them. Amid the rush to reach customers, one fact emerges: Unless they sense that a message is directed to them, messages lose their effectiveness. Broadcast faxes, E-mail messages, generalized mailings, advertising, and cold calling are increasingly inefficient.
This may or may not be the age of the individual-but it's certainly the 'age of individualization.' As Michael J. Wolf writes in The Entertainment Economy, 'If the '80s and '90s were about 'I want my stuff,' the next decades will be about 'I want to feel better, sexier, more informed, better fed, and less stressed.'' The gauntlet has been laid down: Customers will respond only to totally personalized messages that focus on their individual objectives.
Someone suggested that all markets are niche markets. It may be that all markets are individual markets. Toyota, for example, recognizes this when it offers to build customers individualized vehicles in five days, and the entertainment business is moving quickly to deliver customized CDs.
3. Knowledge is more important than ever, but keeping it simple is essential. The Internet plays into the need to accomplish more in less time. Giving customers just how much information they want is essential. For example, the Wall Street Journal's online edition offers articles with links to previous or related pieces.
Making information available is easy, but getting it across to the customer is difficult. Offering information in smaller bites works best, since Web site visitors tend to scan rather than read thoroughly. But getting the message across is far more difficult. Just observe your own reading behavior when you're searching for information. We seem to be satisfied with quick takes most of the time and reserve more in-depth research for special situations.
The sales process includes not only letting the customer know where the information is available, but formatting it for easy access and making it available in small segments.
4. There's a lot of talk about planning, but everything happens at the last minute. It might be described as 'pull it out at the right time' planning. The customer calls and needs a proposal and a quote ASAP. The salesperson drops everything to do it and send it to the customer. Then silence. Nothing happens. What was so urgent two weeks ago is now languishing somewhere in the pile. Then, three months later (after the salesperson has all but forgotten the project), the customer calls to place the order, wanting to know the earliest delivery date. 'How can we speed things up?' she asks, having pulled it out when someone asked for it.
More and more, purchases are made on this basis. No one wants to be caught unprepared. The 'ready to go when needed' projects pile up and are pulled out if and when someone decides to move. An advertising agency met with a prospective client three times over a period of several years. Each time, the prospect requested a new proposal. The last time, the agency executive expressed reluctance when the call came for another meeting. 'Don't worry. This time it's for real,' he was told. And it was. All the pieces were finally in place and the company was ready to move forward.
Being there when the customer is ready is the key to making the sale.
5. It's more important to get through to prospects than it is to get to them. The key is being present without being intrusive. Broadcast faxes, endless voice-mail messages, and repetitive E-mails serve only to reinforce the idea that a salesperson wants something. Although no one dares to show up at someone's office without an appointment, no one seems to mind showing up unannounced electronically. But it's all the same in the customer's mind.
Instead of trying to get a foot in the door, it's far more appropriate to make an effort to connect with the customer in ways that make the right impression, such as offering helpful information, making suggestions, and keeping the prospect informed. The goal is to get into an interactive relationship with the customer. You might not meet face-to-face, but you'll be seeing eye to eye, and that's the way the relationship is built. The goal is to have prospects feel they know you before they actually meet you.
6. Although buying decisions are more involved, the customer expects everything to be easy. This appears to be a contradiction, but not in the customer's mind. The customer is not interested in the complexity of the transaction, just in the delivery of the product or service.
Having spent several weeks on the Internet researching a new computer, I know what I want and access dell.com, placing my order for an individually configured computer, which is then scheduled to arrive the next day. Although the process required to get me my order is totally masked, the Internet has trained me to expect instant satisfaction. Placing an order with another online company, I'm notified that I'll receive a confirmation 'in 24 to 48 hours.' How do I react? Negatively, of course. Why the delay? What takes so long? What's wrong with that company? I'll never do business with them again.
The Internet is changing customer expectations dramatically. Even though processes may be complex, the customer expects (and demands) simplicity. Salespeople can learn an invaluable lesson from the Internet: Focus only on satisfying the customer. Everything else is irrelevant.
7. Even though margins are thinner, customers expect more for less. The irony is that in one of the most highly competitive environments, customers expect more-not for less, but for nothing. The 'free PC' is one example of the trend; frequent flyer miles are another; downloaded software is a third. 'Free' is everywhere. A number of Texaco stations have ATM machines, or 'iTMs' as they're called, that not only dispense cash, but offer free directions and free stock quotes. Whether it's the result of rebates or an Internet provider promotion, it comes out at zero dollars as far as the customer is concerned.
'Perhaps it's no coincidence that the original store to fix prices at 5 cents and 10 cents, the Woolworth's chain, has been completely liquidated, while Montgomery Ward has been closing dozens of stores during its protracted bankruptcy proceedings,' states Evan I. Schwartz in Digital Darwinism. Doing more for the customer isn't just a good idea; it's essential.
8. Customers want consulting, not consultative selling. Reacting to the hard-sell techniques of 25 years ago, the idea of 'consultative selling' emerged as a way for salespeople to appear less threatening to customers. The style changed, but the purpose didn't. This approach changed into another, more subtle way for the salesperson to remain in charge of the sale.
The Internet has totally undermined consultative selling. Whether it's news, social interactions, education, work, or political information, the Internet has created an environment in which 'Hierarchies are coming undone. Gatekeepers are bypassed. Power is devolving down to end users. The upshot of new technology, then, seems to be its ability to put individuals in charge.' (Andrew L. Shapiro in The Control Revolution)
From a selling viewpoint, this translates into consulting, not consultative selling. What today's customers want is what you know. If that has value, they may buy from you.
9. While it's all about new, it's also about what works. The digital camera's race to have the most 'megapixels' is an example of the importance of 'new.' Having the fastest PC is another, as manufacturers break the 600-megahertz barrier, and laptop status is determined by thinness.
In his book Faster, James Gleick sums it up in three words: 'Speed is power.' Status is owning a cell phone smaller than anyone else's. In such an era, the salesperson faces formidable customers. What do you bring that's different in terms of solving problems and helping customers confront the competition? What do you have to offer that gives the customer an advantage?