This is a challenging time to be in sales. The current uncertainty about the direction of the economy is making customers think twice about spending money. In addition, over the past several years, an explosion of new Internet-based technologies has triggered a paradigm shift in the sales process. As our culture grows increasingly more comfortable living life and doing business via the Internet (the so-called "Web 2.0" culture), the sales process has also migrated to a Web environment, inspiring the creation of a wealth of new software business applications and processes that sales organization can use to leverage what is now being referred to as the "Sales 2.0" selling environment.
Most sales organization are only just now getting acclimated to the world of Sales 2.0, a world where web-savvy customers have learned to access the wealth of information available via the Internet – including industry websites and blogs – to educate themselves about the products and services that will meet their needs. Previously, this information was only available by interacting directly with sales reps, information gatekeepers who dispensed it as needed during the unfolding of the sales process. However, in the brave new world of Sales 2.0, the customer may very well know as much – or more– about your products, services, prices, competitors, industry product ratings, etc., as the best company sales rep does. This, in turn, has created another new phenomenon that is only just now beginning to have an impact on the sales process.
This new phenomenon is being referred to as "Buyer 2.0," and it may soon become a formidable force for sales reps to contend with. As customers become better and better educated regarding your market, products, services, prices, and competition– all of which occurs during an online process completely under their control -- their expectations of the sales transaction itself are being radically altered. Now, when this well-educated Buyer 2.0 customer comes to a person-to-person sales conversation, he is expecting the same degree of control that he enjoys online. This means that he is now coming to expect the same zero-hassle functionality from salespeople that he gets when he makes a typical retail purchase from an automated website.
Characteristics of the Buyer 2.0 phenomenon:
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In the Buyer 2.0 world, customers are engaging sales people for one reason only: they want to see if the salesperson is holding any information that the customer may have missed when he did his own research. Once they are confident that the salesperson doesn’t have any further information (or once they get the new information they need), the customer prefers the communications cease and proceed straight to the sale if you have what he wants at the price he is prepared to pay.?
Buyer 2.0 customers do NOT want salespeople to talk about value. Value is assumed i.e., they have already identified the value they are looking for on the basis of their own research. They wouldn’t be talking to you now if they didn’t already believe they had identified the best value. The more educated consumers believe they are, the more resistant they become to anything remotely "sales-y." Whenever they sense the use of sales techniques, the more resistant they become. All they want from a sales contact is neutral information to confirm whether or not they have found something that will meet their needs.When working with a Buyer 2.0 customer, the biggest challenge for the sales rep will be to discern how much research the customer has done and how good his information already is. This may be difficult because:
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A Buyer 2.0 customer doesn’t want to answer questions. It annoys him that salespeople ask them, because they sense they are being set up for something.?
As the Buyer 2.0 customer gets better at educating himself, his questioning skills improve. He will want to limit the salesperson’s input to answering the customer’s questions, because he feels he is now in charge.Theories regarding the Buyer 2.0 phenomenon are still evolving. However, some important conclusions jump right out:
1. The Buyer 2.0 phenomenon threatens to degrade the role of the sales rep, in some cases reducing the sales person to the role of an order taker, because the customer has already made his mind up and is resistant to sales conversations, even conversations of a consultative nature. Consultative conversations still rely to a great extent on the sales reps ability to "reveal" options and solutions that the customer may not have considered or isn’t aware of. A Buyer 2.0 customer sees no need for a consultant because he is his own consultant!
2. Even though the customer may think he knows everything he needs to know to make a buying decision, this may not be true. The Internet is notorious for containing incomplete and incorrect information. When dealing with a Buyer 2.0 customer, a sales rep must probe carefully in order to uncover the buyer’s interests and issues, as well as to determine the quantity and quality of the information the customer has already collected. A sales rep who lacks good questioning skills will quickly be reduced to an order taker.
3. A Buyer 2.0 customer will be ready to jump right to the negotiation stage, in order to nail down the best price and terms for the items he has decided to buy. Sales organizations would be wise to focus a greater amount of attention on equipping sales reps to become outstanding negotiators. This will be the best line of "defense" against the Buyer 2.0 phenomenon.
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June Quick Tip of the Month -- Ditch the Discounts
If you have heard it once, you have heard it a thousand times: “You are just a little out of my price range. If you could shave 15% off the price, it would make a big difference.” Suddenly, the pressure is on you to give away your profit margin to gain one measly sale. Look, buyers always want you to lower your price; at this rate you can discount your company right into bankruptcy. If your product is really worth the price, counter by selling your customer on the value they receive for the price. Show him how your product will exactly meet his need or solve his problem. Never discount just to get a sale. A price discount is a negotiation concession, so make sure you always get something back – better terms, longer contract, bigger order, etc. If a discount doesn’t really help you, ditch it.
