Salespeople are the point of contact between a business and its customers. The crucial role they play is certainly worth celebrating, but we should also ask how we can help them celebrate sales success more often
On this National Salesperson Day, 14 December 2018, Skynamo wants to give more than a shout out to the salesmen and saleswomen who represent their companies out in the field. We want to acknowledge the crucial role salespeople play in the life of any business. In doing so, we also want to address some common obstacles salespeople encounter in the field.
What we’re asking today is, why is it important to celebrate salespeople and how can we help them celebrate sales success more often?
“Nothing happens until someone sells something.”
You might have the greatest idea or tell the best story, produce the most advanced products or have the best solutions to problems. Until someone ‘buys’ it, nothing has happened.
Well, OK, things did happen. Very important, very necessary things did happen. But what makes an idea great is when it is recognised as useful and valuable. When it is validated.
But what about brilliant ideas which aren’t validated? What about classic examples like Colonel Sanders’s ‘secret recipe’ that was rejected 1,009 times before it eventually resulted in the world’s second largest restaurant chain, KFC?
These examples simply reinforce the idea ascribed to Peter Drucker that, “nothing happens until someone sells something.” The secret recipe remained a secret until someone ‘bought’ it.
What does it mean to ‘sell something’?
On a basic level it means exchanging things for money. But it first requires someone to be sold on an idea. A potential buyer needs to conclude that something is of value to them before they pay money in exchange for that thing. “Selling is about translating products and services into benefits to customers,” says Louis D’Ambrosio, former sales leader at IBM.
And yet, unless you’re selling ice-cream on a hot day, this is still only partly true.
Whenever long-term risks, benefits, and careful decisions are involved, people avoid buying products or services on the spot. They seek to invest in real relationships with real people. They look for people who can continually add value to their business.
Selling something does not merely involve handing over something you have in exchange for something you want. It is not simply a transaction, but an offer to partner with someone and find innovative solutions that might improve their lives or grow their business.
Something needs to happen before someone sells something
A salesperson is the point of contact where ideas, products and services meet the needs and perceptions of current and potential customers. It is in the salesperson that people engage with brand communications and product offers in human form.
It is often in them that an idea or product stands or falls. People trust people before they trust things. People prefer working with people they trust before they work with anyone simply because they offer a good product.
As Christoff Sonnekus, sales manager at Triangle Lubricants, so aptly reminds, “Customers buy the sales rep first, before they buy the product or brand represented by that salesperson.”
Salespeople often face negative perceptions because they operate directly in the decision-making space. They meet people at their most vulnerable—when customers doubt the status quo, feel pressured to choose a new direction, and must act in ways that involve change.
This is not a position anyone one of us likes to be in, let alone with someone you don’t trust and who doesn’t seem to show a real concern for your situation and needs.
Trust is necessary before someone sells something.
Bridging the trust gap
Recent research shows that a major obstacle in field sales is the trust gap between salespeople and customers. Many customers have preconceived ideas about field sales reps and often view them with suspicion.
Managers and companies often send sales reps into the field without enough resources to act as trusted consultants. This lack of support widens the trust gap and makes it harder to build strong customer relationships.
However, companies adopting modern field sales technology are seeing a real change. The right tools help bridge the trust gap by empowering salespeople with accurate data and easy access to essential information.
With technology designed specifically for field sales, reps can serve customers more effectively, build credibility, and strengthen long-term trust.
Skynamo’s mobile sales app prioritises the role of sales people, freeing managers to coach their reps more regularly, while empowering reps to act as consultants in the field.
Let’s think more seriously about the value of salespeople to our businesses and about how we can help them bridge the field sales trust gap.
Other sources:
https://www.salesforce.com/story-of-sales/
