The number of apps and new technologies flooding the marketplace has people saying more and more about how sales is now a science and no longer an art. I’m struggling with this, because the more tech becomes entrenched in the sales process, the more I feel sales is an art.
If my goal is to merely complete a transaction and, for that matter, a priced-focused transaction, then I’m embracing tech as the primary process when it comes to sales. The problem I see is tech is anything but personal. It’s great at executing tasks, but it’s lame with regard to dealing with intellectual thinking and emotions.
I might be willing to be led by Google maps when driving to a restaurant, but I’m certainly not going to use technology to tell me what to order, how to eat, how much to eat or even how much to tip. Think about this with regard to your customers. Do they want to be relegated to interacting with an app? They probably do if your level of sales leadership is so pathetic it turns customers off.
BUT if you provide quality leadership, then certainly your customers gain much by interacting with YOU.
Last week I was on the Internet looking to buy some software I thought I needed. After digging around on the web and the software website, I gave up and scratched the idea. The reason was simple — the website failed to answer my questions and there was zero chance of getting a live person on the phone.
When was the last time you experienced your own sales process? I’m sure the software company I wanted to buy from thought their website was great. They even listed on the site the number of “customer service awards” they had won. Hmmm, sure made me wonder who they were competing against to “win” those awards.
Regardless of how good we think our apps, AI, and technology are, we can’t forget the “art” of selling, and that’s where you come into play. When we fail to demonstrate sales leadership with how we deal with our customers, we’re saying we’re not concerned about maximizing revenue.
Potential customers looking to interact with a human will do so, and if you can’t provide it, they’ll resort to social media. Are you comfortable with allowing social media sites to control your outcome?
Sales is an art. It always will be regardless of how much science is involved. It’s why I say sales is more than B2B or even B2C, but rather it’s P2P — people to people. Your objective is to find ways to not decrease the level of human interaction, but to increase it and in so doing you will be demonstrating sales leadership.
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Copyright 2018, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results
