A few weeks ago I was speaking at the Utah Governor’s Economic Summit and another speaker was Mitch Lowe, the man behind MoviePass.He shared a great insight. He said, “When we remove friction, we increase consumption.”
Think about that line for a minute and now put in context with what he said about it. His examples were how Blockbuster and the idea of renting a movie to watch at home made it easier for people to watch more movies. Netflix in its original version would mail you DVDs of movies to make it easier than having to go to Blockbuster and once again consumption increased. More recently, Netflix moved their delivery system on-line and again an amazing thing happened. The consumption of movies and video content increased.
The more I think about what Mitch shared, the more I am reminded to think about how we sell. I’m left wondering, “Do we create friction that in turn impedes sales?”
What can you do to make it easier for your customer to buy from you? What can you do to have your customer see you more as a leader faster? I use the line “speed sells.” To do this we have to be able to remove the friction from our sales processes.
For years if you wanted to buy a car in Detroit, you had to do it between 8 AM and 5 PM, Monday through Friday, because that’s what the unions dictated. Their belief was as long as everyone played by the same rules, then there would be no loss of sales. The idea was when you wanted to buy a car, you made time to do it during those limited hours, even though it meant taking time off from work.
Absurdity at it best if you were to believe that such limitations would have zero impact on the selling of cars. Of course, fewer cars were sold. The friction created by the rules certainly impacted sales.
Friction in your sales process comes from legacy thinking and failing to go past what is the norm and failing to shift 100% to a customer centric model. It’s what caused Blockbuster to fail. It’s what led to near devastation of the domestic auto industry.
Your goal is to assess your sales process and find those obstacles that are creating friction and remove them or, at a minimum, find a way around them. Your customer may or may not even realize there is friction in the process. That’s your job — find it and remove it.
Sales leadership is not doing what’s expected, but rather going beyond. Back in the days of Blockbuster, we marveled at how we could visit a store and find a movie we could watch in our own home. Back in those days, we thought that was awesome. We accepted the friction of the process and the time it took, let alone the stupid late fees we all paid. Today the friction is gone and we stream instantly any movie we want on any device we want any time we want.
“Remove the friction and you will increase consumption.” Mitch Lowe, CEO MoviePass
A coach can help you excel in your sales career! Invest in yourself by checking out my coaching program today!
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
