The Lost Art of Selling

In the face of a global recession, we need real selling skills more than ever.

“Nothing happens until somebody BUYS something” seems to be the new mantra of too many companies...“Customers aren’t buying anything so let’s just cut heads, slash budgets, hunker down and shrink our way to greatness!”

Interviewing customers to properly identify real problems and opportunities and then collaborating with them to find appropriate (and sometimes creative) solutions seems to be a skill set lost to anentire generation.

How did this happen?

Two major shifts drove this change. In the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, virtually every company had a sales force that was steeped in product knowledge, application knowledge and selling skills. The sales team was the engine, leading the charge, driving revenues. Suddenly, sales teams were deemed too expensive to maintain, and the responsibility for driving revenues shifted tothe marketing department. The theory was that if we could create demand for our products and services through advertising and promotion, we merely needed to harvest the flood of incoming orders in our call centers or order desks. The second major shift was from traditional marketing to Internet marketing, providing real time global reach for our marketing messages.

But, what happens when customers stop looking and the phone stops ringing?

Both of these shifts created breakthroughs in the ability to reach greater numbers of potential customers and the ability to “tell our story” in greater depth and breadth. But these vehicles have shortcomings. First, they are “one way” vehicles, allowing the customer to learn a lot about us but enabling us to learn very little about our potential customers. This requires customers to become applications specialists, determining on their own how best to use our products and services. The second problem is that these marketing methods virtually eliminate the ability to collaborate with our potential customers to create and deliver new and unique solutions for them. This is a critical problem in a recession, when customers simply shut down. They stop looking for new products and services, and therefore are immune to the wiles of marketing and promotion. Their focus is on cutting expenses and unless your product or service can help them do that without any investment, they simply won’t pay attention. Search engine optimization is useless when potential customers stop searching.

Why we need trust more than ever

What we have lost is the very human connection that engenders trust between a company and its customers. Trust is the basis for all business transactions. We have recently seen firsthand, what a lack of trust in the banking system has done to the global economy. As customers tune out marketing and promotions, we need a human connection to tune them back into the critical decisions they should be making to ensure that they are profitable and healthy for the long-term, and that is where a great sales force comes in. A great sales person can help customers gain a clearer understanding of their long-term goals and priorities and can collaborate in ways that no website ever could, to help customers move forward in the face of adversity and fear.