The era of ‘pushy salespeople’ has come to an end. Say hello to conversational marketing.
When I started my business life the year was 1987 and salespeople were the gods of business. My first employer was British United Shoe Machinery Ltd, a company that manufactured shoe machines. They were part of the Emhart Group; a massive US corporation. Sure, I’d worked for my dad in the family business for a few years before, but this was different. It was ‘corporate.’
At ‘The BU’ salespeople were placed on a high altar. They had keys to the executive washroom and, at lunch, they were part of that small community of people permitted to dine in the executive restaurant, while I was one of a community of three-hundred or so lower-grade white and blue collar workers that had to slum it in the general canteen. If you were fortunate enough to be a Sales Executive, you were exactly that; an executive, representing the company you served.
As a keen youngster hungry for success, I worked my way into a good position after 18-months and took my opportunity to become a field salesperson; a Sales Executive. My first sales meeting left me with a memory that’s stayed with me throughout my life. It turned out I’d picked a bad day for my induction into the sales team. The migration of the shoe trade to lower wage rate economies was impacting on sales. This happened to be the day that Salmon was taken off the menu for sales meetings. As I entered the large executive conference room for my first time, there were middle-aged men blubbering into their curling Tuna sandwiches everywhere!
The negativity of ‘pushy salespeople’ wasn’t so visible back then. I certainly wasn’t pushy. There was no need: Customers wanted to talk to me to acquire my expertise. I was their short-cut to the knowledge they needed in the fastest possible way. I was the ‘online product video’ of the day.
Since those early days, I’ve progressed through a career in sales, and then B2B marketing, to find myself a few years ago in management consulting; helping business owners to increase the valuation of their shareholdings before making trade sales. Today I run a marketing group that helps companies to create customers from making conversation profitably through digital marketing.
The last few years have been a rocky ride for business sales and marketing teams while everyone comes to terms with the new reality of lead-generation in the digital era. Many sales and marketing teams are still at war. The legacy sales teams think know-it-all smart alec digital marketers are all fluff and have no grasp of ‘their business’ while the new-kid marketers see the field sales teams as ‘old timers with their heads in the sand.
It’s not really the fault of marketing or sales that we find ourselves in a new situation. The simple fact is the way people want to buy their products and services has changed and the old ways don’t work anymore.
According to Gartner, up to 41% of the B2B buying process (even for B2B transactions) is done by personal discovery.
Put another way, it’s folk like you and me snacking on the Internet to explore new things to buy that interest us by watching ‘unwrapping’ YouTubers; and how to get our jobs done in better through watching demos and ‘how-to’ videos to learn what smart solutions exist. So much advice and help, all for free.
We’re all part of the ‘I-Want-What-I-Want-When-I-Want-It’ buying culture that’s sprung out of the pervasive use of Smartphones. We’re all guilty of sliding out of bed and grabbing a smartphone before we get to a toothbrush.
So the question gets asked: As a consumer and business buyer, do I need a salesperson anymore to advise me on what to buy and how to buy it? In most cases, the answer is no. We’ve all changed our buying behaviors. There’s so much information on the Internet, we don’t need a salesperson to explain what tool we need to get a job done, or walk through product features a point at a time.
The owners of motor dealerships know that people are less likely to drop into their showrooms than ever before. They know prospective buyers will already have worked out their short-list — maybe even the precise make and type of car they want to buy — before they venture into a showroom. Interestingly, AutoTrader is saying forecourt visits in the UK have dropped by 15 million since 2010. Using their figures, this is a drop of 50%.
If you run a business, the news is that you’re going to have to re-think how you attract and win the trust of customers. You’ll need to learn how to nurture and engage prospective customers in conversation ‘virtually’ — on their terms.
Your ability to create a conversational path —a track of conversation that begins with a problem they want to solve and ends with them buying your product or service — might turn out to be the only competitive advantag you need.
The era of salespeople sitting behind a desk cold calling a list of ‘target possibles’ doesn’t work in a world of data privacy and almost no landlines. Whether salespeople want to be pushy or not, nobody cares anymore because, with a muzzle over their mouths, we can’t hear them anymore.
Ian Tomlin is a seasoned marketer, entrepreneur, and business leader with a 30+ year career at the intersection of strategy, technology, and marketing. As the founder of successful businesses, including Newton Day Ltd, Ian brings a wealth of expertise in guiding companies toward compelling brand stories. Reach out to Ian via LinkedIn to transform your marketing approach and tell your brand story effectively.
