About an hour later, we part ways with a hand shake and with the understanding that he will send me the final version of the document and I will sleep on it just a few more days before making the decision.
The year was 2001 and I was buying insurance.
You see, not too long ago, buying insurance was a complicated process. There was a pretty intense sales cycle involved. One that included many interactions, mostly over the phone or face to face when possible. It took time, paperwork and a sophisticated sales person. A sales cycle such as this one required knowledge of some finance, some technology, some psychology and some communication skills. Selling something like insurance, a car, a loan, a mortgage etc. back then required quite an array of talents. Along these 15 years or so however, thanks to technology (some might claim because of technology) these services have turned into a commodity. In today's online world you can buy insurance, a mortgage or even a car in a few minutes without even talking to anyone.
The role of the sales person selling these, now commodities, have changed from an educator, to a processing person at best. From an insight provider to a, in some cases, nonexistent. This naturally pushed out the experienced, knowledgable sales people out of this world and welcomed a younger, less experienced salesforce into our lives. A salesforce who is attributed with a high level of turnover, lack of personal touch and low salary which explains the frustration level we often run into when we do end up talking to a person while shopping online.
But while the Millennials are taking over selling commodities and challenged with the understanding of good customer service, who then takes care of the more complicated, longer sales cycle products and services out there? Technologies, for example, that require longer periods to implement and integrate with core systems of large organizations and demand an ongoing maintenance, support and yes, relationships following the initial sales cycle. Who is selling those? The bigger issue I think is how this change in selling tainted the role of the sophisticated sales person in our minds and in the back of the minds of many C-level executives out there hiring sales people. As if everything can be sold online through short sales cycles and with sales people who have no interpersonal skills.
Some refer to it as Solution Selling, some Relationship Selling and some even call it Sales Fit Professionals. Whatever you refer to them, they are hard to find. And I believe, what is even harder to find is the companies who appreciate the need for this kind of a sales person and the impact of such talent on a long term customer. Just like selling insurance in the past, here too, a high level of the success, selling an enterprise software for instance, depends on trust. And trust takes time and personal (!!) effort to build. Hence the long sales cycles. Moreover, with that, the real added value in my mind is the understanding of the fact that the sales cycle for such a platform or service is a never ending one. And so turning it over to an Account Manager after the initial sale, someone who usually will be on a receiving mode and will take care of issues only when they arise is not good enough. It is an ongoing sales effort to keep the trust, to maintain the level of relationship, to get intimate with the customer, sustain the level of satisfaction and keep growing.
It takes a team, no doubt, and perhaps more importantly it takes an attitude. I believe that the evolution of the sophisticated sales person to lead a team with the right attitude is something that is still being evolved. The new breed of this hunter and farmer combination is yet to be defined and even more challenging will be to quantify their value, formulate it and systemize it to scale.
I always tell the people I work with that our goal is to make sure our customers are happy and buy more. I know too many sales people who can make the customer buy...the first time. And I know many account managers who make lots of customers happy. The combination is the real deal. I challenge business owners out there to spend the time and effort, not settle, find or nurture that new breed, build that team and get happy customers...who buy more!
