Bonus video: how to phrase discovery questions for maximum impact.Try asking that question the next time you find yourself with a group of friends or business colleagues. Better yet, try it the next time you happen to be in a room of salespeople! In my experience, no other question quiets a room faster in any scenario.
In his bestselling book, To Sell Is Human, author Dan Pink conducted a survey where he asked people to state the first word that came to mind when they heard “sales” or “selling”. Of the 25 most offered words illustrated by the word cloud below, 80% had negative connotations. This overwhelming sentiment is likely due to the unsavory experiences many of us have had with salespeople over the years who we felt were primarily self-interested, manipulative, and offered little value.
The good news is, the world of sales is changing and that chile telegram data change is paving the way for a new breed of sales professional. The sleazy used car salesman (which all modern sellers are still living in the shadow of) flourished in a buying environment that no longer exists. Today modern buyers have unprecedented access to information and choice when it comes to products and services. They’ve shed their desk phones and voice mail in favor of texting and social media. The once-trusted sterling opinions of vendors, journalists, and entrepreneurs have been cast aside in favor of peer insights. And as a result, research shows that today’s buyer is about 60% of the way toward their purchase decision before your sales organization gets engaged.
So are modern sellers doomed? In short: no. Forrester points out there are many ways your sales team can still strongly influence the buyer’s journey. But if they wish to continue to thrive and meet the changing needs of their buyers, they’ll need to master three key principles.
In 1687, English physicist and mathematician, Sir Isaac Newton described his now famous three laws of motion. The first law described a property known as Inertia; the tendency for objects to keep moving in the same direction unless a strong enough force causes them to change. Applied to modern business, inertia, or status quo bias, is a powerful force that keeps most companies using the same practices, policies, and technologies they’ve always used. It is the enemy of the modern sales machine.