Seth
Godin says the sales call is dying. He defined the sales call as “…a meeting (in person or on the phone)
when a salesperson endeavors to sell something to a prospect, and where the
prospect is doing the salesperson some sort of service by being there.”
He feels that instead,
“we’re seeing the rise of the buying
call”. Someone has a need and they seek
to find organizations and products that can fulfill that need.
His premise is
that most organizations don’t have time to “politely listen to a sales call”
and most individual consumers aren’t willing either – unless they happen to
have that particular need.
My personal
anecdotal evidence supports this theory. No one (salesperson or buyer) has time to waste on unfruitful
discussions.
In my opinion, building relationships has never been
more important.
How else will you know
if someone truly has a need for your service?
How else will you be prepared for their questions?
Technorati tags: Business, "Seth Godin", "Sales Call"
Jean – it probably wouldn’t hurt 🙂
I would think that listening (as pointed out above) and watching are key.
I don’t think anyone would advocate that a salesperson just sit back and wait for the phone to ring. You need to inquire about needs a prospective client might have and get to know them (as much as they permit you to) so that you might be better positioned to offer them a solution when they are in the market.
There are also ways to build and participate in communities of existing or potential consumers.
So businesses should have a sign on their website saying: ”we are currently needing that”.
http://collaborativemarketing.blogspot.com/
AAbsolutely right. I really don’t know Godin is blogging that. All he has to do is read Solution Selling – the classic tome on helping people to buy.
And where does that start? With listening.