News from the trenches- The sales process now starts well before you think it does. Just had a coffee today with Colin McWhinney at SalesXperts., the best demand gen guys locally I have ever worked with. He follows my postings but does one better by being very active in using this stuff. Just love this guy!

News flash: He has noticed in the last year that the customer is first engaging the sales force about 20% of the way down the sales process. What does this entail? . Prospects go online to identify their problem and look for solutions. By the time the customer engages the salesman, they have created a short list of companies to talk to and they believe that this company is one of a few that have the potential solution to their problem. This immediately creates two problems.

1. Most sales people are unable to shift gears to accommodate the needs of these customers. They do not want a demo, a brochure or a proposal. They want you to quickly get up to speed on their business and issues and how your product brings value. How are you different? The results of a poor response is that the opportunity disappears as fast as it appears.

2. Marketing becomes of No.1 importance with the brand promise, materials in the public eye and the ability to drive “qualified leads ” to the sales funnel. The Marcomm dept has to really be on top of things. But you never will never know its not working.

Hidden problem. Are clients looking at your online “story” and dropping you from their shortlist, and thus never engaging you? Guess what? You will never know!

So business is changing yet most sales training is stuck in the 90’s . That is so like , yesterday.

This is why ( I must sound like a broken record) our process, Precision Sales and Marketing is so successful. Our research led us to these ideas over two years ago. A recent client had geometric increases in sales in under two weeks using our approach. So what is it costing you each day to ignore this? Guess what? You will never know!