72% of buyers want a โrep-freeโ experience? Of course, they do! How is that number not 95%?
Itโs from a Gartner report that states:
โA survey of 725 B2B buyers conducted in November and December 2021 revealed that 72% of customers said they prefer a โrep-free experience,โ or completing their purchase without speaking to a rep at any pointโ
And
โWith so much information available to customers digitally, sellers are no longer the channel to customers, but a channel to customers,โ said Scott Collins, managing vice president in the Gartner for Sales Leaders Practice.
If you go to the airport and have to talk to an agent, it means youโre having a bad day, right?
When you order takeout, if you have to call and verbally order, thatโs annoying, right?
In B2B, if you want to buy something and have to be qualified first, discovered second and upsold thirdโฆ
Yes! The average salesperson is a nuisance. The average salesperson is annoying.
Hereโs the rubโฆ
This isnโt new! Itโs ALWAYS been that way.
All the way back in 1912, Thomas Herbert Russell (in his book, Salesmanship) talked about how buyers wanted a rep-free experience through the proliferation of catalogs, mail order, and advertising. He proclaimed, “Buyers know more nowadays”. 1912!
On April 13th, 2015, Forrester was banging this drum through the rise of eCommerce. โForrester forecasts 1 million US B2B salespeople will lose their jobs to self-service eCommerce by 2020, accounting for 20% of the B2B sales force.โ
The OPPOSITE happened, right?
Why?
Take your kids to a toy store, and watch what happens. Your kids feel like there is a hole in their lives that can be filled by whatโs inside that store. Their desired outcome? A toy that will lead to ultimate happiness. Itโs got to be in there, right? Theyโre trying to predict. Their little brains are on fire with the question, โWhat toy in here is going to lead to that ultimate happiness outcome?โ
The problem? There are so many choices. Information abounds, tooโฆI mean, they could theoretically make a shortlist, go home, read reviews, do research, read consumer reports, make an informed decision, come back and make the purchase.
Has a child ever done that in the history of humankind? Of course not. Why?
Because your kids seek the path of least resistance. My kids walked into a โgoing out of businessโ sale at Toys R Us years ago on an endorphin high. They both walked out with a toy, crying. It was exhausting. Neither felt like they made the optimal choice. They needed my wife to jump in, narrow down their options, explain the pros and cons of each, and help them make a decision. Otherwise, no decision would have been made.
They are human beingsโฆand so are you!
Every buyer youโre working with has 50+ problems they could solve for in their business. 50+ problems that, when addressed, would make their own lives easier – maybe at work, maybe through the bonus theyโre more likely to achieve, maybe because theyโll be seen as a hero and get a promotion. 50+!
They only have the bandwidth to focus on a few at a time. And, if one of those โfewโ becomes more pain than anticipated, their attention shifts. Thatโs why you get ghosted. Thatโs why you lose so much to the status quo.
It comes down to this quote from 1947. George S. Jones, Jr., the Vice President of Sales for a company named Servel, Inc. proclaimed,
โToday, people are educated to so many wants, the instruments of advertising are so universal, the sense of comparative buying is so keen that truth and value have made selling a profession.โ
Allow me to highlight those last few wordsโฆ
โThe sense of comparative buying is so keen that truth and value have made selling a profession.โ – 1947
The sales profession was and is designed to be a service. A service housed in truth.
The great salespeople, who lead with the TRUTH (transparency), and are there to provide a VALUABLE service to the buyer instead of being a necessary evil are continuing to grow selling as a profession.
- Value – doing the homework for the buyer. Curating all of the research for them on potential solutions, and presenting them transparently with the pros AND the cons. The risks and the rewards…
- Value – helping the buyer navigate the purchase. Mutual decision plans that help them understand what the journey will look like…
We don’t buy when we’re convinced…we buy when we can predict.
โTrue salesmanship is the science of service. Grasp that thought firmly and never let go.โ – Arthur Sheldon, 1911
โIf the truth wonโt sell it, donโt sell it.โ – Arthur Dunn, 1919
You are in a service profession – and if you grasp that thought firmly and never let go, you’ll always be wanted.
TRUTH and VALUE.
I speak and teach revenue organizations on how to leverage transparency and decision science to maximize their revenue capacity. Itโs what I doโฆteach sellers, their leaders, and really entire revenue organizations the how we as human beings make decisions, then how to use that knowledge for good (not evil) in their messaging (informal and formal), negotiations and revenue leadership. I wrote a 3x award-winning book (๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐บ ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฆ), and have a newish book out (๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ) now that just won its first award!
Reach out if you want to discussย The Transparency Saleย sales methodology, or reallyโฆanything else (sales kickoffs,ย workshops,ย keynotes, the economy, etc.)! Emailย info@toddcaponi.comย or call 847-999-0420.
Sign up for the newsletter for more of my nonsense in your inbox every other week, with some sales history sprinkled on topโฆ
0 Comments