Customers are changing and their needs and expectations are changing constantly. How this affects customer service has been discussed in a previous section but it is worth discussing how it affects selling?
It is easy for a business to fall into the trap of creating a rigid sales process so that everyone who sells follows the same format. In fact this is generally a good process but if the process itself is not reviewed on a regular basis, you may start to lose customers. As the customers needs and expectations change, the sales process you use may need to be modified.
Imagine how butchers had to sell beef in the United Kingdom after the Mad Cow outbreak? Very different to before hand. This is obviously an extreme example but look at how travel is sold these days. The words “safe destination” are now well and truly implanted in the sales pitch for most holiday destinations, a concept that we were aware of but not as an everyday accepted risk assessment for when we plan our holidays as it has become today.
The point I am trying to make is that we need to review how we sell our products and services on a regular basis. There is really no room for the old “that’s the way we always did it” mentality. Sales is dynamic and ever changing, regardless of the business. It is the customers who drive sales and the more flexible and adaptable your business the greater your chances of succeeding where others fail.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TODAY? Today is the day to review your sales process to see if you have become a little set in your ways. If you have, turn it upside down and breathe some life into it.
People are different and we need to sell accordingly, If there are four basic personality styles and we continue to sell the same way to everybody then we are really only reaching 25% of people!