In his famous book Wombat Selling, Michael Hewitt-Gleeson says ‘there’s no such thing as closing the sale!’ During a talk to leading insurance salespeople, Michael even offered $100,000 if some one could come on stage and close him.
Needless to say no one was able to and he kept his $100,000
So this made me think…
What is the real value a salesperson brings to an organisation and how might that be changing?
If the salesperson can’t close a sale then what is their role in the sales process?
Michael Hewitt-Gleeson also put forward the thought that a sales person’s role is to make enough ‘check moves’ so that the prospect can close themselves.
He describes a sales process made up of ‘check moves’.
A ‘check move’ is defined as ‘a customer contact of any kind.’
So following this process sales people need to have great follow through and discipline so that the ‘check moves’ are consistent and continuous.
But there is an issue..
Most prospects are incredibly busy these days and therefore don’t want to take multiple face to face visits from a sales person.
More and more ‘check moves’ are being done online which can be mechanised through the thoughtful use of auto responders.
This means that some of the value of salespeople is being transferred into online software and those increased costs must be paid for by the business.
Unless this value is recovered in sales the additional costs will mean a reduction in profitability.
I doubt whether any sales person would want a reduction in salary but it is clear that part of their function is being taken online where it is far more efficient and costs effective.
Do you have any live experiences on this?
How are you going about recovering the additional costs of developing your online presence?
When new technology is around it is easy to fall into the trap of buying the ‘bells and whistles’ without carefully analysing where the technology fits in your business and what it might be replacing.
