The Salesperson is Dead

8/9/2019 The Salesperson is Dead

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and other sales and marketingmyths that just arent true


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Convince your prospectsto change and

then choose you.

Deliver your story withimpact and articulate

your value.

alignmentMARKETING SALES

CreatingConversations

That Winstarts

with having...


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For B2B companies, the execution of your companys growth strategies,including new product launches, go-to-market initiatives, or even merger

and acquisition activity, comes down to one thing: great conversations

between your field salespeople and your prospects and customers.

And, making sure your company delivers great customer conversations is

based on two critical activities in every company:

Creating theright stories the development of sales

messages and tools that

communicate enough value to

break through your prospects

status quo and differentiate you

from competitors.

Enabling theright skills delivering your stories to

prospects and customers with

power and impactcreating

value, convincing skeptical

executives, and protecting

your profitability.

The following popularmyths which are allegedly the most effective waysto sell and market to prospects just might be leading you astray when it

comes to developing and delivering your messaging. Discovering the truth

behind these myths, and embracing their alternatives, will convince your

customers to sayYesto change andYesto you!


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MYTH#1

Thesalespersonisdead!

The Truth

Industry analysts are reporting that buyers are at least 60% done withtheir buying process before they seek out a salesperson. After all, with the

wealth of information provided online to research solutions and compare

competitive alternatives, what value does a salesperson really add to

the process?

But guess what your buyers only think theyre self-sufficient in their

purchasing decisions. According to Sales Benchmark Index, 60% of those

same buyers end up making No Decision. Theres a big difference betweentheir declared preference (what they say they prefer), and their revealed

preference (what they actually want). Can prospects really be 60% of the way

through their buying cycle if, most of the time, they end up choosing their

status quo? Maybe they needed to talk to a human after all.


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A Better Way

Your salespeople with their lips moving are your companys greatest agentsof adding value in the sales cycle. And your ability to create a buying vision

for your prospects helping potential customers see the need to change

and view your offering as a valuable solution is what will separate you from

your competitors. Only salespeople can do this for your companybut they

need the right messages, tools and conversations skills to do it right.

Declared vs. Revealed Preference

People will say one thing when nothing is on the line, and then behave completelyopposite when money and personal reputation is at stake.

Source: Samuelson, P. A Note on the Pure Theory of Consumers Behaviour


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The TruthYour personas those fun fictional

characters embodying the traits of

your prospects have been lying

to you. Your prospects dont make

purchase decisions and change their

current approach, or status quo,

because of who they are, what theyare responsible for, and their personal

characteristics. Instead, prospects

respond to messages based on the

situation they are in, how they perceive the future unfolding, and if they

believe theyre in danger of not achieving their business targets. They must

be convinced their desired outcomes are at risk if they dont do something

different, and do it now.

Knowing who youre selling to isnt enough. To create real opportunities, its

far more important to have a message provocative and compelling enough

to get them whoever they are to care enough to move off of their

status quo.

MYTH#2

Personasarethebesttoolfordev

eloping

effectivemessaging.


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A Better WayDevelop a status quo profile as the starting point. Identify how they are

doing something today, what unknown gaps and deficiencies exist, and

how changes in their industry and environment could put their business

outcomes at risk. Use the picture of your prospect built by this knowledge to

create effective messaging that moves them to make a change.

Fundamental Attribution Error

People overestimate the impact of disposition on a persons behavior and underestimate

the impact of their situation. A persons situation (status quo) is a bigger driver of

behavior and change than their disposition (persona).

Source: Ross, L. The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process


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MYTH#3

VoiceoftheCustomer(VOC)resea

rchis

essentialforeffectivemessaging.

The TruthWhen it comes time to launch a new

product or create a new message, many

marketers make the time- and resource-

consuming mistake of looking to VOC

research to tell them how to position

it. The problem is, your customers will

only tell you what they already know. Butthose problems, challenges and pains

they express, while real, are not significant

enough to get them to change. Why?

Because theyve already figured out how

to work around those issues. So, your so-called solution and the change

management needed to bring you in, looks more painful than the pains they

are living with.


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A Better WayYour job is to introduce underappreciated or unconsidered problems and

make them see the imminence and magnitude of those. To create urgency,

you need to identify and expose real-life issues that are going to impact

their status quo regardless of your solution: new threats, obligations,

requirements, and/or potentially missed opportunities that they must

respond to.

Old Brain Decision-Making

Neuroscience tells us that decisions to change take place in the part of the brain that

doesnt contain the capacity for language, so prospects really cant articulate reasons they

will change. But, this part of the brain is motivated to ensure your survival and is more

responsive and willing to take risk to avoid pain and loss versus acquire gain.


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MYTH#4

Zenpresentationtechniquesaret

hecure

forPowerPointproblems.

The TruthThough getting rid of the bullet

points, stock photography, and

product photos in your slide

presentations is a step in the right

direction, replacing them with Zen

presentations large, metaphorical

or borrowed interest imagery andminimal text is not effective. Youre

trying to set yourself apart, conduct

a memorable conversation, and

compel your prospect to make a tough decision not put them to sleep.

Metaphorical images are too abstract and detract from, rather than enhance,

your message.


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A Better WayYour visuals need to tell your story in a simple, concrete way. Really good

visuals are memorable and recreatable, meaning they can be quickly and

easily drawn, redrawn, shared and clearly understood. Visuals are there to

wake up the part of your prospects brain that identifies the need for change,

and make complex ideas easier to understand and act on.

Picture Superiority Effect

People remember 10% of what you say three days later, but that number jumps to 65%

when you connect it to a simple, concrete visual that your audience can remember

and retell.

Source: Paivio, A. Mental representations: A dual-coding approach


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MYTH#5

The20-questiondiscoveryapproach

isthe

bestwaytostartanewsalescycl

e.

The TruthThough it may have been a somewhat effective approach in the

past, executive buyers arent reacting as favorably to the 20-question

methodology anymore. The expectation of executive buyers is that you

come in knowing something about their business and their pain points. They

dont want to waste time answering your probing discovery questionsthey

want you to tell them something they dont already know.


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A Better WayDont act like a product seller, act like a problem solver. Tell your

prospect about a disruption or opportunity in their market or business that

they might not know about. They believe you see more people who look like

them than they do. So act that way. Share your experience all of the things

youve learned from working in their market, with customers just like them

and build a buying vision for them.

Hero Model

The most successful stories follow a proven choreography and so should your selling

conversations. The Hero Model introduces a change into an environment and requires

the would-be heros (prospects) to respond with the help of a mentor (you and your

company) to help them understand the changes, clearly see the new call upon their lives,

provide direction for the proper response, and overcome their reluctance to accepttheir quest.

Source: Campbell, J. The Hero With a Thousand Faces


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MYTH#6

Throwinginfreebiesandotherva

lue-

addedfeatureswillwinoveryou

rprospects.

The TruthWhen you are in a heated competitive selling situation, you may be tempted

to throw in or highlight value-added features that the prospect has not

asked for. Your thinking is that these bonus capabilities will tip the scale

in your favor when everything else is considered equal. Not only does

it not give you an advantage, it actually pushes your prospect toward the

competing alternative.


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A Better WayIf you find yourself with unrequested capabilities that you believe will add

significant value, you need to create the context that makes those things

necessary and urgent. Start by identifying an unconsidered need that

your unique or advantaged capability addresses, then amplify that need by

showing your prospects what they are missing. Now your features look like a

value-added opportunity, instead of a wasted throw-in.

Unwanted Extras

Decision-making research shows that when you add a feature that is positive, but weak

or irrelevant to the conversation, it actually provides a reason against choosing your

option, especially when competing options are otherwise equally attractive. The addition

of a potentially attractive feature that proves useless to the reasons someone is making

a decision can provide a reason to reject your offering in favor of an alternative offering,which has no wasted features.

Source: Shafir E, Simonson I, Tversky A, Reason Based Choice


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MYTH#7

Discountingisasalesproblem.

The TruthAccording to McKinsey and Co., a 1% change in discounting has a 9% impact

on your operating margins a seemingly small capitulation on pricing that

can have a significant impact on your companys bottom line. But thats a

sales problem, right? Well, not entirely. The #1 reason why companies find

themselves in such tough price negotiations is that your customers arent

convinced your solutions are sufficiently different from the competition. And

thats a marketing problem.


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A Better WayWhen developing your positioning and seeking differentiation, stop

relying on known customer needs, problems, or concerns. To get out of the

commodity trap, you need to create messaging that helps others see their

situations in fresh, more revealing ways. You need to identify problems they

dont even realize they have.

Creating Contrast

Neuroscience studies on decision-making tell us that contrast is necessary for making a

decision. In the absence of clear contrast between the vendors and their solutions, the

brain defaults to price to create the contrast. Thats why price pressures arent a budget

problem; they are a contrast problem.


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Attend Corporate Visions AnnualMarketing & Sales Alignment Conference

Swisstel Chicago

Sept. 24-26, 2014

Join us for our annual Marketing& Sales Alignment Conference

Conversations That Win! This is the only

conference dedicated to your customer

conversations.

To take advantage of discounted early registration pricing, visit:

http://conference.corporatevisions.com/register/
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Conversations That Win.

Corporate Visions is a leading marketing and sales messaging, tools, and skills

company that helps global B2B companies create more sales opportunities,

win more deals and increase sales profitability by improving the conversations

salespeople have with customers. Companies engage Corporate Visions to help in

three key areas:

Developing compelling messages to break the status quo, differentiating

their solution, justifying a purchase decision and protecting margins; Deploying that message through tools and visual stories to enable

salespeople to engage multiple decision makers across the buying cycle; and

Delivering sales skills training that helps salespeople confidently use these

messages and tools to create, elevate and capture more value in their

customer conversations.

Corporate Visions helps clients such as ADP, Motorola, Philips, UPS, Cisco and othersalign marketing and sales with a repeatable approach for developing and delivering

winning customer conversations.

The Salesperson is Dead

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