Skills ‘n’ Strategies – Hand in Hand

A two-dimensional view to consultative selling.

The immediate future will see dramatic and broad changes in every industry, field and profession.
People behind sales counters, in stores and businesses of every type, with any kind of sales responsibility will be affected. The biggest impact will be on the thousands of salespeople who travel by airplanes, cabs and trains daily to sell their organisation's products or services.

• Salespeople will experience dramatic changes in the way they sell and service their customers.

There’s a pressure on sales due to increasing commoditisation and complexities in terms of the product and their applications. The customer base seems to be merging in many industries. Customers are growing in number, becoming stronger, smarter - and suddenly we find everyone in a small pond. It’s not merely the product that needs to be sold, but extra benefits need to be tagged on as well. The time has come for selling problem-solving solutions, and providing the customer with value for his purchase.

Firms must concentrate on making superior products, and pass the benefit of the least cost to the customer, through differentiated and value-added services. The salesman has to convince the customer of the benefit.

Creative strategies have been designed to communicate the message across, by using a new breed of sales personnel. They are:

The Salesman – A Consultant
A salesman should be like a creative marketer, who can visualise and define customer needs, shortcomings and ineffectiveness thereby providing a solution that will address the customer’s problem.

The Hewlett-Packard sales force was territory-focused, working with technical decision-makers. Salesmen were forced to be more IT savvy. This brought about a change in the HP sales team. They had to become more customer-oriented. They were supposed to read the mind of the customer and provide them with the desired solution. To illustrate, in an electronics company, the salesman used CAD tools, to lock the prospect into HP sales. Operations have since improved and so have sales.

• Feature-and-benefit approach to sales
  Salespeople can sell by lowering the purchase cost. Kimberly-Clark Corp used to sell on product features but now they are focused on offering the product at a lower cost, and tailor the product features to match the costs. When the business is product-focused, manufacturing firms can apply this model.
  
  
• Keeping pace with changing times
  In today’s changing world, timing is of vital essence. The salesman has to ensure that stocks are delivered to the retail shop, in order to ensure product availability. If the customer’s needs aren’t met, the salesman may lose out on the sale. The sales team should ensure that the supply chain requirements are met in time and the logistics are not affected.
  
  
• Service Strategy
  The producers of mature commodity-type products usually face challenges. Sometimes, it becomes very difficult to differentiate the product based on its functionality. Differentiation occurs when the product is differentiated with the same service or when the product is commoditised with a higher service capability. You can have a cutting edge using the service strategy. Photo developers have a set standard for their printing. An area where they can differentiate is the service strategy, by offering quicker delivery, better quality, and a free photo album.
  
  
• One-to-One Marketing
  Marketing efforts are directed towards production companies as the salesmen are becoming specialised in that particular area. Separate sales force teams are developed and corporate headquarters have been set up to use the one-to-one marketing strategy. HP judged the success of its marketing campaign based on the number of fliers that were sent out and the number of people that were visited.

These strategies when combined with effective skills of salesmen would help keep the cash register ringing.

Related reading:

1. “Selling’s New Breed”; Keenan, Bill; Industry Week, Sept 1998.
2. “Successful Selling Skills Defined for Sales Reps”; Gorelick & Associates; Graphic Arts Monthly, July 2000.