Has Selling Changed?
Have you noticed how difficult it is to actually speak to someone on the phone these days? Either they donʼt answer calls at all or if they do, they say ʻI canʼt speak nowʼ or ʻCould you call back laterʼ. I donʼt usually leave messages these days because many people donʼt bother listening or responding to them. What about emails? Well, even if the recipient knows who you are and your content is interesting, itʼs still likely that less than 20% of your emails will be opened, a smaller percentage will be read and even less will actually respond.
It seems to me, more than ever before, people are just too busy. Too busy to answer the phone, too busy to respond to messages, too busy to read emails and the bad news for us is that theyʼll definitely be too busy to be ʻsold toʼ. It seems to me that if we stick to the ʻold ways of sellingʼ then weʼre going to have to work two or three times as hard just to get the same results we got a few years ago.
Obviously there are some things in selling that wonʼt ever change, for example:
- People buy from people they like.
- First impressions are important.
- People buy benefits not features.
Those things will always be important but thereʼs a lot that has changed. I donʼt think many people have time to listen to all that old sales patter these days and I believe they are going to want a different approach from us when weʼre presenting our ideas to them.
Over the next few weeks I thought Iʼd send you some of the things Iʼve changed in my approach to selling recently. But before that it may well be a good idea to see if youʼve got the right attitude towards this problem. Go through the following questions to see if youʼre ready and willing to change:
- Are you set in your old ways or are you happy to drastically change the way you sell?
- Have you tried to change but find you keep going back to your old habits?
- Are you prepared to adapt to this modern, digital world and use all available technology in your sales processes?
- Do you respect other peopleʼs time or do you complain that ʻpeople just donʼt pay attention like they used toʼ?
- How easy are you to do business with in this fast paced world we live in?
- What message will people get when they check you out ʻonlineʼ?
- Are you actively building a database of clients and prospects and are you communicating with them regularly in a way that adds value to their lives?
- Are you prepared to give people something for free before they buy your product?
- Do people chase you for your service or does it feel like you have to chase them?
I donʼt think I started this article with the right question, in my opinion selling has definitely changed. The real question is are you prepared to change with it?