Internet age selling requires a fundamental shift. It’s not Uber that’s the ‘enemy’; it’s the Internet dummy! Parity access to information fundamentally changes how selling is done today.
We are in the Information Age. Insisting, “This is how I’ve always sold and it’s always worked,” just won’t cut it.
Analogue and digital are terms bandied with humour in Kenya. But woe betide the seller who laughs along, seeing this as another passing cloud.
There was a time when the travel agent was the custodian of all travel information. Airlines and tour companies were at his mercy. When and where to go, how to get there, cost, where to stay, and activities to do were all in his domain.
Read: The Internet has changed selling forever
Hoarding information is so last century
Back then, hoarding knowledge was a selling gambit in itself.
Driven by the lure of higher commissions, the travel agent could decide to charge the traveller a higher fare. Or ignore sharing information about a suitable destination because he didn’t like the owner or would earn less. The buyer didn’t know any better.
In any case, seeking a second opinion from another agent would still have information flowing in one direction—seller to buyer.
This is the old model of selling. Internet age selling has turned that model on its head.
Because of the internet, the balance of information has radically tilted to the buyer’s favour. Analogue was then; digital is now.
The taxi drivers’ initial resistance to Uber is now a textbook case. A decade later, ride-hailing is deeply embedded in Kenya’s transport fabric, with Uber itself now seeking a courier licence to expand into logistics. The principle remains: resist the shift, and you risk becoming irrelevant.
This is a classic case of sales adaptation failure. Modern selling demands that we evolve.
Read: AI is not coming for your job— your poor performance is
Equal access to information is a game changer
Fact: parity access to information fundamentally changes how selling is done.
In internet age selling, your customer has the same—perhaps even more—information about what your industry offers than you have. He not only has the information from the seller’s perspective but also from the more useful user’s (buyer’s) perspective.
Because of the internet, your customer has the same—perhaps even more—information about what your industry offers than you have. He not only has the information from the seller’s perspective but also from the more useful user’s (buyer’s) perspective.
I’ll believe more what my Facebook friend tells me about Zanzibar than I will the travel agent.
While you give (sell) a sanitized LinkedIn response to the question, “tell us about yourself,” the interviewer (buyer) could be looking at your scandalous images on Instagram.
Before the internet, the world would have bought wholesome the sale by CNN describing Kenya as a hotbed of terror (remember that?); because of Twitter, the #SomeoneTellCNN campaign repulsing the news was an instance of a (Kenyan) user’s perspective of the information. Locally, and more recently #RutoMustGo and #OccupyParliament fundamentally changed the direction of our politics. Podcasts globally are dominanting media today re politics..
Today, user-generated content on platforms like Twitter and TikTok remains the ultimate check on traditional narratives. The principle is the same: the buyer’s voice now carries as much weight as the seller’s.
Read: How the 21st C customer affects your selling
Internet age selling: A 20th C presentation is not enough
When a client asks you to come make a presentation about your services or products, chances are that you will find four other competitors also invited.
It is not enough to just share information about the specs of your iPad even if that’s what you’ve been asked to do—after all, they are bound to be more or less the same as the competition’s and what the YouTube video shows that version of iPad can do.
Modern selling requires you to go beyond the specs. It requires a sales strategy that aligns with the buyer’s deeper needs.
You are much better placed seeking a connection with a customer by finding out why they seek to buy the 1000 iPads in the first place and aligning your presentation to that need.
Finding out that the client (say, a bank) requires its 1,000 salespeople spread across the country to lodge loan applications in real time places you ahead of the competition.
Your presentation can then talk about incorporating GPRS locations to monitor salespeople movement and insurance to cover losses or damage to the iPads, for instance.
Internet Age selling: The digital tools landscape has evolved
The principle remains. Today, the shift is no longer about just accessing information, but about using it to create value.
For Kenyan MSMEs, WhatsApp and Instagram have become the new storefronts. A seller of shoes and clothes no longer needs a physical shop—they simply post photos of their products on WhatsApp Status, complete with prices and a phone number, and customers order directly from their phones. M-Pesa makes payment instant, and a boda boda delivers the goods. The entire transaction happens without the seller ever meeting the buyer face-to-face.
This is social commerce in action. Platforms like Bumpa are now entering the Kenyan market to help these businesses digitize even further—managing customer conversations from WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook in one place, issuing invoices, and tracking sales.
Meanwhile, Chpter is automating marketing and payments on WhatsApp and Instagram, enabling businesses to turn social engagement into actual sales. And Twiva is partnering with KEPSA to train young people as influencer-resellers for SMEs, creating jobs while boosting digital sales.
These tools are the new frontier of the internet age. They are fundamentally changing how even the smallest businesses sell, making the old refrain of “this is how I’ve always sold” even more out of touch.
This is what digital transformation in sales looks like—a journey that continues to evolve. It calls for accepting the dynamism of internet age selling and shunning the tired old line that “this is how I’ve always sold.”
Read: How the 21st C customer affects your selling
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