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.
If in doubt, ask traditional taxi drivers up in arms about Uber’s increasing pervasiveness into their space. Even today some drivers still believe the sale is about them and not the customer.
Do you wonder how it has not crossed their minds to ask why buyers (the customers) are for Uber? Do you also marvel at how these sellers continue to dig into their heels, silently insisting that this is how we’ve always sold and it’s worked?
Of course, they will phrase it differently by looking to politics and ‘job losses’ as the excuse.
Do you also realize their tantrum is giving the very ‘enemy’ free publicity?
Triggered by curiosity, then, several people downloaded the Uber app. Putting on blinders to the ubiquity of the internet is a painful and retrogressive experience.
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..
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
This is what digital transformation in sales looks like. 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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