Death of the Salesman

There's no question that the Willy Lomans of this world have been dying a slow, agonizing death—only instead of losing the fight to travel exhaustion, the opponent is the Internet. According to a recent CEB article in the Harvard Business Review, 57 percent of purchase decisions are made before a customer ever talks to a supplier, and Gartner Research predicts that by 2020, customers will manage 85 percent of their relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human. That shouldn't surprise anyone since we spend much of our days tapping on keyboards or flicking our fingers across tiny screens. In Willy's day, the lead generation process would have consisted of making a phone call, setting up an appointment, hopping a plane to the prospect's office, and dragging a sample case through the airport. In the 1980's, that sample case turned into an overhead projector, then a slide projector and a laptop, and finally a mini projector linked to a mobile device or thumb drive. In 2014, salespeople are lucky if they can connect to a prospect on a video conferencing call. Clearly the days of gathering in a conference room for the sales pitch are long gone. We've always known that sales people talk too much and buyers, who've never had the patience to listen, now have the tools to avoid them altogether: websites, whitepapers, case studies, videos, LinkedIn groups, webcasts—virtually anything and everything to avoid talking to sales. As a result, the sales function has now been placed squarely in the hands of the content strategists and creators. And yes, that means that the sales function is now in the hands of marketing. Now a different problem exists. Most marketing folks don't know how to help the buyer along their journey because that's not how they've been trained. They have no idea how different types of buyers think, or how they search for information, or make decisions, so they don't know how to create nor position content in a meaningful and relevant way—and that's long been the complaint of sales. In their opinion, all marketing does is churn out "fluff" that is irrelevant to a serious buyer. Now marketers must step up and really understand how to optimize marketing tools in order to help that buyer reach the right brand decision at the end of their journey. That's really why content has become the marketing buzz word. And just like we despised the salesman who talked too much, potential buyers despise content that is full of sales-speak. While a product brochure has a purpose, it is not strategic content. Similarly, a webinar in which most of the supporting slides are simply advertising for the product, turns off participants who quickly express their displeasure via online chat tools to the host and by logging out of the event. Great content should seek to: Be authentic: What you say needs to sound genuine and ring true—no one believes you are the only solution to a problem. On the contrary, the discovery process is all about evaluating your options (the pros and the cons). Avoiding a question because your answer may reveal the flaws of your product or service only shines a spotlight on the issue. Honesty is always the best policy. Be relevant: Share insightful information that leverages your expertise and experience; help the buyer connect the dots. "How to" articles are popular, as are comparison charts—if you're not going to do it, the prospect will be doing it for themselves anyway, so why not help by pointing out comparison points (that benefit your product) they might not have previously considered? Be timely: To get a leg up in the marketplace, you need to be prepared to add value when the timing is ripe. It's highly unlikely that your marketplace hasn't changed in the last 50 years. Help show buyers how your product/service is relevant in today's marketplace—how it deals with challenges you know they're facing or are going to face tomorrow. Smart marketers have a lead nurturing strategy in place—an organized and logical method of sharing relevant content along the buy cycle. And that content is well written and segmented by type of decision maker. The CFO has a different set of evaluation criteria from the CEO and the CTO. Business owners look at purchase decisions through a completely different lens than a corporate manager. Depending on the industry, business buyers have different problems they're trying to solve, so generic content has less relevance than content that addresses specific issues in an industry segment. Those in healthcare, for example, perceive a problem from a different perspective than those in transportation. The new name of the selling game is "Educate the Buyer—but in a helpful and relevant way." And while Willy Loman may continue to sit at his desk making cold calls or sending out prospecting emails, the reality is nobody has the patience or interest to listen to his sales pitch any more. So marketers need to step up and accept responsibility for lead generation, lead nurturing and, in many instances, closing the sale.

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Death of the Salesman

Carolyn Goodman

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Carolyn Goodman