The End of Old-School Selling

Time to Change

I was chatting with an entrepreneur about his business last month. He built it over many years, based on strong relationships and selling more to existing clients.

But the way the market works is changing.

The entrepreneur wants to do more and bigger deals. That means working with people his team does not know. People of different ages and demographics.

The existing business is successful, profitable and yet old-fashioned. The owner understands that now is an ideal time to change.

Dark Social

In the traditional way of working, the team hears about projects and attempts to insert themselves into the process. This might mean bidding as an adviser, contractor, or sub-contractor.

The business’s advantage is a network of connections. It hears about what’s going on before its competitors. It gets privileged access because of a track record of delivery.

This is great provided there is growth in the market it serves. The strategy does not scale, however, because the business is unknown in new markets.

The larger issue, and the one the owner wanted to talk about, was the friction that his sales process causes. Inserting his business into the buyer’s journey works for him, but not always his clients.

Nowadays, prospects want to plan and price projects online. They want access to a wide range of options and they do not want interference from sales people.

This is in keeping with surveys that say buyers complete over 80% of their journey without suppliers.

Gartner says buyers spend only 17% of their time with vendors. Individual companies may get no more than 5-6% of the time.

McKinsey says that buyers prefer a self-serve model and rely on digital content and peer recommendations. This even applies to high-value purchases over $500,000.

LinkedIn and Edleman emphasise the role of dark social. This means researching on Slack, WhatsApp and LinkedIn, outside of a vendor’s visibility.

The entrepreneur wants a way to reconsolidate this fragmented buying process.

A Network Effect 

Enterprise Resource Planning is the original way of coordinating data. APIs allow access to online updates from suppliers. Documents and spreadsheets are filed when vendors do not yet operate in real-time.

The forward-looking thing this business does is maintain data. This is spread across file folders, emails and spreadsheets, but it is a comprehensive record of materials and pricing.

The data allows the entrepreneur to build a website that attracts prospects to his company.

The site is self-service and allows project managers to design, price and order parts, without the need for human interaction.

This meets younger clients’ demands to be in control, use digital tools and perform as much of a task as possible themselves.

It also meets the entrepreneur’s business need to reach new clients, open new markets and brand the business as open source access to best-in-breed solutions.

His expertise in delivering projects can be captured with recommendations. Prospects can access these at any time while working on the site, either because they are stuck or want alternatives.

Questions might be as simple as what type of fittings work best at sub-zero temperatures. Requests can be as complicated as providing a floor area and budget, and asking for a 3D rendition of a complete project.

The point is that the buyer is in control, performing as much or as little of the work as they wish. Teams can work together on the site.

The business now has a flexible way of working that allows it to expand into new territories and bigger projects.

It also allows it to be the hub where industry specialists come to work. This creates a network effect where more suppliers want to be on the site, making it more attractive to buyers.

In a matter of weeks the entrepreneur has transformed his business from an old-fashioned relationship-basis, to being the digital centre of the industry.

The ingredients for this transition are data, project expertise and the right partner to write the software that powers the website recommendation engine.

Online Expertise 

The digital disintermediation of traditional supply chains was a major consequence of the internet.

The latest technology allows online businesses to go further. They are now hubs for designing, rendering and pricing complicated projects.

These might be construction projects, technology stacks or interior designs. They might be party-planning, ingredient sourcing, or fitness regimes.

Whatever your business you can position it at the centre of the digital transition. You need data, knowledge of how to use it, and the openness to give before you receive.

Think of it as putting your expertise online and in the hands of prospects. Once they experience how effective that expertise is, they want to become your clients.

Best of all, your sales team need now only be present for closing the deal. This means you boost revenues without increasing the size of your team.

Two cautionary notes. Businesses often underestimate the time and investment required to turn scattered files into structured, usable data. When digitising they expose themselves to cybersecurity risks and system failures.

These are the problems we solve and why we are working with the entrepreneur.

Questions to Ask and Answer

1. How do buyers in my industry prefer to work?

2. Does my sales process complement or conflict with their journey?

3. How much of my sales process could be conducted online by buyers?

Find out more. Hit reply and ask about digital transition.