sales
I have this view of the world: marketing is focused on pixels and print and sales is focused on people. It’s a bit of a simplification but the point I am trying to make is sales is about people:people interaction and marketing is mainly people:non-people interaction.
So, when it comes to integrating social media into your business what strategy do you adopt? Over the last few years we’ve seen a significant increase in social media uptake by businesses – and for the most part they are failing. To me it seems that a lot of these businesses hand over social media to the marketing department, who then start to think in terms of ‘messages’ and ‘channels’ and see social media as just another channel to pump their messages down. But here’s the problem – most marketing departments aren’t used to the customer answering back – which is the whole point of social media. And they panic.
On the other hand sales folks are very happy to engage and converse with customers, prospect, well just about anyone in fact. So doesn’t it make more sense if the sales people are on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ or whatever? But marketing get concerned about how this type of interaction may ‘dilute the brand’ or ‘not be consistent with our core values’. So in the end, the customer speaks and few are listening. And those that do listen are often worried about engaging.
Ideally get your sales team involved in social media – but not to push your product – but to grow your contacts, your influence and help people on-line with your knowledge. This will create far more of a buzz and help the business define its area of expertise and value to the market place.
Social media is best when it is used across the entire company to communicate. From stores, to dispatch, from finance to HR – social media is just another communication tool that can be used across the business.
Would you consider limiting the use of the phone, or email to just one department?
Then why limit the use of social media?
Long term readers of this blog will appreciate that I am fascinated by two things: one is about the process of how people make decisions, and the other is about how and why people are motivated to do things. This blog tends to look at those topics within the context of sales – but of course they are not limited to this.
My IFA (the excellent Andrew Stinchcomb of Integrity Financial) recently drew my attention to the book “Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us” by Daniel H. Pink. And it really is a fascinating read.
Most organisations believe that it is a requirement to motivate sales people by commission. It’s pretty normal for our industry. Well research quoted in “Drive” would suggest that this is counter productive and counter intuitive.
Research undertaken by Deci (I won’t go into the details, you’ll have to read the book) comes to the following conclusion: “One who is interested in developing and enhancing intrinsic motivation in children, employees, students, etc, should not concentrate on external-control systems such as monetary rewards”
Now that’s quite a statement. Just think about it – commission, for the long term, doesn’t work. Rewarding the kids with money in return for doing those house-hold chores – doesn’t work. He goes on… “When money is used as an external reward for some activity, the subjects lose intrinsic interest for that activity” Rewards can deliver a short-term boost – just like a jolt of caffeine – but the effect wears off – and worse, can reduce long term motivation for a project.
Now here’s an interesting point. That research is over 40 years old and clearly hasn’t changed the way we behave – for the most part – in how sales people are managed in the work place.
The research also implies that if the commission is taken away, people will be demotivated to a level below that at which they started. So, by paying commission in the first place we need to keep paying it – as taking it away will be detrimental. But the effect of paying the commission in the first place only has a short term effect, at best. Over time – and it’s quite a short time – the effect of having a commission scheme wears off.
So, what does motivate people? I suggest you read this book (and also ‘Punished by Rewards mentioned in another posting) for the answers…
Posted in sales
This is a topic that is covered in my sales workshops and often leads to quite a heated debate. I’ve read quite a bit on the subject of how our brains make decisions. So far, I have not come across a really accurate description of the process at all, especially when it relates to purchases. You’d think an understanding of this process would be essential to ourselves as individuals, let alone of high value to sales folks! What I have learned is that in a ‘considered purchase’ (where there is an element of risk involved - i.e. one that is not an impulse purchase) the process requires both sides of the brain to be satisfied, if at all possible. The perceived risk may be associated with doing something, or not doing something or even assessing the risk between different suppliers…
Both sides of the brain are needed to make a considered purchase – an informed decision. The left hand side of the brain is associated with the facts, logic and process. This side of the brain will look at specifications, price, fit for purpose and so on. The right hand side of the brain is associated with emotions, feelings and creativity. So this side of the brain will look at how they feel about the solution, salesperson and impact on people (including oneself).
So here is an interesting question: “What side of the brain starts the process off to purchase something?” Is it the logical left hand side of the brain or the emotional right hand side? Turns out it’s the right hand side that gets us started because we are ‘uncomfortable’ or ‘dissatisfied’ with something. See – those emotions are what get the sales process started. In fact you could consider the role of marketing is to make people unhappy and dissatisfied with some aspect of their work / personal life! If people are happy with what they have and how they feel, there is a significantly reduced requirement to purchase things to make life better.
So if the right hand side gets the sale started – where does the decision get made? Well, also in the right hand side for the most part. But in between the thought process move to the logical left hand to ensure that the factual requirements are understood and met by the proposed solution or product. Eventually the thought process moves back (in fact it may be that it moves from one side to the other a number of times) to the right hand side that will ultimately place the order.
Why is this important for sales folks? Well, you need to be able to assess what part of the brain is being used at any particular time by a prospect so that you can match your behaviour and conversation accordingly. There is no point discussing your superior specifications if the prospect is thinking about how the wrong purchase may affect their promotion. Likewise there is no point focusing on the status to be gained in purchasing a new to market product if the prospect is asking questions about compatibility with existing equipment. Of course both sides of the brain need to be satisfied before a decision can be made. Otherwise they will just say ‘leave it with me…’ or ‘let me think about it…’ Or, as I’m sure we’ve all experienced an emotional decision is taken. This can also lead to the decision being justified by logic (good reasons) whilst the motivator was emotional (real reasons).
This is why it can be so dangerous to have a ‘standard’ presentation about a product. The salesperson needs the flexibility to ascertain which side of the brain the prospect is working in and match their sales presentation accordingly.
But never under estimate the power of emotions – in both starting and closing a sale!