Earlier this year, I bumped into an old friend, Jeff, at an Orlando Magic basketball game. We met in the 1990s while selling copiers on the same sales team. Jeff and I spent many hours talking over lunches and happy hours about the challenges facing us during those first few years of professional selling. Over 20 years later, our conversation quickly shifted to our common bond: sales.
We both moved into different industries shortly after earning our stripes selling copiers. Jeff has built a career in food distribution, and I have focused on the security industry. Throughout our discussion, Jeff continued to talk about the dozens of changes he has seen over the past several years. Paraphrasing, Jeff went on to explain: “No one answers the phone, relationships don’t matter – it’s all about price. Bosses think we should be on Twitter all day, and everything is online.” The comment that made me laugh out loud was: “You probably don’t see any of this in security, since it is such a hot industry.”
Editor's Note: Welcome to SD&I's newest column, "Modern Selling" by Chris Peterson of Vector Firm. If you have any questions or suggestions for future column topics, please contact him at [email protected].
Have you noticed any of these changes in the security industry? Of course you have! In the last dozen or so years, the changes listed above – and many others – have slowly wedged a gap between us and our customers. Today, we mostly have “don’t call us, we’ll call you” relationships. There is no doubt about it: Our world of selling security technology and services has changed drastically; however, there is one change that has made the most impact on our sales success…
The most significant change in selling today is that our customers don’t think they need us anymore. We have gone from problem solvers to proposal responders.
So, what do we do? We make sure our customers and prospects know how much they really do need us. Here is a three-step process that will guide you through your journey.
Step 1: Become an expert (or at least very competent). Twenty years ago, our customers’ primary source of information was their salesperson. Today, they have immediate access to all the information they need simply by performing an online search. Becoming an expert is the best way to influence your customers and prospects to call you instead of searching for answers online.
Here’s the secret: your expertise should include your customers’ businesses. You need to know the different problems you solve for the markets you serve. A university has much different challenges than a property manager – you need to know both. Once you understand this, you will be more valuable than any online search engine.
Step 2: Become a content machine on social media. Now that you are an expert, the market needs to know. With a healthy following, an individual salesperson can become a perceived expert by curating meaningful content, writing intelligent teasers and contributing to relevant discussions. Since we know the specific needs of our customers and prospects, we can tailor our content and comments to capture immediate attention from our targeted market. It is the tailored and meaningful content that cannot be produced by any search engine.
Step 3: Make it easy. Many of us were trained to hold our prospects hostage: “Don’t drop off the brochure. Wait until they give you an appointment.” That was good advice in 1994; today, our customers will just find the brochure online. Text them articles. Email them case studies. Share a discussion with them on LinkedIn. Make it easy for your prospects and customers to see that you are a proven expert in this space.
If you become an expert, share your knowledge on social media, and you are easy to work with, you won’t immediately replace Google, but you will be another option. Once your customers and prospects realize they need you, you will start getting calls months earlier than your competition to help them with solving problems. This process takes time, but it beats the alternative of being a professional responder to customers who don’t think they need you for anything more than a price.
Chris Peterson is the founder and president of Vector Firm (www.vectorfirm.com), a sales consulting and training company built specifically for the security industry. Request more info about the company at www.securityinfowatch.com/12361573.
