The old transactional sales model does not work anymore. Compare the old transactional sales model with a car which has a worn out engine and is continually breaking down. Every few miles, you spend even more money on a quick fix so you can drive it a little longer.
Really, you know that throwing money at it is a waste of time. However, without the wherewithal to replace it, you are unsure of the alternative. The equivalent of this is happening in sales. We should learn some sales tactics for all this. People spend time rehashing and re-inventing the old transactional sales model in order to try and squeeze out a few extra sales. All the while, people have instinctively understood that it really doesn't work. Why, when people sell, do they:
Still make 'sales presentations' when they are normally a waste of time?
Still persist with the myth of 'open' and 'closed' questions, when the model is flawed?
Still insist on 'selling the benefits' when they are ineffective?
Still obsess with 'handling objections', when it is the traditional sales model that creates them?
Still focus on 'closing' when that is not the way to get results?
Many business owners who need to do sales process, but who are not professional sales people, already feel uncomfortable with the old transactional sales model. They know they have to put the relationship with the client first; but do not have a model with which to achieve it, and have to plan some sales strategies.
The idea of the importance of the relationship is not new. The problem is that sales practitioners continue to use the transactional model and then pretend to make the relationship their utmost concern. This simply does not work.
However interested these people try to look when they are with their customers, they still endeavor to press home their presentation, handle objections and sell the benefits. What they are really doing is trying to force a square peg into a round hole. This is transactional selling presented to look like the relationship is important. The old model simply does not work.
The focus is on the customer; not on the sales person.
The relationship comes first; not the transaction.
The focus is on the sales process; not on the result.
Sales management will show you how to sell more naturally and commit your closing techniques to the recycle bin. With this new approach to selling, a salesperson does not have to pretend they have all the answers. Like a therapist, they are there to ask the questions.
Sales management is therapy for both parties. The old adversarial boxing match, which selling so often becomes, is cast aside. In this new selling, both buyer and seller gain from the relationship and the discussion, whatever the outcome.
