ShareThisSix Business Trends Every Salesperson Must Know
By Daniel Burrus, CEO, Burrus Research
Every industry and profession goes through changes, and the sales profession is no different. Just because a certain sales technique or mindset worked in the past doesn’t mean it’ll work today. To be a top-performing salesperson, today and in the future, you need to continually adapt to both market and social conditions.
With that in mind, there are six new business trends taking place – all of which affect salespeople in every industry. Understand what the trends are and how to maximize them so you can reap the rewards of a successful sales career.
Trend #1: Your past success will increasingly hold you back. (Past success is the enemy.)
People who are in sales long term tend to be successful. Realize, though, that success is your worst enemy. When you’re at the top and doing well, you’re really just trying to keep up and meet demand. Having so many sales knocking at your door lulls you into a false sense of security. As such, you’re not looking at enough future opportunities because you’re too busy reaping the rewards of the current opportunities. You’re not sowing the seeds of future success, and that’s setting you up for a fall. An old saying goes, “If it isn’t broke don’t fix it.” In today’s world we need to rework that statement to be: “If it works it’s obsolete.” For example, if you just bought the latest laptop, is the next newer and better version already in existence and about to be released to the public? You bet! Remember that rapid obsolescence isn’t just about products. It’s about how we do our business too.
Trend #2: Technology-driven change will dramatically accelerate. (Rapid change is your best friend.)
It’s human nature to protect and defend the status quo. However, you have to understand that technology is changing the future, your customers’ behavior, and your company’s reality. That means if you don’t change you’ll be soon out of a job. As a salesperson, you need to embrace change and make it your best friend rather than fight it and hold tight to the way things were. So how do you make rapid change your best friend? You spend some time thinking about where the changes that are impacting you and your customers are going. Remember that change causes uncertainty in customers’ minds. You can bring certainty to your customers when you are confident in where change is going. You can lead your customers through the change, causing them to view you as more than just a salesperson but as a solutions provider and trusted advisor.
Trend #3: Time is increasing in value. (Time is the currency of the 21st Century.)
Increasingly, time is becoming more and more important to people. Why? We have an aging demographic in the United States, with 78 million baby boomers. And time gets more valuable as you get older because you have less of it. Additionally, the world has become more complex with much more for people to do with their time. Today we have iPods, cell phones, the Internet and a host of other technologies that didn’t exist when the baby boomers were babies. There’s so much more going on and we’re connected in so many more ways that everyone is increasingly strapped for time. With that in mind, the last thing you want to do in sales is seem like you’re taking someone’s time. Instead, you want to be giving them time. You want your customers to feel that talking to you is actually saving them time. Think about all the time wasters your customers might experience: long wait times for service, long hold times on the phone, long delivery times for products…the list is virtually endless. Such time wasters hurt your sales and profits; therefore, make sure you have the processes in place that will keep customers from wasting time. When you can prove that you’re a time saver, people will choose you over the competition every time.
Check out the September Farm Mutual Forum for the other three trends.
(Daniel Burrus, author of six books including the international best seller “Technotrends,” is one of the world's leading technology forecasters and business strategists, who has established a worldwide reputation for accurately predicting technology driven trends and their impact on the world of business.)
Posted: Friday, August 15, 2008 12:00:00 AM. Modified: Friday, August 15, 2008 2:06:33 PM.
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