The IDC Sales Enablement presentation from last year is still very relevant today, and is one of my favorite tools for demonstrating why sales enablement tools are so important in the B2B space.
When asked about their relationship with sales reps, buyers said that the most important area where sales reps need to know more in order to improve the relationship between buyer and vendor is the buyer’s needs and objectives:
Adding that sales reps need to “put aside the generic pitch”:
Think about it for a moment, even in terms of your own interactions as a buyer in your own life. When someone is trying to sell you something, is there anything more annoying than the seller starting off with some generic pitch that obviously has nothing to do with you and with your own needs? There’s no bigger turnoff for a buyer than to get the feeling that someone is trying to sell them something without explaining why it is relevant to them, and this is true in any sales situation.
Of course, to be able to put side the generic pitch and sell a product based on the benefits it offers a specific customer, the sales rep must be familiar with that customer and have an insight into what they really need. Sales effectiveness can’t be achieved without the sales force having access to relevant, timely information about prospects and their needs. Generic pitches and cold calls are a huge waste of time and greatly reduce the sales organization’s effectiveness.
Arming your sales force with the insight needed to make a timely connection with a prospect and to offer them relevant information that answers their specific needs rather than using a generic pitch is not an easy task. Implementing a marketing automation system, or a more compact and affordable sales enablement solution, is in fact the only way to achieve buyer-seller alignment, using tools such as trackable emails, prospect activity tracking, and real-time lead alerts. The goal: get to know your prospects better and approach them when they are ready, with a sales pitch tailored to their needs, putting aside that annoying generic pitch.
Google+
July 6th, 2010 at 12:08 am
[...] Better communication with prospects means more sales – after all, from a prospect’s point of view, the worse thing you can do is to give them a generic pitch. [...]