The Web 2.0 sales model
In my view, one of the biggest mistakes a business could make is to think that Web 2.0 doesn't have any practical or direct implications. It has both.
I agree absolutely, that client engagement is the most obvious implication, but the more serious consequence is that prospective customers are increasingly relying on search engines to find solutions to real or perceived solutions. Coupled with that, they are rejecting all forms of approach be it by phone, email or letter. Thus the entire first part of the traditional sales cycle has been effectively re-engineered and with it the essential sales skills of matching need to benefit. In some cases this has gone to the extent that customers don’t even bother to do the preliminary search themselves (see the Olympic Delivery Authority’s ‘Compete For ‘site). They are using bots to do it for them (some call this Web 3.0, especially if their bot talks to your bot). This makes it extremely difficult to bring the attention of a prospect to a problem he may not know about or does not realize he has.
So the first consequence of Web 2.0 is that the old selling models (e.g. Quest or SPIN or AIDA) no longer apply. The second is that the sales cycle is likely to be far more reactive than ever it was in the past. Finally and most importantly, when a prospective client does make contact, he is likely to have already done a feature / benefit analysis from published information on your web site (and that means, by the way, that you have to have really strong content on your site or you will get filtered out before you even know he is in the market). It also means that he is likely to be in price comparison mode. Sales 2.0 salespeople are going to have to be far more skilled in taking control of that conversation and turning it around. It also means that they are going to have to be trained in how to get the best from environments where technology cannot intervene, i.e. in networking and exhibition selling situations.
The implications for businesses are huge. Firstly they have to hone their client engagement models to attract customers to their site in the first place. This is not easy and requires a complete rethink of corporate business development strategy. Secondly they have to plan carefully how they will interact with customers, even those who might be interacting with their site in a social networking mode and convert them into customers. This too requires a rethinking of traditional sales roles and models. This is not going to be easy, but companies who “get it” will be long term winners and those that don’t will go the way of all those brilliant things like VHS, squarials, morse code and a million other technologies that have been swamped by the tide of progress.
I agree absolutely, that client engagement is the most obvious implication, but the more serious consequence is that prospective customers are increasingly relying on search engines to find solutions to real or perceived solutions. Coupled with that, they are rejecting all forms of approach be it by phone, email or letter. Thus the entire first part of the traditional sales cycle has been effectively re-engineered and with it the essential sales skills of matching need to benefit. In some cases this has gone to the extent that customers don’t even bother to do the preliminary search themselves (see the Olympic Delivery Authority’s ‘Compete For ‘site). They are using bots to do it for them (some call this Web 3.0, especially if their bot talks to your bot). This makes it extremely difficult to bring the attention of a prospect to a problem he may not know about or does not realize he has.
So the first consequence of Web 2.0 is that the old selling models (e.g. Quest or SPIN or AIDA) no longer apply. The second is that the sales cycle is likely to be far more reactive than ever it was in the past. Finally and most importantly, when a prospective client does make contact, he is likely to have already done a feature / benefit analysis from published information on your web site (and that means, by the way, that you have to have really strong content on your site or you will get filtered out before you even know he is in the market). It also means that he is likely to be in price comparison mode. Sales 2.0 salespeople are going to have to be far more skilled in taking control of that conversation and turning it around. It also means that they are going to have to be trained in how to get the best from environments where technology cannot intervene, i.e. in networking and exhibition selling situations.
The implications for businesses are huge. Firstly they have to hone their client engagement models to attract customers to their site in the first place. This is not easy and requires a complete rethink of corporate business development strategy. Secondly they have to plan carefully how they will interact with customers, even those who might be interacting with their site in a social networking mode and convert them into customers. This too requires a rethinking of traditional sales roles and models. This is not going to be easy, but companies who “get it” will be long term winners and those that don’t will go the way of all those brilliant things like VHS, squarials, morse code and a million other technologies that have been swamped by the tide of progress.
Labels: client engagement, sales, sales 2.0, social networking, web 2.0
posted by Perry Burns @ 4/30/2008 11:13:00 AM
2 Comments:
At Wednesday, April 30, 2008 ,
Barbara Bix said...
While I agree with you that content is king and that buyers are looking to self-serve, I still believe that there is opportunity to raise awareness of needs that they may not have already been aware--after all people still read, talk to colleagues, and attend presentations--the traditional ways used to introduce new concepts and increase pain. So, yes we need to learn how to make our sites engaging but I don't think the early stages of the sales cycle have disappeared.
At Thursday, May 01, 2008 ,
Perry Burns said...
Of course the opportunity is still there. Given that you can engage with a customer; then the traditional process will still apply. However every day we see thing opportunities being limited by new Web 2.0 applications which put the user in charge of the process. The issue is not whether traditional based salesmanship is still valid; rather it is about how you adapt the model so that you can take control of client interactions.
It is not that the early stages have disappeared, simply that the opportunities to deploy them effectively are becoming increasingly rare. Salespeople (and their trainers) will have to adopt new techniques to allow them to control the sales encounter. Some of these will be, for example, by better questioning, but others may be far more technical and based on the customer's experience on the web before he (the customer) made contact.
The new business protocol used to be very simple. You developed an innovation, you approached the customer and you highlighted how it would benefit her. Today, that equation is not so simple. As customers come to believe more and more that they can find out anything they need from the web they will come to see "cold" approaches as intrusive, wasteful of time and a distraction.
In Sales 2.0 the challenge is to find ways to address this growing view and demonstrate to prospective customers that our innovations and value ideas can bring benefit even if the customer didn't think of it first.
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