The rise of the internet means that sales are changing. Customers
bone up about prices online and are less likely to fall for a seductive
pitch. There are still often huge differences in the performance of
sales forces both within and between companies. Many Western corporate
bosses are trying to turn sales from an art into more of a science.
Entrepreneurial salesmen, doing whatever it takes to reach their
numbers, can now be tracked and controlled. “Sales Growth: Five Proven
Strategies from the World’s Sales Leaders”, by three McKinsey
consultants, belongs in the selling-as-science school.
The book argues that data, process management and outsourcing can do
as much for sales departments as for other areas of the corporation.
Firms should not hesitate to re-engineer their peddlers. They should
create sales “factories” where sales teams are ministered to by support
people from other disciplines, and equip them with computing devices
rather than briefcases. Companies still have plenty of Willy Lomans not
selling much. They should seek to standardise performance by finding out
what the best salespeople do and making sure everyone applies the same
techniques (which sounds obvious, but not many people do it).
In emerging markets, on the other hand, selling is still personal—and
old-fashioned. So companies that are trying to bring more science to
sales at home will still need to master what some call the
“steak-and-a-show” method when entering new markets. Industrial sales in
China, especially, depend on long, close relationships between
salespeople and customers.
Being a salesman in the internet age is getting harder. Sales forces
are being cut and replaced with technology, and the job is losing its
appeal. The popularity of the title “sales associate” on LinkedIn, an
online network, has fallen dramatically in the past four years. BMW’s
boss in America, Ludwig Willisch, admitted to the authors of the
McKinsey book that it is hard to persuade people to go into sales these
days.
Read more here
