How To Sell Hi-Tech In The 21st Century

_______________

Copyright 1999 The KLA Group. All rights reserved.

Watch out, sales professionals: the rules have changed for Y2K! O.K., so the world didn't spin off its axis, your credit card works fine and you don't need all that bottled water after all. But some things have changed dramatically, and one of them is the world of high tech sales.

In honor of the new millennium, I surveyed 277 sales executives from large and small firms all over the country on sales trends. More than 100 insightful comments came in to form the basis of this article. The consensus? Relationships are still important, but customer needs are different. Buried under a mountain of products and information, customers know perfect solutions are out there, if only they can figure out which they are. Customers crave direction. One-to-one selling of highly tailored or niche products will be the modus operandus for a successful sales team in the 21st century.

Value is no longer always defined as "extra product" or "extra product-related services." Value is now in the eye a very savvy customer. As Susan Seaburg, a sales manager with Hewlett Packard's services organization said, "It has become more complex to determine what 'value-added' means to a given customer. It is more important than ever to listen to customers and ask questions about their business objectives before proposing any solutions to them."

Here are the top 10 points high tech sales executives said will make or break a sales team in the 21st century.

Use one-to-one consultative selling
People want to feel they can get exactly what they want. For example, Dell allows customers to configure their own PC. At CDNow.com, customers can create a compact disc with their own mix of songs. Successful sales people will package services in a customizable fashion. This arms customers with the flexibility and tools to solve not only their problems but also their customers' problems.

Be a visionary
Show customers the changes that will help them stay competitive in a complex, ever-changing industry. As COO Tim Bradley with Teamshare, Inc. said, "Failure has become more acceptable; failure to drive change has become unacceptable."

Be a leader
Anticipate customers' needs and act before you are asked. Propose new solutions. Seek out new opportunities for your customers to pursue.

Respond fast or lose your sale
Forget to return a call? Your prospect has gone on-line and completed the order over the Internet. With information so accessible to customers, salespeople must set a faster pace. When that pager goes off or that mail icon pops up, reps had better be ready to pitch, respond, or get on a plane if necessary.

Communicate, communicate
The world is your cubicle. Salespeople can keep up with this demanding pace of business by using every communications tool available, wherever they happen to be. E-mail, Internet, teleconferencing, video conferencing, net conferencing, phone, or face-to-face, in town, out of town, or on an airplane. Use it to get a clear picture of where your customers are going and how you can help them get there.

Build relationships and think service
People still like to buy from people they know and trust. A new trend for the millennium is getting customers exactly what they want. Too often, customers wind up with the wrong product or one they can't properly install or use, a frustrating problem when so many excellent products are available. Said Linda Taylor, regional sales manager at New Era of Networks (NEON): "What my customers seem to need is a rep who is competent, trustworthy and more importantly, capable of leveraging relationships within their company to get the customer what they need, when they need it."

Avoid the self-competition that comes from information overload

"Mountains of information can overwhelm a prospect and distract from the core issues needing solutions," said Todd VanDerSchaegen, Account Manager with TeamShare Inc. "The salesperson should focus his or her approach to the customer's core issues and know how their product will provide a specific solution."

Use the direct model to your advantage

Help customers sort through the myriad information to make an informed decision based on their needs. Keep them focused on their needs, even in the face of the glitzy products the Internet can promote.

Tighten the marketing and sales relationship
Prospects should not know when marketing ends and selling begins. An advertisement leads the prospect to the web site which leads to the e-mailed query which leads to the one-on-one sales presentation. Make sure this process works!

Build a sales structure for the "new sales rep"
As one software company sales exec stated, "the quality and consistency of direct selling reps has gone way down in basic selling skills." Plan for this in your sales structure, commission planning, and training.

In the 21st century, truly successful sales people must become chameleons to their prospects providing, in the words of Doug Upchurch, Managing Director for Insights Austin, a "one-size-fits-one" solution. Or, as Phillip Sheppard of successful start-up Broadbase Software said, "companies appreciate sales people that help them plan, target, deliver and refine their customer relationships."