* Cold calling is less and less effective as nobody returns the call.
* You no longer see inquiries because prospects google their stuff.
* Email lands in spam filters and advertising is ignored
* Reference selling is old because clients find the real users of a product themselves in groups, online communities or blogs like this.
* Consultative selling is limited as you are no longer the most trusted person – nor is media or the “independent” analyst
* When a client comes to you – they know what they want and what price they are willing to pay.
—> Step 6 of 7 “NEGOTIATION” in your old sales book is today actually your step 1 because the other steps were skipped by the customer.
The sales process you follow was developed 20 years ago and it matched with the buying behavior from back then – but no longer today. The CRM systems you are using was built around those old processes – no big help either. There is just no way in heaven that you ever are successful with your old sales tool box.
Or did I miss something?
What you will want to do is bring your sales processes in alignment with the way consumers and corporate buyers make educated purchase decisions.
[1]
The new sales process was developed by the leadership team of the Social Media Academy and Xeesm. It is tested since several month now with good success. The new Xeesm system is an online social business application supporting the outline process. But very clearly the process has to be in place first – not the system.
Axel
http://xeesm.com/AxelS [2]