Survey Says: "Put Away the Generic Pitch!"

Do you still rely on the Generic Pitch with your Prospects? Don't!

As a young engineer in the 1980s, I called in a vendor to get some information on their products for an upcoming project of mine. George (let's assume this is his real name) was a very nice, older man who had a significant amount of experience with his firm. Upon meeting him, he carefully handed me a large, black leather book that contained all of his company's products. He cautioned me that these expensive books were very rare, and that I should cherish it since very few were distributed. I must admit that I was initially excited at the opportunity to display this valuable item on my bookshelf to impress my colleagues; but then my cynical side kicked in. Did I mistakenly call in an encyclopedia salesman?
 

At that point, George, as any well-prepared salesman back then did, pulled out his wheel of slides, slide projector and spare light bulb to review his company's standard corporate presentation. It was quite an impressive presentation; however, after 1 hour, I still didn't know if their company had products that would meet our company's needs. And more importantly, I wasn't sure that George even knew what my needs were or if he even understood our industry.

 

You're probably thinking at this point that we've come a long way since back then, having clearly shifted our selling strategies to focus more on the customers' needs. Have we? In a 2009 IDC customer experience study, IT customers were asked to identify the #1 thing that a sales rep. can do to improve the value of their relationship with the sales team and the vendor that they represent. Survey said?. . . "Put Aside the Generic Pitch". The reasons are widespread for reps relying on this crutch when interacting with customers; including reps being insufficiently prepared for their initial meetings with prospects due to a lack of knowledge, a lack of skill-sets and competencies to engage their prospects, etc.. Customers want to have deeper conversations with their vendors. They're looking for a trusted advisor and partner. What's the opportunity here?. . . Not just a product sale, but the opportunity to create a long-term customer as well as to establish a competitive differentiator.

 

 

How do we, as sales and sales operations professionals, better prepare our sales teams to capture such an opportunity? IDC's Sales Productivity Framework provides a good foundation for evaluating where you can have the greatest impact in your organization, assessing five key areas: Talent Management, Sales Management; Sales Methodology; Sales Enablement and Customer Intelligence. Let's focus on sales enablement for now:

"The delivery of the right information to the right person at the right time in the right format and in the right place to assist in moving a specific sales opportunity forward"

Does your sales enablement effort provide your sales reps with the right language and fluency that's relevant to your customers? Are they confident enough in their ability to let go of the corporate PowerPoint deck and have that deep discussion that's desired by their customers? Here are just a few thoughts to help you along your sales enablement journey:

• Focus on understanding your customers' needs, including: their business and technology needs, what should drive their sense of urgency for addressing these needs, and their buying process.
• Stop the insanity of the one-way push of products to your sales teams (e.g., PowerPoint decks, marketing assets). Better understand your sales teams' explicit and latent needs, and what it will take to improve their ability to connect with customers.
• Assign accountability for your sales enablement initiatives. (e.g., establish a sales enablement lead who's responsible for creating, executing and governing the process)
• Integrate sales enablement with the other parts of the sales productivity framework.

Potential initiatives to focus on?

• Intelligence delivery: Do you know that over 40% of marketing assets aren't being used by sales; and the #1 reason for their lack of use is that sales cannot find these assets! There's too much material, the content is old and the delivery technology is outdated and/or lacks support. Establish one source for delivery of knowledge which has a customized front-end based upon sales teams' roles - including traditional assets, newer sources of information such as searchable video and social media, and the ability for reps to rapidly connect with subject matter experts and get their questions answered. 
• New rep on-boarding process - a great opportunity to establish new ways of thinking and new habits across your organization.
• Innovative sales plays (e.g., develop an electronic sales playbook; deploy a whiteboard strategy that eliminates reliance on the corporate pitch deck)
• Establish and govern an asset management lifecycle to ensure that the knowledge you're providing to sales reps remains up to date and relevant.

After all, isn't our overall objective customer enablement - providing our customers with the knowledge and assets to help them excel at their job?

Other ideas? Please comment below. Also, please reach out to me if you would like to participate in our ongoing research. (mgerard@idc.com)