Happy Sunday! I was curious and started to research what companies considered to be great innovations in sales. After reading through a few different articles and posts, I found a list that had some good thoughts about what innovations truly changed sales. Here we go!
- The Smart Phone: This seems rather basic but makes a good point. There are still so many companies, especially small ones, that have not fully hopped on the mobile train but it is vital that they do so. Sales people can be so much more efficient and save time when they have integrated mobile systems with the company and they can function and work right from their mobile device.
- Social Selling: I have talked about this in the past but similarly to mobile, just make sure you can be competitive. Is your profile good looking? Does appeal to your target customers that would have an interest in social?
- Customer Aligned Sales Process: Are your sales people focused on your customers? Do they actively seek to find out what the customer needs and give it to them? Or are they simply trying to fulfill their sales quotas for the month and are being pushy and uncooperative?
- Buyer Personas: Do you know your customers? In this case, it’s not so much about demographics but it’s about knowing how to sell to your customer. Like we have talked about in class, different customers respond differently to money, personalities, etc. A bit of research before the sales call could make all the difference!
- Insight Selling: Similarly to Insight Selling, are you and your company differentiating yourselves at all or is it just the same old, same old? Buyers are going to have no interest in buying something or being sold to in a way that is not new, cool, or unique.
I think all of these sales innovations are vital to the way that sales is conducted today. The people are sold to is totally different than it was ten or twenty years ago and those buyers have completely different expectations as well.
I was reading through several lists and articles about sales innovations and it was very interesting to see innovations made the list and people talked about. A lot of good things to think about. Cheers!
testacr22
As soon as I read the first innovation of “The Smart Phone,” I thought of when my father worked sales at a commercial trucking company and the company phone he used was a Blackberry. Now I think the Blackberry is pretty much obsolete now, but even several years ago, it was ancient. The keys were half the size of corn kernels and the screen was not much larger. I guess the idea of company phones might be dwindling away? I’m not 100% sure but if businesses still handed out company phones, I would assume they’d be something more up-to-date like an iPhone just because of the simplicity and flexibility of the phone.
I think that human-centered selling and innovation is going to totally change industries. Looking at frustrations from the consumer’s perspective is invaluable, and I think as we see shifts in designs focused on the consumer, we will see shifts in how people approach selling. Thanks for sharing!