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People Don’t Buy What You Do…
“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” – Simon Sinek
These of some of the wisest words I’ve heard in years.
Many of you may already be familiar with this video. For those that are not, I promise that watching this will be 18 of the best minutes you’ve spent on your business.
Sinek does a masterful job of sharing why companies are being commoditized (without every using the word commoditization). He shares the remarkably simple secret of success for companies like Apple, Starbucks and Southwest; as well as the Wright brothers, and, even, Martin Luther King, Jr. He also shares why TiVo has never been a commercial success.
Please watch this 18-minute video (I promise it’s worth it), then answer the question below:
Why do you do what you do?
Competing for Attention
In September 2009, I wrote about the fact that, as marketers, we are all competing in Times Square today. Simply put, people are overwhelmed with commercial messages.
This came to light on my trip to Chicago yesterday. The picture you see here is of the handrail for the escalator. That’s right, they’ve turned the handrail into an ad. I don’t know about you, but I’m no more likely to go to this hotel than I was before.
The moral of the story is that merely broadcasting is a useless strategy at best. More likely than not, it contributes to becoming increasingly irrelevant. Going forward, the only viable marketing strategy is to engage with your market.
Is BlackBerry A Dead Product Walking?
There are 2 types of companies in the world today. You are either:
- The best, or
- You’re a “Me-too” company
Only “best” companies will earn margin premiums and enjoy the growth worthy of the hard work of business executives and salespeople.
I’m becoming increasingly convinced that BlackBerry is rapidly falling into the “Me-too” category, and will become increasingly irrelevant (and less profitable) going forward.
Full Disclosure: I’m an Apple fanatic (of course, if you’re reading this blog, you probably already know that). I’ve owned every version of the iPhone within a week of its release. So maybe that colors my thoughts, but I don’t think so.
One of the fundamental precepts of great businesses is to narrow your market focus and expand your yield. Great companies are maniacally focused on who their customers are – and who they aren’t. Jim Collins made that clear in his seminal book Good to Great.
BlackBerry, at one time, was an absolute killer device. I had one and loved it. Ever since the iPhone came out, and the smart phone category exploded, BlackBerry has been struggling with finding its place. The Storm was a disaster (on all counts), and they continue to lose market share.
To fight that, they keep “innovating” and coming out with new products. A recent view of their website highlights seven different models to chose from. So I ask, what is a BlackBerry?
In contrast, Apple offers one model (two if you consider the fact that they are still selling the 3GS), and no one need ask the question, “What is an iPhone?”
Watching BlackBerry’s approach reminds me of the 1991 movie, Other People’s Money. In it, Danny DeVito played the memorable character Larry the Liquidator. In trying to takeover a dying company, he said:
We’re dead alright. We’re just not broke. And you know the surest way to go broke? Keep getting an increasing share of a shrinking market. Down the tubes. Slow but sure.
Here’s my corollary:
You know the surest way to go broke? Keep introducing more new products while you continue to lose share of a growing market. Down the tubes. Slow but sure.
Think about this for a moment. Who loves – I mean really loves – their BlackBerry?
Heavy duty email users – that’s who.
Email was the entire basis of BlackBerry’s success to begin with. They invented technology and a device that solved a critical problem for people.
Now, what’s their newest device? The BlackBerry Style. Huh?! What?! If someone is buying a phone for “style;” guess what – they’re buying an iPhone.
People who buy BlackBerrys buy them for function. BlackBerry is superior to the iPhone if email is critical. The iPhone is superior in just about every other way.
What Should BlackBerry Do?
To ensure its future, BlackBerry needs to stop playing other people’s games. They need to focus on their core market – heavy duty email users.
Is that a smaller market than the size of their current business today? Yup. But guess what, BlackBerry isn’t as big as it thinks it is.
BlackBerry needs to answer the same question that small and mid-market companies are faced with every day:
Do I keep fighting for volume and size which will result in less profit and greater vulnerability, or do I accept the market for what it is and focus on what we do best and become relevant?
What would you decide?
Product vs. Service Sale: A Crucial Distinction
For as long as I’ve been in sales, guru’s have always focused on the differences between selling products and selling services. The approach, skills and talents required to successfully sell products are quite different from those needed to successfully sell services.
A major trend I’ve noticed over the last 5 – 10 years is that the distinction between “products businesses” and “services businesses” has become increasingly blurred; as product oriented companies have added services, and services companies have “productized” their offerings.
While the distinctions between companies has grown more nuanced, it’s impact in the selling process hasn’t. It’s critical that you decide if you are selling a product or a service. This simple statement of need can best illustrate the difference between a product and service sale:
Which word do you focus on – “it” or “now?”
If you focus on “it” over “now” you are making a product sale. You’ll focus your sales process, marketing and positioning on the product being offered. You’ll gear your sales efforts to late stage buy-cycle opportunities. Because your focus is on the product, you’ll deal with commoditization on a regular basis (you may even be the chief commoditizer), and as a result your margins will be tighter; hence, you’ll focus more on volume.
If you focus on “now” over “it”, you are making a services sale. You’ll focus your sales process, marketing, and positioning on the consequences of not getting it now. You’ll spend more time educating your customer base on the barriers to “now” and the impact that “now” has on their organization. Your efforts will focus on radical differentiation, and while your volume may be lower (everyone that needs “it” doesn’t need it “now”), you’re margins will be much higher.
A perfect example of the two can be seen between the two most profitable companies in the technology space:
- Microsoft focuses on “it,”
- Apple focuses on “now.” (Realizing that “now” is a metaphor.)
The Big Mistake
Everyday I see companies, especially small and mid-market ones, make a critical mistake. They try to focus on both “it” and “now.” At the risk of over-simplifying the issue, let me be clear:
You must focus on either “it” or “now;” you cannot focus on both.
For those that have been reading this blog for a while, you realize that the product sale focuses on “left-side value,” while the service sale needs to focus on “right-side value.” When you try to focus on both you fall in the middle, and there is no room in the middle.
The middle is Death Valley. You face the on-going margin pressure like a products company with the increased complexity and costs associated with services businesses.
When you’ve chosen which sale you will focus on, your job is to ensure that everything you do – the questions you ask, the ads you run, the social media strategy you implement, etc. – is completely aligned behind the decision.
I am not saying that the product or the service sale is either good or bad. My point here is that they are different. If you want to accelerate your profitable growth in the future you need to chose one – and only one.
Know Your Sales Process Vital Signs
Recently, I was presenting to a large group of CEOs, discussing how the commoditization trap was devastating company profits. As I was sharing the key indicators of a company in the cross-hairs of commoditization, I was asked how could you tell if you were effectively avoiding/fighting the commoditization trap.
Here’s my answer:
I call these key indicators your Sales Process Vital Signs. There are three primary indicators that will tell you if you are in the cross-hairs or if you are avoiding commoditization:
- Cost of sales. If it costs you less and less to acquire new revenue (as a percentage of revenue), it’s a very good indication that you are avoiding commoditization. If it costs you more to acquire new revenue, you’re being commoditized.
- Sales cycle times. If sales cycle times are going down, you are most likely avoiding commoditization; if they’re getting longer (or if you don’t know what they are), you’re probably getting commoditized.
- Margin growth. If you’re margins are growing, it’s a good bet you’re avoiding the impacts of commoditization; if there’s pressure on margins, commoditization is most likely the cause.
If all three indicators are working in your favor, keep up the good work. If one or more indicators are working against you, make sure you have a strategy to combat commoditization, or prepare for the consequences.
The Key to Differentiating
“That’s not how we do it in our industry.”- “I’m not sure I’m comfortable doing that, I’ve never done that before.”
- “I’ve been working with my customer for several years, and I’ve never asked those types of questions.”
- “Salespeople aren’t expected to do that in our industry.”
- “We’ve never done that before. How will I know it will work?”
These are just some of the most common statements that I hear every day from people who claim that they want to differentiate their companies from their competitors.
Let me remind everyone that differentiation is an ends – it’s not a means. The critical component to differentiating yourself in the market is doing something different that matters.
90% of the time the activity that matters and makes you different will, initially, make you and the people in your company uncomfortable. Think about it, if it were comfortable to do, it’s highly likely many others would be doing it.
Please do not misunderstand my point. Merely being different is not enough to differentiate. So, just because no one has ever done it before doesn’t mean that you should do it – but it’s a great starting point.
Commoditization Is Still The Enemy
I was talking with my friend, advisor and client – Gini Dietrich, and it hit me that I’ve been blogging for 5 years now. So, wanting to avoid some work for a few minutes, I thought it would be fun to go back and look at my first few posts.
I have to admit that as I read them, I was surprised by how applicable they still are today. My first content post was titled Commoditization Is The Enemy of Growth. Unfortunately – it still is. For your benefit, I’m posting it again:
How easily can buyers quantify the differences between your offering and your competitors? How easily can your customers make those same distinctions? How can you continuously differentiate your company when market forces are constantly commoditizing you? Think about that question for a moment. It is the greatest challenge facing businesses of all sizes in the 21st century.
Commoditization is the evolutionary process that reduces all offerings to their lowest common denominator. Commoditization is the situation businesses find themselves in when their focus is mainly on their offering instead of the quantifiable difference their offering delivers to their customers. I have asked over 2,000 businesses why people should buy from them. Virtually all of the answers fall into the category of “we are better,” or “we give more value” and virtually all of those answers propel the business into commoditization.
“Value creation” is among the most common buzzwords used in business today. There is only one meaningful definition in business for the word value: something buyers would be willing to pay for. Your company can do great things, but if people aren’t willing to pay more for it, your company is not creating value.
So I ask: What are you doing to break away from commoditization? How are you making value creation a core discipline of your company?
The Most Important Thing to Know in Sales
Anyone who has heard me speak knows that I believe business acumen is the most important capability for a successful selling. One of my goals in writing this blog is to support the development of business acumen in the sales process.
I started reading the book Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal. I found the title interesting because I often advise executives to “seek the white space.”
Mark Johnson provides one of the simplest and powerful descriptions of what a business model is, how to understand it, and how to affect it. Looking briefly at the four elements from the four box business model, they are:
Customer Value Proposition (CVP) – An offering that helps customers more effectively, reliably, conveniently, or affordably solve an important problem (or satisfy a job-to-be-done) at a given price.
Profit Formula – The economic blueprint that defines how the company will create value for itself and its shareholders. It specifies the assets and fixed cost structure, as well as the margins and velocity required to cover them.
Key Resources – The unique people, technology, products, facilities, equipment, funding, and brand required to deliver the value proposition to customers.
Key Processes – The means by which a company delivers on the customer value proposition in a sustainable, repeatable, scalable, and manageable way.
Understanding your customer/prospect’s business model is critical – I repeat CRITICAL – to becoming indispensable. If you don’t understand, you cannot make The Shift to selling results, and you’ll find your company, your offerings, and your sales efforts increasingly marginalized.
When you do understand their business model, you can begin to answer important questions like:
- Which boxes do we impact?
- How do we impact them?
- How will our customers business model improve as a result of our impact?
- What is that worth?
With those answers in place, your customers will be far more interested in talking with you and far more open to sharing their needs with you.
You Don’t Sell What You Think You Sell
I realize I’m about to induce headaches, but it’s critical you stay with me. I’m losing sleep, because every day I’m seeing really good businesses throw themselves into the middle of the commoditization trap. Once there, your future is best described as quicksand – either do nothing and sink slowly and fight like mad and sink more quickly.
The fatal error can best be described as taking what you do and selling it. If you think what you do is what you sell, YOU ARE A COMMODITY, AND YOU WILL BE RIGHTFULLY COMMODITIZED. If that’s the case, then you must play the commoditization game to have any chance of success. (That game, by the way, is won by growing volume and cutting prices faster than anyone else. It is a race to the bottom.)
I created the following SlideShare presentation to illustrate my point. If you’re new to the blog, you can read these posts about pricing and value creation.
The Only Difference That Matters
A friend of mine is a regional sales director for a Fortune 500 (soon to be 100) company. His boss recently asked everyone at his level to provide a brief response to the question, what makes his company different/better than other providers. My friend’s response is one that all fast growth executives need to know and understand.
He said, “in a world where every product is the same, or at least perceived as the same, the only difference that matters is the salesperson’s ability to sell. Our company is better because our salespeople are better.” Don’t view this as an oversimplified viewpoint. My friend sells a highly sophisticated solution. His company has several proprietary offerings that they insist matter. What he understands is that no matter how unique your offering is, a) if the buyer doesn’t understand how it’s unique, and more importantly, why that uniqueness matters and/or b) the buyer has alternatives (and they always have alternatives), then you’re not unique.
He is absolutely right. Today, if your sales effort isn’t superior in a meaningful way to the buyer, then your margins will be under attack. If your buyers don’t feel a difference between how you sell and how your competitors do, then they are going to assume you are the same, and price will become the driving factor. As a matter of fact, there is no acute symptom more directly tied to ineffective sales efforts than price increasing in importance in the decision and/or your margins facing increased pressure.
Selling is the process of enabling buyers and potential buyers to, first, understand their problems and, second, to understand how one’s solution can solve the actual problem. Selling is not telling. Selling is far more than the ability to make an energetic presentation or to tell a story. While these skills are quite valuable, selling today is far more about diagnosing and consulting (not to be confused with “consultative”) than it is about the power to “close” or to overcome objections.
Selling and salesmanship, today, is about your ability to:
- Provoke the awareness of problems within your customer base
- Diagnose those problems in a collaborative fashion
- Have the business conversations to help your buyer’s translate your offerings into their results
- The ability to make them feel safe
The winners of tomorrow will be the ones who invest the time, the money, the energy, and the discipline into build a superior sales force.
Brand Destruction
Verizon Wireless and AT&T are in an ad war right now. First, Verizon came out with their “There’s a map for that” ad promoting their cell coverage while insulting AT&T’s. Then AT&T sued Verizon and lost. After that, AT&T fought back by hiring actor Luke Wilson to sling mud about Verizon’s network – and back and forth they go.
At the end of all this, the net result will be that both AT&T and Verizon will have spent hundreds of millions of dollars and the negatives towards each company will be heightened, causing consumers to like each company less. My bet is little to no market share will actually shift as a result of this.
The easy reaction to this is to sigh and mutter, “What a waste!” While this would certainly be a very reasonable response, there is an instructive lesson and huge warning sign for growth oriented companies.
When companies fail to consistently create value – and by extension create demand, competitive pressures become increasingly intense. The challenge that both AT&T and Verizon Wireless have is that neither of them does anything particularly special. While Apple, Google, Palm and other handset makers continue to innovate and search for new ways to delight customers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are left fighting over who’s 3G network is better. I wrote about this six years ago: “We are better” value propositions don’t work.
The Warning Sign
This entire ad war reminds me of political campaign and negative campaigning. When you play the competitive game I call Demand Fulfillment, you are increasingly vulnerable to competitive attacks and mudslinging. The solutions focus of demand fulfillment makes compelling differentiation virtually impossible. Features and benefits become commodities. Developing new applications become increasingly expensive and risky. Because margins are tight, companies desperately search for quick hit tactics that can “have an impact.”
What’s the quickest, easiest tactic? Insult the competition. Sure, we all know that we’re not supposed to say bad things about the competition (that’s what I was taught in sales training), but politicians proved years ago that scaring buyers voters about their opponent had far more immediate impact than building themselves up. Of course, if the company being insulted is vulnerable to competition, they must fight back, and before you know it millions (or for small businesses – thousands) of dollars are wasted on inane messages, rather than on developing deeper understanding and connections with core customers.
The Lesson
Companies that create demand are increasingly immune from competitive pressures. Their maniacal focus on their customers – and solving their customers problems – give them a competitive-free like status. So long as they continue to build deeper relationships with their customers and desired markets, attacks from competitors have no impact.
The lesson for every company, even especially those companies in difficult markets, is to stop playing the traditional game. If you do, the AT&T – Verizon Wireless war is your future.
Start creating demand. Determine the results your customers want, help them understand the problems they don’t understand that are preventing them from getting those results, and sell a new solution. Don’t tell me people won’t pay more or do different things in this market, because I know that will. It’s your choice!
So, what are you going to do differently to create demand?
Are You Different?
When I speak with CEOs across the country, I’m always amazed by how much attention is paid to differentiation. I can’t really blame CEOs for this. For years, marketing consultants and authors have been shoving the concept of differentiation down their throats with claims like “Differentiate or Die!”
The problem with the focus on differentiation is that it is an end – not a means. Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped branding firms and marketing agencies from packaging the ends and selling it as a means to justify fees. As such, the whole concept has become fraught with complexity – and angst.
Differentiation is actually quite simple. It’s the answer to a very simple question – “Are you different?”
If the answer is ‘yes’, then act that way. If you are different and act different, you shouldn’t have to spend much time or effort differentiating. Think about it, when you go to The Four Seasons, do you need them to tell you they are different from other hotels? When you got your iPhone, did Apple need to convince you it was different? How about Cirque du Soliel?
If the answer is ‘no’, then no amount of effort of differentiation will help.
What Bach, Beethoven, Bruce Springsteen & Eminem Can Teach You About Growth
This post first appeared more than four years ago on this blog. Recently, I’ve had several conversations with clients and staff that have reminded me of this post. I thought it would be worth sharing with you again. Here it is:
I just attended a conference where Boris Brott, one of Canada’s most famous symphony conductors was a keynote speaker. In his speech, he noted that in the history of music, there are only 12 notes. He also noted that most musical compositions only use 5.
Despite all of the creativity, the beauty, and the memories for which music has been responsible, it has a very simple foundation. I realized how much businesses could learn by looking at the composition of music. Every musical composition from the most nuanced, classical music, to rock, rap and reggae involve the same 12 notes.
Companies are constantly trying to “differentiate” themselves. They are constantly trying to “add value” and to “innovate.” Too often, companies make life complex for the sake of making things complex. They claim the complexity is necessary so that their clients and prospects will understand how they are different. The reality is the complexity just further commoditizes the business.
No one will mistake Beethoven’s compositions with Bruce Springsteen’s. They are clearly different, and they use the same 12 notes. Apply this principle to your marketing and product development. Simplifying can be the greatest differentiators of them all.
What could you simplify? Where are you being unnecessarily complex? What notes should you be playing?
Let Them Taste It
I’m from the government, I’m here to help you.
The check is in the mail.
Really, I promise you’ll get the benefits after you buy from me.
Truth be told, this is how 95%+ of businesses position themselves in the sales and marketing process. I’ve written (ad nauseum) about the fundamental need to create value in all aspects of the sales and marketing process. The problem is that merely claiming to be the best choice or promising that you’ll do wonderful things for people after they buy is not enough to capture the hearts and minds of people. Claims are no longer enough to drive buyer behavior.
Instead of waiting for people to buy from you before they can get a taste of what make you different, special, unique and/or better; let them taste it from the very first time they encounter you or your company – and furthermore, let them continue to taste it all the way through the buying process.
This is why content marketing is so powerful. Instead of promising expertise or superiority, you’re delivering it. By doing so, you are reducing the perceived risk for the buyer (which in an environment like today is a BIG deal), and giving the buyer more control (thus increasing their confidence), all while you build marketing assets which increase in value, and give you leverage, over time.
Recently, I was working with a client who had seen a precipitous increase in sales cycle times and sales costs. As we reviewed the problem, we found a significant increase in the number of opportunities that stalled towards the end of the sales cycle. The losses had been excused away – it was the economy, the prospect was cutting back, no more discretionary budgets, etc. As we reviewed their sales process, I discovered that they did a pretty good job up-front in establishing needs, but then fell back to the we-do’s. The value proposition focused on superior workflow process design, and how that design decreases costs and increases an organization’s productivity. As I said, they did an effective job of identifying cost and productivity needs, however, they left it to the buyer to believe their organization could help them. I recommended that they stop promising better workflow design and instead start letting their prospects experience it – at every touchpoint. It’s still early, but we’re already seeing an increase in sales and a decrease is cycle times.
Please note that what I’m talking about here goes beyond “sampling” (letting buyers try you out in some small, low risk fashion). I’m not against sampling, per se, but I think a) it’s often done in a highly transactional, manipulative way, and b) it is not enough. Sampling is what Kentucky Fried Chicken did when they made October 26 the “free piece of grilled chicken day.” What I’m talking about is re-orienting everything you do – from your website to your advertising to all aspects of your sales approach – to be the embodiment of the experience you are promising, rather than merely a statement of promise. As I shared in the recent webinar Making It Rain Even In A Drought, the lag time between the origin of a problem and the awareness can be quite long. By sharing your wisdom you can provoke their awareness, accelerate the sales cycle and make your competition irrelevant (because you’ll be the only one there when the prospect/customer becomes aware). The key is to stop selling your wares, and instead be helpful by providing your prospects a taste of your experience.
So, how do you (or can you) give your prospects a taste? Leave a comment, I promise I’ll give you feedback.
Finding Demand Creators
Earlier this week, I wrote a post about The 5 Levels of Sales Excellence. It’s generated a lot of discussion, best summed up by this stream of comments:
- Rodney Johnson says:
Doug – you nailed this one. I can tell you that businesses are struggling with the peddlers and commoditizers in their organizations. If they could just find a few Professionals, they would be in heaven. If they could find a Demand Creator, they would have found Utopia.
So let me ask you. Where does one look? How do we evaluate? And are Demand Creators even available?
- Doug Davidoff says:
Rodney, that is a great question. I’ll begin writing the answer now. I’ll post it as soon as it’s done.
- Rodney Johnson says:
I thought about my question, and at least in my world working with CEOs through Vistage, I can say with certainty that the Demand Creators tend to be the CEO/Entrepreneur of the organization. They have the skill set. They have the business acumen. They have the connections. And they definitely have the drive. If this is the case, finding individuals out there with Demand Creation skills is likely a very elite and small group. Your thoughts?
Here are my thoughts:
First and foremost, Demand Creators and even most professionals are very rarely (to a statistically insignificant level) “found”; instead, they are made. The only meaningful exception to this, as Rodney points out, is found at the CEO and entrepreneur level. They create demand, most often, because they are the creators of the value for their company and can’t help but go deep and resonate with buyers. The challenge is that CEO/entrepreneurs create demand in a non-replicable way and that creates a “growth wall” that halts most companies’ growth.
While sales mythology is filled with stories of “natural” sales superstars, reality rarely lives up to the story. The only meaningful difference between these natural sales superstars, Demand Creators and unicorns, is that the sales superstar does actually exist; but they are EXTRAORDINARILY hard to find, they are very expensive and they are very difficult to keep happy. Peter Drucker said you can’t scale a business requiring genius, and the same is true here.
The Critical Element to Make Demand Creators
The prerequisite to make/create Demand Creators is a repeatable, sustainable sales and marketing process. This is where IBM destroyed its competitors in IBM’s heyday. IBM was a superior sales organization, not because they hired better sales people (actually, IBM had a huge advantage in their ability to hire younger, less experienced salespeople than their competitors), but because they had a superior process – in the full sense of the word.
This leads to another myth – salespeople hate process. Properly stated (and in the context of my post on Demand Creators) it is true: pests, peddlers and commoditizers hate process. Professionals and Demand Creators thrive on effective process.
Please don’t confuse a repeatable sales and marketing process with things like the stages of a sale. While I’m a big fan of a lot of sales training programs out there (and they’ve certainly inspired a lot of my thinking over the last 20 years), they do not represent process. At best, they represent stages. Whether you’re talking about Tom Hopkins, Brian Tracy, Miller Heiman, Neil Rackham, Sandler, Huthwaite, Bosworth, et al; they demonstrate stages, not repeatable process (please note, it is not my intention to slight any of these fine organizations, I think they all do a very good job).
Think about this for a moment. If you were interviewing an operations manager, front line worker, accountant, controller, CFO, or virtually any non-sales and marketing position and they said something like the following, would you hire them?
“Before you hire me, I want you to know that I have my own way of doing things. It’s worked for me for years so I’m going to do it my way, rather than yours.”
Of course not. Can you imagine an accountant saying they find GAAP just a little too constraining, so they’ll just ignore it (oops, I guess that’s what happened at Enron)? But companies let salespeople do this everyday. An effective process makes a decent salesperson good, a good one great, and a great one a superstar. (A superstar by the way is merely a great salesperson who follows a process – whether it’s a stated process or not.)
The reason a process works and is so critical is that an effective process introduces constraints. Constraints, properly applied, force increased focus – which leads to more depth. A salesperson can only create demand by going deeper than their competitors do. These constraints create predictability, which is critical to effectively allocating resources (which for a salesperson really comes down to time). As author, professor, and consultant Jim Collins has said, if you take the person out of the process, the person is no longer as good.
Further, a repeatable process is, by definition, trainable and coachable. This means that you can hire people who fit a particular profile (as done in any top notch hiring process, and a subject I’ll write about shortly) and teach them how to do this. This makes the position hirable and it enables a company to ensure it can continue to grow.
The problem that the vast majority of small and mid-market businesses (SMB) have is that they have neither the time nor the expertise to create such a system. So they either rely on the salesperson to “figure it out,” have absolutely no system or overly rely on the “systems” presented in sales training programs (which as I’ve already mentioned are not adequate substitutes for process).
I know this because for the last five years a core focus of my company has been helping SMBs create these systems, and we’ve been helping companies make their sales teams professionals and Demand Creators.
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Resources
Doug's Washington Business Journal Columns- Intelligent Growth Articles
Third Wave Selling Blog
Products to Grow
