No, this isn’t a critique of the award-winning play by Arthur Miller, although I can happily recommend it or the 1951 film adaptation. Instead, I wanted to take a look at the current trends in selling in our (hopefully soon) post-Pandemic world particularly regarding travelling sales representatives and the traditional sales call.
Covid has shone a light on something that I feel has been coming for some time—the death of the traditional in-person sales call. I’m sure many of us remember David Brent, after his days at Wernham Hogg, bombing down the motorway to ask a potential customer ‘Who does your tampons?’.
Travelling sales reps have long been a key tool for many businesses. They provided the personal touch you couldn’t get from a phone call or email, they could offer product demonstrations, and because they had a captive audience, they could look for opportunities to cross or upsell.
The Rise of Online
However, even before the pandemic, the value of the traditional sales representative had started to wane. Key decision-makers, particularly in larger organisations, are not so easily accessible. Getting appointments has become trickier, and the unsolicited approach generally courts frustration and disdain. I also believe there is a generational gap with those who grew up in the latter years of the Information Age not being as appreciative of the sales rep as those who grew up when this methodology was the norm.
This creates a situation where the traditional sales rep has less strategic value to both the organisation and the customer. Covid has only exacerbated the issue, with the easy-availability of video-conferencing applications providing a suitable alternative to the personal call. Our salespeople no longer need to pop in for a cup of tea and a chat; they can simply send a Zoom link instead and do things online. Between video calls, phone calls, emails, text messages and instant messaging applications, is there any real value to keeping salespeople on the road?
Court Before Pitching
I’d say there is. When selling physical products, for example, it’s easier to demonstrate the product in person. Technology may be much more advanced than even ten years ago, but many areas of the country still have less than ideal broadband speeds and reliability. An in-person call isn’t subject to a technical hiccup such as a router rebooting at an inopportune time. It also has to be said that there is still value in a simple handshake, the walk to the elevator, and those other elements that are difficult to replicate in an online world.
To succeed, though, salespeople cannot rely on the way things were done. A business leader or procurement agent isn’t going to agree to a meeting unless they truly believe they can get value from it. For the salesperson, this means that much more of the groundwork needs to be laid before they can even think about meeting in person. In a way, they need to start treating it more like online dating—get their LinkedIn Profile up-to-scratch, build trust, develop respect, communicate openly and honestly, and really sell themselves before they can begin to sell for their company.
Rise Above and Triumph
Salespeople need to elevate themselves above the crowd. They need more knowledge of their industry and market, their competitors, and their product than they needed before. To communicate the value they bring, they need to think more creatively, and approach prospective customers with ideas and insights that the client simply cannot find anywhere else.
The best salespeople will seek to establish themselves within the client organisation as a Trusted Adviser. They’ll make themselves available to answer calls, provide insights, brainstorm, and take the time to help customers understand how to solve the problems they face. Great salespeople have always disrupted the customer’s thinking and challenged them on preconceptions, and now that’s more important than ever.
Still Here, But Different
The in-person meeting isn’t going to go away, but it’s going to become much more difficult to get a date in the diary when there are so many more favourable alternatives. Instead of having people on the road, it may be more beneficial to keep them at home or in the office, and get them prospecting, get them reaching out, and getting them to work hard on their entrepreneurial skills so that they can elevate themselves, and their organisation, above the competition.
At Robin Lines Associates, we offer a variety of Sales, Prospecting, and Key Account Management programmes. All of our programmes are bespoke, tailored to your people’s needs, your organisation’s challenges, and the conditions in your market. Reach out and let us know what challenges you’re facing and we’re certain we can come up with a training solution that will return fantastic results.
