Thursday, February 10, 2005

Can you sell? Can they buy? You don’t know until you ask the right questions!

I often wonder to what degree we can blame our fast-paced lifestyle for the difficulties so many software companies have meeting their sales goals.

I have recently been involved in a number of interesting exercises with several software companies that are trying to improve their marketing and sales processes. It has been interesting, and at the same time disappointing, to see how difficult it is for salespeople, marketing managers, and company executives to come up with a clear definition, not to mention a unified one, of what constitutes a qualified lead.

Now, I’m not talking about the terminology. Granted, “qualified lead” could mean different things to different people (read about The Fallacy of Qualified Leads). I am talking about salespeople not being able to come up with a clear set of questions that could tell them whether a company is a good fit for their solution.

So what do salespeople do when they don’t know these questions? They ask the easy question: “Are you looking to buy?” “Do you have an active project?”

That’s an order-taker question, not a salesperson’s! A salesperson is looking for a problem to solve, a goal to help a buyer fulfill, a pain to be relieved.

That’s where our hasty culture and go-getter attitude trip us. We are all in a constant race to do more and faster, that we don’t put the time to think through and come up with a solid, customer-centric selling process. Rather than take the time to understand the customer’s issues, we rush to tell him how great our product is.

The skill pool of solution selling is dwindling, and as a result, companies are missing their sales targets, while new salespeople and managers keep coming and going every 12 to 18 months through the endless motion of the company’s revolving doors.

How do we put an end to it? How do we get our salespeople to stop chasing and pushing and start engaging and cultivating?

I don’t have the answer, but I believe we first have to take the time to evaluate what we do. Going through these exercises, the companies I mentioned are taking first steps in this direction. I just hope they have the patience to see it through.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

The Price of Personalization

Personalization is marketing’s two-edge sword. On one hand, personalized promotion promises better response and higher return on marketing investment. On the other hand, new personalization devices such as TiVo and e-mail filters make it tougher for marketers to reach their target audience.

Amidst the enthusiasm surrounding TiVo and iPod, Christine Rosen ponders the social price we are paying for the ability to get “just what we like."

You can read Christine’s interesting but long The Age of Egocasting, or read a shorter take in her NPR interview.

What do you think? With the growing capability to filter out everything, are we really damaging our ability to tolerate and stay open minded?

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