Now is Time to Embrace Sales 2.0

December 31, 2009

After my final workout of 2009 this morning I was talking to a fellow gym member who is in software sales.  I asked how his year closed and he replied he still had a few deals that could close today.   He mentioned he lost a high probability prospect yesterday because the decision maker could not convince the board to fund the deal.  He lamented that the prospect could clearly benefit from implementing his product, budget did not initially appear to be an issue and he was dealing at the decision maker level.  My comment to my friend when I heard the story was that this was not a qualified opportunity.

He agreed but said “I can’t help it if a prospect is not honest with me when I ask the right qualifying questions” The discussion morphed to how the sales process has changed over the last few years and the influence the internet now has on buyers’ ability to research, gather information and vet solutions without having to engage a sales person. I suggested that this new Sales 2.0 environment was not a phenomenon and would continue to gather momentum.

His response… “I know and I hate it!”

As we enter a new selling year companies that continue to sell using outdated processes and methodologies will lose ground and market share.   It is critical that a better process be put in place and a new sales culture established.

Filed Under Sales Leaders Blog · 3 Comments  

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Comments

3 Responses to “Now is Time to Embrace Sales 2.0”

  1. Nigel Edelshain on January 5th, 2010 12:25 am

    Yes, it’s time for sales people to upgrade their skills to deal with new sales technologies and the new sales processes that go with using these new tools.

    It looks like 2010 is the year that the new Sales 2.0 ways of selling will really start to be widely implemented by sales teams. Let’s hope so. I believe buyers changed their behavior radically with the advent of Google and we’re just around the tenth anniversary of when this happened.

    Thanks for pointing this out. It’s time sales people “leveled the playing field”.

    Nigel

  2. Matt Smith on January 5th, 2010 3:06 am

    Nigel, Fully agree, it’s time sales start playing the game with the same tools and disciplines the buyers have perfected. The ones who do have a fighting chance, the others…. Thanks for leading the way in the Sales 2.0 movement.

  3. Dan Hudson on January 5th, 2010 5:07 pm

    Nigel,

    Thanks for the note!

    It’s clear that both marketing and sales need to get out of the selling stone age if they want to survive.

    Dan

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