Be a Disruptor

Something profound is happening to all organizations – and you’ve heard it a thousand times.

The world is shifting from analog to digital.

What you may not have considered – the profound impact that shift has on every sales leader and salesperson.

Did you know that 40% of IT budgets are now slotted for digital transformation initiatives? That’s a remarkable statistic that has huge implications for how sellers go-to-market.

Today, you don’t just sell products & hardware. You’ve now migrated to selling technology, as well – IoT, Software, Reporting, etc.  Your goal? Make dumb machines smarter. Or, helping customers work smarter by migrating to digital.

But selling digital is REALLY different.

Different conversations with different people about different ways of doing work.

Competition is also changing. There are two types of competitors:

1. Traditional, lower-priced competitors in your mainstream product space who are putting more price pressure on you every day
2. Digital competitors who are smaller, nimbler, & tech-savvy

Add it up – you’re getting squeezed on both ends, and that makes it increasingly difficult to hit your quota.

The Bad News

It’s only going to get worse.

The Good News

It’s a new world for sellers – less about pain, more about the possibility. But it requires a new mindset AND a new set of competencies to succeed. When you make the shift, you vault ahead of others for one simple reason – you’ve become more indispensable to your customers.

Can you just sell products and succeed?

Maybe today, but not for long. Customers are looking to work with forward-thinking salespeople who can help them peer around the corner to see what’s coming next. Remove the future unknown. It’s a time-shift – moving conversations and perspective from today to tomorrow. And that’s a difficult pivot for many “present pain-seeking missile” sellers who ignore the future to the peril of their customers and themselves.

It’s a world of opportunity for those sellers willing to time-shift. Because when you time-shift, you impact customers strategically. But it requires a willingness to poke the bear, provoke, and march boldly into conversations about the future.

The new sales mantra? Disrupt – or Die.