Are You Focused on
“Busyness” or Business?

Digital has changed the game. And everybody knows it!

Here’s the good & bad news of digital in sales:

1. Good News: Digital is being incorporated into the value proposition, so you need to understand how to sell it. This is probably to a growing decision-base, as well. For example, you’re not just selling Hardware, Content, or Software anymore. Instead, you’re selling:
   • HaaS (Hardware as a Service)
   • CaaS (Content as a Service)
   • SaaS (Software as a Service)
2. Bad News: The old sales tools used to gain entry/access to new clients don’t work anymore.
   • Phone: No one picks it up! Auto Dialing Bots have killed the cold call!!!
   • Email: Inboxes are overcrowded and bursting at the seams. You’re lost in a sea of messages, without a compass in sight.
   • The “Answer Box”: Buyers prefer to do autonymous research in search engines rather than partake in a sales call.

What’s a poor salesperson to do?

The irony? Although there are infinitely more channels than ever to get in new doors (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Phone, Text Messaging, and the list goes on…), it’s infinitely harder to get a foothold. Because there are so many options, it’s easy to focus on “busy-ness” rather than business.

Hubspot states that “31% of reps’ time is spent searching for or creating content, and 20% on reporting, administration, and CRM-related tasks. Only one-third of their day is actually spent selling.” If your red flag didn’t just go up on the last sentence, I’ll raise it for you!

The answer:

Salespeople will need to learn to become “Marketers.” This is only possible if sales organizations begin think differently, though. The same sales strategies won’t cut it in the digital age. Salespeople must get inside the heads of the people they’re trying to access. Learning to be a marketing salesperson is dependant on digital tools & mechanisms to get a toehold, not on traditional sales tactics. It’s the next step in the evolution of the professional salesperson.

For instance, are you building your social database week-after-week, month-after-month? It’s a goldmine of opportunity to leverage the people who respect you, but it’s useless if you’re too focused on “busy-ness” and not business. Businesspeople-who-sell think about how to scale their businesses, while transactional salespeople just run around from sales call to sales call without consideration of the future.

Which one are you?

Don’t neglect the day-to-day value of just documenting who you’re calling on every day. That’s going to be the new price of poker in gaining access to new customers.