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What do YOU think are the biggest Sales Innovations of the last decade?
I'll be doing a webcast along with Sage on March 25 titled "The 7 Biggest Sales Innovations of the Last Decade & What They Can Do For You". Check it out (and sign up!) at http://www.focus.com/webcasts/sales/7-biggest-sales-innovations/I would love to hear from and involve the Focus community - what do YOU think are the biggest Sales Innovations? Why? What did they do for you, your customers, and the CRM & SFA marketplace? Let me know - thanks for your participation - the best suggestions will be mentioned in the webcast!
Best Answer
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- Jim Palmer
As the developer of the model (a hammer looking around for a nail, for sure), I'd like to put forth Buying Facilitation(R), the new skill set that helps buyers recognize and manage the decision issues they must address to get the necessary buy-in for any change that a new solution will involve.
Sales only manages the needs analysis/solution placement end of the buyer's buying decision. Until I developed Buying Facilitation, there was no way to assist buyers in navigating their off-line, behind-the-scenes issues that often have nothing to do with their need, and everything to do with the relationships, company politics, old vendor issues, etc.
My model is used for any size sale, in any industry - it's a new skill set that should be added to all buying decision/influencing situations. I coined the terms: Buying Facilitation, decision facilitation, Facilitative Questions, and have written 7 books and over 800 articles on helping buyers buy. Someo f my clients have been: KPMG, Intuit, Wachovia, IBM, Kaiser, P&G, Morgan Stanley, Bose, Unisys.
Chris, I agree with Jeff, definitely social networking, particularly Linkedin. Beyond that, I know that Google has changed the face of how sales leads are generated... Adwords... I have been employing SPIN sales methodology the last few years, which began in the late 70´s and has been refined even more over the last decade... you can find more at huthwaite.com.
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Related Activity
I'm sure you will hear WebX, CRM, etc. I think one of the biggest is the use of social networking to get to the right people and leverage your network like never before. I am still amazed I can reach out to senior level people, reach them with or without mutual people in our network and be able to pitch them in a new an dynamic way.
I describe this to people this way.
Use LinkedIn like you use to use introductions from your friend over lunch, at a club, in a seminar, etc.
LinkedIn can dramatically reduce time to introduction and increase reach.
Use Facebook the way you use to meet someone and go to lunch. Discover their hobbies, family, likes/dislikes, etc. Knowing this puts you far ahead of the crowd when it comes to establishing a true relationship.
And at the end of the day - it's relationships that make selling possible.