I was recently interview by Mathew Schwartz for “Follow the Lead: Zoominfo’s B2B Sales and Marketing Blog” Here’s the interview:
BEST ASSET FOR SALES EXECUTIVES DOESN’T COST A THING
The terms have seeped into the sales lexicon: Sales 2.0, Sales 1.5, Web 2.0. The terms remind us that Philip K. Dick was probably onto something regarding where the 21st century is headed. But terms such as Sales 1.5 and Sales 2.0 really mean getting from Point A to Point B, and that has a timeless quality.
For sales veteran Steve Martin, author of “Heavy Hitters Sales Psychology: How to Penetrate the C-Level Executive Suite and Convince Company Leaders to Buy," the new Sales 2.0 emanates from something that technology can never compete with: our mouths. “Sales executives haven’t thought about the most important weapon they have,” said Martin, a sales consultant whose clients include Akami, AllState, IBM and McAfee. “They haven’t optimized their mouth and the words they speak. While they may have ten years of sales experience, they know nothing about sales linguistics-- the study of the customer’s mind uses language during the decision making process.” Martin said verbal communication – and learning how to use words with myriad levels of decision-makers who are involved in the sales process – is the way to cultivate sales, digital age or no.
“The major problem [in sales] is that there’s very little difference between products,” Martin said. “The only differentiation is how salespeople can speak [to customers] in a unique way so customer down their guard and starts to tell the salesperson what they’re trying to accomplish.”
Martin, whose blog focuses on sales strategy and advice, said that “sales 1.0” terms smack of a traditional sales pitch. “Using words like ‘reliable,’ ‘easy-to-use,’ ‘scalable,’ ‘industry leader,’ they mean nothing to prospects,” he said, adding that senior sales execs often suffer from using antiquated terms in the sales process (and then mistakenly pass those habits along to newbies). Prospects get “anaesthetized by these words, which are not attached to any psychological needs.”
When they reach prospects to start a conversation, sales execs have to stop reciting the proverbial sales pitch. They also have to understand how customers use language throughout the sales process; how they interact; how they speak to each other and how they speak to sellers both individually and collectively. “Increasingly, when you’re on a sales-call presentation it’s in front of a group, so you have to understand a person’s authority within a group is not necessarily commensurate with title and only their language reveal this” Martin said.
Martin cites a “Heavy Hitter” as a species of “communications chameleon,” or someone who can bond with different levels of buyers and influencers through the ability to speak different languages (but the same tongue). For example, “if you’re speaking to an engineer about network products, you have to be able to speak with specification about technology,” he said. “But when you speak with the CIO, his orientation is on how run to a business operation. They speak two totally different languages.”
It’s like a crash course at Berlitz. But it doesn’t have to be. More than half of the battle to getting a better read on linguistics is taking personality out of the equation. “Traditional personality assessment as it relates to sales calls is obsolete and unimportant,” Martin said. “The better way to map out the sales cycle is based on how decision makers receive and interpret information and how they act when they are alone with the salesperson as opposed to with a group of colleagues. Because a person’s environment will dramatically impact what they say and how they say it. In reality, sales linguistics is the true new Sales 2.0!”
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