by Art Waskey | Mar 1, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly
My past experience includes growing a distributor business from $10M to $65M. My current focus now is on advising small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). I find that digital transformation can seem daunting to this group. Often, smaller companies feel they stand at a competitive disadvantage to larger distributors, who have more funds to invest in digital investments. To offset the threat of alternative digital sales, I advise Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs) to lean on your strengths.
Digital transformation
Digital transformation involves the strategic adoption of new technologies in the marketplace. It is used to improve productivity, deliver better customer and employee experiences, manage business risk, and control costs. Furthermore, a myriad of tools, solutions, and processes are used in digital implementation and often require significant investment.
Costs coming down
It’s true —an integrated enterprise resource plan (ERP) can be expensive, but costs are coming down. The pandemic accelerated the development of digitalization. This increased demand for digital tools to drive down the cost of implementation. For instance, take note of how prices dropped as demand increased for flat-screen TVs/monitors, smart phones, and computers.
Start with the fundamentals
While working with a small distributor that is taking its first steps toward digitization. For starters, the company is giving all employees mobile computers. Depending on their roles, some will receive barcode scanners, radio frequency identification readers (RFID readers) as well as mobile printers.
Amanda Honig, Regional Portfolio Manager for Zebra in North America, explains in a recent issue of Industrial Distribution , “This [mobile devices] is the fundamental ‘digital’ toolset in today’s distribution and warehousing environment. They can quickly locate, pick, and pack parts and equipment, report findings of visual quality inspections, and notify stakeholders when things are on the move to the next destination — whether that’s a shelf bin’ packaging line, loading dock, or customer.”
Innovate
To innovate, SMBs should deploy simple digitalization of their data and workflows. Additionally, SMBs should focus on areas such as inventory management, receiving, picking, packaging, and shipping. Finally, train your employees on how to use mobile devices that improve daily activities.
SMBs are agile and have the ability to react quickly to customers’ needs. Use this to your advantage. Rather than worrying that you have fewer tangible digital resources than your larger competitors, lean on your strengths to gain a competitive advantage.
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by Art Waskey | Feb 22, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
I was fortunate to be part of the glory days of an outside distributor sales team. We built strong customer relationships. Using our technical skills, metric reviews, planned vendor calls, and product training, we quarterbacked our sales goals. As a result, we grew sales an average of 8% per year for 30 plus years. Today’s digital landscape, however, has changed the way the game is played. It’s put the outside sales rep into more of a scouting position.
Change in responsibilities
As a result of the pandemic, we have seen a digital transformation in the way we buy and sell. While some smaller markets may still support the old model of selling. Eventually, they too will be affected by digitization.
Technology has changed the advising role and responsibilities of the outside sales rep in many ways. For example, the outside sales rep was once responsible for controlling the flow of ideas, taking orders, checking stocks, chasing backorders, and correcting pricing errors. With the arrival of Automated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), many of these responsibilities are no longer part of the job. Furthermore, tied into mobile devices like smartphones, ERP makes sales transactions are faster, more accurate, and more direct. Consequently, this has changed the role of the outside rep to the middle man in multiple sales processes.
From quarterback to scout
In a recent podcast, Larry Davis, CEO of AgoNow, discussed the salesperson’s customer relationship journey in digital times. Davis described the salesperson as a football quarterback, a planner, or an executor of plays between the customer and distributor. Correspondingly, the outside rep of today/tomorrow needs to be a scout. “Their job is to scout out opportunities and look for ways to add value through conversations or walking through the customer’s facilities.”
Create strong partnerships
As customers continue to migrate to digital procurement alternatives, the salesperson must be trained in the role of collaborator. To compete, we must be able to coordinate a customer/distributor partnership. That kind of coordination requires access to talent outside the distributor’s four walls. As Davis suggests, the position of an outside salesperson today is that of a scout. He must be able to organize strong partnerships with suppliers, technology integrators, consultants, and information providers.
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by Art Waskey | Feb 15, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
A choice- crisis as opportunity
There was a time in my life when many people around me didn’t think I had the necessary knowledge and ability to be a successful salesman. In fact, at one point, a corporate vice president wrote to my sales manager suggesting that I be terminated. My self-worth was battered. But I had a choice to make — success or failure, using my crisis as an opportunity. Fortunately, my sales manager believed in me and put his energy into building my confidence. I chose to succeed, followed his advice, and rose through the ranks. The complaining VP wrote a letter to the sales manager apologizing for his earlier criticism and praising my work. I still have a copy of that letter 50 years later!
Opportunity cloaked in crisis
Everyone responds to crisis in their own way. In The Go-Givers Sell More, authors Bob Burg and John Mann discuss the different ways people react to a crisis of confidence. They state: “For some, such an experience can lead to growth, wisdom, and great depth, while it leads others to become hardened and embittered.”
Importantly, Burg and Mann believe crisis offers hidden opportunity. They write: “Crises in life are the greatest gifts that come to you from unexpected places and they rarely arrive neatly wrapped and clearly marked, like lottery winnings in the mailbox or a new car in the driveway.” The secret to success is to find the gift and open the opportunity.
Get busy living
How do you dig your way out of a crisis? Andy Dufresne says in The Shawshank Redemption, “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.” As an example, Og Mandino, author of The Greatest Salesman in the World once contemplated suicide. He attributes his success as a best-selling writer today to his recovery from that crisis and those that helped him along the way.
The path to success
We will all face problems in our lives that require the support of others and belief in self. Viewing a crisis as an opportunity to improve your personal situation opens up choices that can lead you away from failure and toward success.
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by Art Waskey | Feb 8, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
The pandemic accelerated the digital transformation of business. We all remember how long it took for some to accept automated attendants, email, and texting. That was because the progression wasn’t driven by an unexpected disruption. The pandemic forced us to move more rapidly into online virtual communications. As a result, we have had to adopt a whole new “Just in Time” (JIT) strategy to selling.
Influencers abound
Your customers’ view of face-to-face meetings has changed. A sales rep is only one stop on the information highway now. I’m sure you have found that in some cases your customer knows more about the product than you do. Your sales strategy has to adjust to the new reality. As an account representative, you need to become better equipped to respond to the customer with unlimited access to the internet. Brett Adamson advises: “The amount of product and service information available to B2B customers has become overwhelming. Analyst reports, corporate blogs, display advertising, email marketing, infographics, podcasts, white papers, word-of-mouth recommendations — all are competing for the opportunity to influence buyers.”
The delivery issue
Just In Time delivery has become more important than ever thanks to shipping competitors like Amazon. According to a recent study from Merkle there has been a sharp increase in the number of B2B buyers who complain about delivery times. Of the decision-makers polled, 44% agree that “it takes far too long to make a purchase from most of our B2B suppliers.” This was up 28% in 2020.
Ingredients of importance
Consider these six ingredients that are now of increased importance to your delivery operations:
- Consistent on-time and accurate deliveries
- Speed of response and adaptation to changing plans
- Customized products and services
- Expertise, information, and support
- Ability to teach new skills/knowledge
- A progressive approach to all company stakeholders (Executive, Operations, Finance, Administration, IT, Marketing and Sales)
Make adjustments
Today’s B2B, face-to-face seller, must focus on making adjustments to his process and delivery operations in accordance with the new Just In Time strategy.
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by Art Waskey | Feb 1, 2022 | Art of Sales Weekly
Seller-free sales
The transformation to the digital marketplace for sales channels happened gradually — and then suddenly. The global pandemic didn’t start this shift, but it certainly accelerated it. Brent Adamson from Gartner finds that 43% of all buyers now desire a seller-free sales experience — a preference that jumps to 54% for millennials. That shift isn’t just fueled by the rise of next-generation buyers. Adamson concludes in a related study: “By 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels.” For the outside sales executive these statistics have meaningful implications for sales strategies. What techniques do you need to adopt to be prepared to sell in a seller-free environment?
Knowledge still key to success
Digitization has opened markets and created a super abundance of products and brands available. Customers need help sorting through the choices and that requires sales engineering knowledge. Keeping up with manufacturers’ new products releases is a challenge for distributors, however. To ensure your sales organization is positioned for success in the fast-paced digital marketplace, Benj Cohen (from his article here) suggests the following:
- Use digital tools that users embrace – Strong adoption and sales follow when digital tools are intuitive, easy to use, and automatically log every customer interaction. The more sales reps use Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered tools, the more data is acquired and analyzed. AI models help reps make more effective pitches and increase revenue.
- Put the customer first – AI-enabled semantic searches of sell sheets, documents, and other product data, allow sales reps to quickly find information and respond to customer requests. AI also powers engines that can give customer-specific product recommendations or inform sales reps of a customer’s buying history.
- Prioritize data and analytics – AI-powered sales tools add immense value. They help reps find the information they need to be strategic and to have consultative sales conversations with each customer. When a sales rep pitches relevant products suggested by AI, it can result in a 10X increase in revenue per pitch.
Get on-board
An early jump into these next-generation capabilities could potentially grow revenue at twice the rate of the economy. Prepare your sales team for the seller-free digital marketplace. Adopt user-friendly digital tools, put the customer first, and prioritize your data and analytics.
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