There are a few fundamental statements, that are not „out of date” in the face of a changing world. For example: “Make it easy to buy” – make the process of purchasing easy for the client; “A client likes to buy from someone that he likes” or perhaps the most famous sales slogan of modern economics, created by Spencer Johnson, „Selling is about feelings, sensations (i.e. perception, not product). It’s hard to imagine the „extinction” of the validity of these slogans in even further into the future… But, well, … The world is changing, and despite some unchanging, the variables themselves are too many to conclude that „everything is basically the same anyway.” It isn’t.
Sales changes you need to know about in 2024 In this article, I include nine changes in the sales field that I consider fundamental and therefore too important in today’s economic reality to ignore. I have communicated about most of these changes in many articles and at many conferences over the 17+ years I have been here. Years ago, to most, my words sounded like something enigmatic, including reactions like „the guy must be a bit off…”. Reality, however, has proven that it is a sizable portion of the sales community that has „flown off to sleep.” Below I list nine points to help them come down to earth. The sooner, the less painful.
9 CHAMNGES IN SALES
The first five points concern sales engineering, the remaining four the impact of chaos economics on changing the nature of the challenges facing sales (and marketing, as the need to consciously integrate these areas has increased manifold).
- FIRST CHANGE – the need to even eliminate from its operation the First and Second Sales Levels.
Neanderthal Sales, otherwise known as Product Sales. Here I have a product, and there I see a potential customer, so I’ll go to him and sell it to him. A straight line from A to B. To sell, then I have to explain to him why he should buy it – another straight line. And there it is. And it’s worth buying it because… well, that’s right… because the product has such and such qualities. Where is the customer in this? There isn’t, as a matter of fact… This is the so-called linear approach – dominant in Europe. That’s why the effectiveness at this level usually does not exceed five percent.
Solution Selling. The customer communicates a problem, and we propose (as soon as possible usually) a solution. Again, a linear approach. The psychology? Salesman smart, customer dumb. Was there time to figure out if the solution to the problem he communicated actually moves the company forward? No…
At both of the above levels, the customer will ask one thing at the end anyway: „And how much does it cost?” So we position ourselves in the customer’s mind as a COST. We sell, instead of causing the customer to want to buy. Period. Today’s world does not accept a linear message for both marketing and sales – and if it does, it is on a starvation margin.
- SECOND CHANGE – making Your Sales Transformational.
Lets focus on simple logic: the goal of every business is above all to profit. Profit is the difference between all costs and sales. Period? Well… not quite! What also matters is security for the future, i.e. maintaining profitability for years to come. Another important area is the quality of life of all stakeholders – shareholders, managers and employees. Note that in none of these topics does PRICE appear as a fundamental goal. However, when listening to Europeans, price is both the beginning and end of the sales conversation, not to mention the middle… The salesman focuses on building relationships, tries to listen to the list of needs that the customer presents – and respond to them, and then sends an offer.
These three areas in a highly competitive world do not exist in practice as the foundation of sales operations. Why? It’s the trust not the relationship that counts, the needs listed by the customer most often do not define what they actually need, and offers are not created for the customer, but with the customer. Hence, the foundation for change is the implementation of a five-step sales process (belonging to the 4th Generation of Sales) or the ascent to an even more modern ceiling – the implementation of the 5th non-linear Generation of Sales.
The Transformational Selling model has been known since the dawn of time. Close, open collaboration offers the best chance of finding a „deal” in which each party obtains optimal business parameters. A model in which a glass seller knows the restaurant business and therefore sells glasses, and a transportation company knows logistics, providing optimal solutions in the area of, for example, the organization of warehouse operations or shipping activities – and courses from point A to B selling „by the way”. Such a model of cooperation allows us to find synergies of activities, optimization and joint creativity in the search for win-win solutions.
- THIRD CHANGE – a very conscious and consistent effort to build trust with the customer, rather than just focusing on a good relationship.
Understanding the difference lies at the heart of competing in today’s market. In the five-stage sales process (as opposed to the so-called Neanderthal three-stage process prevalent in Europe), the second stage – POSITIONING AND BUILDING CONFIDENCE – is the most important. It is the customer’s perception that determines the value of potential cooperation with the customer, not the linearly communicated quality of the product or service offered by the seller. Trust is built on three pillars (value system, know-how, presence) tied together by four buckles (consistency, openness, passion and non-antagonizing communication) – a process that, if crowned with success, gives stability to cooperation and, above all, margin. Any concepts or sales concepts that focus on getting the customer to say „I take it” are relics these days.
- FORTH CHANGE – consciously building a sales process in which the customer will accept being educated by the salesperson with a smile on his face.
Transformative change is a sort of engineering, or rather a philosophy of sales, in which the supplier becomes the source of the ultimate customer satisfaction – and that is the profit of the organization or a significant part of it, security for the future and quality of life. Today’s customer meets with the salesperson for these above purposes – but he alone does not define it. He needs to be made aware of it. Without building trust in himself, the salesperson will not be able to achieve this. This process is, in my opinion, the most difficult skill for a European salesman to acquire. Asia, Arabian countries, Africa and Latin America have a flair with this. Europeans, during 800 years of ecclesiastical and military education, even unlearned this process. This is a cruelly difficult paradigm to overcome. However, thousands of people in Poland are already proving today that it is possible.
- FIFTH CHANGE – the realization that the market is beginning to be dominated by those who think differently than before – the Y and Z generations.
The role of “their” information carriers and style of communication grows day by day. Social media and everything, that is modern in the area of information flow is a part of pour reality. Another aspect is the perception of generations Y and Z. Lack of patience, reliance on information not directly from the seller, i.e. non-linear communication, and sensitivity to social issues are the components of knowledge that will make marketing and sales processes successful. This also applies to sales management itself, a profession that is already very unpopular among Generation Y, and certainly among Generation Z. Simply put – there is a huge diversity of ways of thinking and approaching life (it’s worth reading the message from Graves’ Growth Spiral here). This is a huge area of change – and the main one is the implementation of non-linearity in communication. Step by step, you have to start understanding them and adjusting your actions to the perceptions of these groups.
- SIXTH CHANGE – realization of a strong increase in the importance of company/brand/product positioning.
Positioning is the most important term of today’s marketing. Do salespeople realize this? In a devastating majority – NO. The huge increase in the flow of information is causing colossal chaos in the minds of customers. Direct advertising has effectively ceased to work. A salesperson without the support of non-linear marketing has very little chance of making margin sales. Positioning is a process in which every „tissue” of the company must participate in practice. And today, even such a fundamental issue as synergy between sales and marketing activities in most European companies simply does not exist. Most sales departments do not even have a defined target positioning… Here there is a huge amount of work ahead of us in Europe….
- SEVENTH CHANGE – realization of the need for clients and customers to learn what a polychromatic culture is – that is, a parallel understanding of phenomena over time, coupled with the importance of social relationships.
The Economy of Chaos forces understanding on all of us, that building any technically perfect processes (like Just-In-Time Delivery or the idealist Lean Management) daydream of recent decades. Unstable and even „standard-breaking” supply chains today are just one dimension of the New Normal.
Perfectionism today should take on a new definition – it is an effort to build a way of working together that gives the highest possible probability that – in light of the impossibility of guaranteeing product and service availability and deadlines – we will achieve the best possible business outcome. Huge changes have shaken up the markets and our operations, and therefore business results. This will continue to happen, as the amount of information bits generated by humanity has exceeded the ability to control this flow. We must learn quickly how to exist in this environment, often without the ability to be timely. Non-European cultures have existed in polychronicity for centuries, and some for thousands of years.
- EIGHTH CHANGE – realization of the strong increase in the importance of the quality of Non-antagonizing Communication in the face of the enormous variability of the environment.
Any cooperation in such a turbulent environment demands “human intrusion”, to save the notoriously broken, previously established processes. Such a situation causes Europeans to unleash a tremendous amount of negative emotions – we are simply „upset that things are not the way we wanted to put them together.” We lack the humility to understand that volatility is a constant of our reality today – so the ability to master emotions is an art we need to possess, to develop. This skill must be based not only on awareness of the phenomenon of inevitable change, but also on the ability to communicate differently than before. Words matter. No one taught us this in school or outside of school. Learning what the Mechanism of Acceptance is, the foundation of Non-Antagonizing Communication, is a necessary step toward personal effectiveness today.
- NINTH CHANGE – consistently building OPTIONALITY in the sales area, as a component of the company’s ANTI-CRUST.
Without sales, there is no business. Volatility in today’s world means that basing any business on „one leg” is a risk that actually guarantees disaster. Optionality is a strategy that increases the probability that – despite the guaranteed volatility – our sales will allow us to survive the change. Diversity of markets, customer groups, sales channels, products/services or even conscious diversification of business types – this is to be or not to be in the Chaos Economy.
Forty years ago, diversification was recommended when the main branch of the business was recording surpluses. Today it is advisable at any stage of a company’s development.
Black Swans happen to us all – it’s time for anti-fragility
Nassim Taleb, author of the term „Black Swan,” in his groundbreaking book „Antiquity,” makes us realize that the New Normal also requires new and different thinking. In addition to optionality, he lists four other components: redundancy, asymmetry, the „less is more” assumption, and non-linearity. If these concepts and the above nine points are new to you – I suggest you add to your knowledge and rethink your current situation fairly quickly.
Why? Because I wish you the best. But this “best” is entirely up to you.
Krzysztof Sarnecki President of the Board, Partner QUEST CM
Entrepreneur. One of the few professional negotiators on the Polish market, strategic consultant, business coach. Expert in building market advantage of companies and marketing. Creator of the first non-linear 5th Generation of Sales and the concept of the Triple Pareto Law, as well as the mechanism of Non-Antagonizing Communication. Forerunner of non-linearity in Europe as the foundation of management in the chaos economy. Public speaker and mentor. Runs two YouTube channels recording multi-million views (Krzysztof Sarnecki and Quest for English). Author of many articles in the areas of management, marketing, sales and negotiation. Founder of the largest educational center for Poles abroad – Academy of Business & Career Developoment in Chicago, USA. Graduate of the University of Illinois, The UIC Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies in Chicago and the MBA program at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.
The article appeared in the December issue of Business HUB.
Downloadable online version of the latest issue(in polish): HERE.