How Are You Coping With Change In Your Sales Value Chain?

• ‘We (business to business salespeople) are selling solutions; using consultative selling techniques wherever possible, and positioning ourselves further up the values chain than ever before’.
• ‘We are selling transactionally, pushing product into customers for the best margin we can, using benefits and incentives to support the selling proposition'.

Which of the above two statements is closest to your reality?

Many sales organisations speak the rhetoric of the first statement, but operate (and think) much closer to the second. We haven’t met a sales organisation that doesn’t use words like solutions, valued added, consultative in its meetings, but when we see salespeople operating out in the field they are working with terms like, deals, discounts, special terms and end of the month offers.

Why this gap between the language of a more strategic value added approach to selling and many sales organisations' realities of short term focus of driving the numbers through a deal driven engagement with the customer?

Because, there is recognition of the need to develop the way selling is carried out but a lack of ideas in how to make the transition in ways that minimize the short term risks to business levels.

The current business environment is requiring salespeople to be more than deal pushers and order expediters, they need to become capable of value adding into the sales process, so as the customer side continues to sophisticate, becoming more demanding and competitive, salespeople can maintain their role in the value proposition and continue to make a real difference.

The model above allows you to place your own sales process on the value adding continuum.

For more information contact:

Claudine McClean

tel: +44 (0)1789 734 400
email: claudinem@salespathways.com

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