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The Wrong Definition of Sales 2.0
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There’s been a new term making the rounds the last couple years: “Sales 2.0.” But as with anything “2.0,” a few are leading the charge to innovate, while others are jumping on the bandwagon simply to use the term.
The sad thing is, while some of the latter group carry solid sales training credentials, they would have you believe that teaching 2.0 means regurgitating the same advice given over the last 45 years.
Here’s a call out to sales authors to use Sales 2.0 and mean it. If 2.0 refers to the “new version” or “next generation” or “next evolution” or “new approach” for doing something, then it can never be about reissuing a message that’s been taught for years.
Sales 2.0 is not “ask more questions.”
Sales 2.0 is not “sell yourself.”
Sales 2.0 is not “sell benefits, not features.”
Sales 2.0 is not “be unique.”
Sales 2.0 is not “don’t sell on price.”
Sales 2.0 is not “be sharp on the phone.”
Sales has always been about those things. The fact that it’s more important today than 5, 10, or 20 years ago, doesn’t suddenly make it innovative or insightful advice. Those are sales principles, they’re certainly not innovative techniques or approaches.
If a baseball hitting instructor taught players to focus, to keep their eye on the ball, to follow through on their swing, to rotate their hips, and so forth, we wouldn’t call that advice Hitting 2.0. A player who heeds that advice isn’t an innovative hitter — even if he’s effective. The advice has been there for decades.
I’ve got a sales book in my library by George Kahn titled, “The 36 Biggest Mistakes Salesmen Make.” It was originally published in 1963. It’s so old, did you notice, that the title says “salesmen.” And yet, here are a few gems straight from the book:
“The salesman can no more allow uniformity to creep into his manner and appearance than the company he represents can allow dullness and lack of innovation to creep into its products.” (Think: “be unique”)
“Remember, you are selling benefits, not technology.” (Think: “sell benefits, not features”)
“Instead of engaging in futile discussions about competitive prices, the smart salesman talks about security…he stresses reputation, reliability and record of good service.” (Think: “don’t sell on price”)
We could do the same exercise for a list of other sales books from days gone by. And training dating back to Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” has talked about the power of asking questions vs. talking over someone in order to be persuasive. Sales 2.0 is not about preaching the same methods that have been taught for years, whether salespeople have listened or not.
As sales trainers and publishers, we need to stop repackaging old content as new. If you want to tell people to stick to certain sales principles, I’m on board, if you want to call that advice Sales 2.0, you’re branding it inaccurately.
SalesForce.com is Sales 2.0. Beyond the idea of online prospect management, the applications that have been built onto SalesForce are unreal.
Jigsaw is Sales 2.0. It’s an innovative approach to getting the names and contact info you need to get deals going.
PipelineDeals and BatchBook are Sales 2.0. They’re multiple progressions beyond Act! and Goldmine in terms of ease of use, speed to use, and sharing capabilities.
Landslide is Sales 2.0. It’s a whole new approach to sales rep planning and organization.
The Selling to Big Companies approach is Sales 2.0. Jill teaches a way to sell to executives that most salespeople aren’t aware of, and didn’t do 15 years ago.
SalesGenius is Sales 2.0. It takes us beyond phone communications, beyond email communications, to email communications that provide us with follow-through data on customers and prospects.
The Never Cold Call approach is Sales 2.0. Frank gets it, that decision-makers have more distractions and incoming messages now than ever. His self-marketing approach gets you through despite that.
The X2 Sales System is Sales 2.0. Jeff Hardesty teaches a cutting-edge prospecting system, backed up by data, feedback, and killer software, to schedule more appointments.
It may sound cliche, but Seth Godin is Sales 2.0.
Referrals via LinkedIn are Sales 2.0 (but read our gripe about LinkedIn). The tool simply didn’t exist 10 years ago in any practical form.
Webinars and screencasts are Sales 2.0. There may be good ones and bad ones, but they introduce a new way to demonstrate your product or service and close the deal from thousands of miles away.
Brent Holloway gets Sales 2.0.
Sales 2.0 is about about new approaches to getting sales results. Sometimes they’re techniques, other times they’re tools. They’re not prinicples — those are timeless. And it’s never about saying the same things as sales trainers from a decade ago.
12 Responses to “The Wrong Definition of Sales 2.0”
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Excellent article on Sales 2.0. And thanks for including my Selling to Big Companies approach as part of the mix.
Jill
Brandon,
Good point. I was one of the first people to coin the term “Sales 2.0″ (2 years ago) hence my company is called “Sales 2.0″ and actually we own the registered trademark “Sales 2.0″.
My definition is “a new way of selling”. We see technology as one part of the puzzle as with any business function: people, process and tools. I agree with your examples those are people and companies that get it .
I believe Sales 2.0 is real because the Internet shifted “the playing field”. It gave buyers a whole new way to buy. Sales 2.0 is about helping sales people sell in the Internet Age.
We are just at the beginning of a big improvement in how we sell. Thanks for pointing out that this is fundamental and not just a fad.
Nigel
Jill, Thanks for checking in.
Nigel, I agree. Sales 2.0 is real, and the profession is changing. Much of the age-old advice I highlight in the post is still valid — listening skills, selling benefits over features, etc. — it’s just not “2.0″ to coach people to continue to use those skills.
To me, 2.0 is about incorporating new approaches and, sometimes, new tools, in order to remain successful as a sales professional. The Internet has definitely changed things and requires professionals to adapt or be left behind over the next few years.
Brandon,
Good points. The CEO at Genius, David Thompson, is writing a new version of his Sales 2.0 For Dummies Booklet. In the book he talks about how Sales 2.0 is about technologies and techniques that facilitate a faster, higher volume sales process– and how now more than ever– your entire enterprise needs to be Sales 2.0. Look for the new book in March.
Time for Sales 3.0 where Internet, company website, email and CRM meet seamlessly.
This is Craig Elias the creator of Trigger Event Selling.
For me ALL the Sales 2.0 tools are about one thing – Timing…Getting in front of customers at EXACTLY the right time and how do you close more sales when you do.
We’ve all had it happen by luck or circumstance in the past…Get in front of a highly motivated decision maker at EXACTLY the right time and the sale almost happens by itself. When it happens you experience few, if any, challenges getting to the buyer, understanding the problem, presenting a solution, or closing the sale.
Sales 2.0 is about understanding what made it happen and then putting in place the tools and processes needed to make it happen, again, and again, and again.
For me its’ that simple…
The biggest shift I’ve seen has been the rapid move from outbound marketing methods to the difficult task of capturing inbound, anonymous prospects. As a “traditional” IT sales person for 15 years, I saw a big change around 2003-2004. The 800 pound gorilla in the room is the fact that internet marketing has fundamentally changed the role of the sales person.
We used to be educators…now anonymous customers educate themselves.
We used to give presentations…now customers view Webinars on-demand
We used to value customer references…now we have 100s of Case Studies
We used to be able to contact prospects…now they hide behind voice mail
Sales made a critical mistake in allowing Marketing to exclusively own the company website. Of course, the original websites were nothing more than electronic brochures so it was a logical choice. Not so anymore.
Marketing has raced forward embracing the possibilities of web marketing without considering the impact on basic sales interaction. Competing marketing groups leap frog each other by putting more and more sales content on the web, further displacing the sales person and making it tougher to “engage” serious prospects. No wonder serious prospects never fill out the “contact us for more information” pages, what else is there?
Sales 2.0 is not about warming up old processes and “selling smarter”, it is about taking back control of the sales process…and that includes having a say about a company’s web strategy. Sales management must demand a seat at the web marketing table.
I confess to still being confused by the term Sales 2.0. Brandon, you seem to define it as simply “new,” as in if it’s new, it may be 2.0, and if it’s old, it cannot be 2.0.
But some “new” stuff actually moves the ball forward, and other “new” stuff moves the ball backward. True customer focus has been around since Dale Carnegie, though rarely practiced in a clean form. Jill Konrath practices it–and by your own suggestion she’s 2.0.
On the other hand, Craig Elias (see his comment above) is all about timing–getting in at the right time to close more sales. I’d say that’s about efficiency, and very seller-centric.
What I notice is that a great part of the sales field is increasingly about sales efficiency–how many sales can I close with how little cost. The more you focus on that, the more you turn the customer into an object–and destroy customer focus. There’s an insidious risk of becoming seller-centric.
Sales 2.0 may be “new,” but that doesn’t mean it’s a step forward. See for example Mark Slatin’s thoughtful critique of sales benchmarking at
http://trustedadvisor.com/trustmatters/487/Sales-Benchmarking–What-to-Measure-in-a-Tough-Economy
“New” has always been a catchy phrase, but it’s value-neutral–it can be good or bad, depending on how it’s used. I find very useful the comments above by Dale (sales and marketing) and Nigel (sales and buying) because they put “new” in a context that lets us see larger issues–the organizational context of the sales function, and the infinitely rich realm of how sellers and buyers relate.
If we use “Sales 2.0″ in a way that’s intended to be complimentary, then mightn’t we talk about more than just “new” or “improved?” And while improving our inner machinery and efficiencies is a good thing, that alone can’t carry the weight of adulation we seem inclined to put on 2.0.
The best of 2.0 alters fundamental things, old things, things that have been around for ages–customer focus, relationships, value propositions, time to market, integration, supply chains, fast-tracking, contracting, value delivery, envisioning, participation.
If Sales 2.0 can give customers more value more quickly, that’s something to really scream about. If Sales 2.0 gets bogged down in faster closing and cheaper metrics, then it’s considerably less exciting.
The simple fact is that Sales 2.0 is real and if you don’t learn how to sell in the New Sales Economy you’re going to get crushed. This change will not happen overnight, but it’s happening and will alter the sales landscape forever.
With each day that passes it will become increasingly harder to sell with high pressure tactics. As the economy and buyers change their preferences inbound marketing strategies will become increasingly important and integrated with how sales reps target customers.
If your worried about the definition of Sales 2.0 you’re on the wrong path. That is the path of fear and resistance. Instead, you should be doing everything you can to learn how the sales profession is changing and how Sales 2.0 can help you become a better sales rep.
I’d say I agree, Charles. There are new “tools” for selling in this digital age that I think get it all wrong. They’ll go nameless…for now. They’re simply shiny and new.
I think there are plenty of Sales 1.0 principles that still apply and always will. My point is that simply because they’re not being practiced doesn’t make them Sales 2.0. Maybe it’s semantics, but if you’re going to say something is innovative, I think it should be innovative. I like how you paraphrase me: “if it’s new, it may be 2.0, and if it’s old, it cannot be 2.0.” I’d agree with that statement, with an emphasize on the “may” and “cannot.”
New techniques aren’t always the best ones. So I’d agree with your other comment, too: “Sales 2.0 may be “new,” but that doesn’t mean it’s a step forward.”
Let me make this simple. Sales 2.0 is about change. The selling tools, processes and methodologies need to be re-modeled because the CUSTOMER has changed. Sure – the Sales 1.0 basics are still there (as they should be – the basics never change right?) – but there are so many new tools and channels for sales people to now take advantage of (that the CUSTOMER is already using) that we need to start a shift in leveraging these new capabilities and mindset.
I personally hate anything with a 2.0 on it – but like a software release – it does say that something major has changed and it might be worthwhile to check it out. Sales 2.0 is a challenge – unfortunately it’s not like everyone is even at the Sales 1.0 level yet! Sales skills are all over the map today (case in point of having a solid sales process to track and measure against).
Let’s just hope that whatever old/new stuff Sales 2.0 becomes – it aligns with the customer’s buying expectations. That’s what really counts in the end.
Great post on sales 2.0. I am going to share it with my professional network.