President’s Message – December 2017

Dear NAWBO Silicon Valley Members,

What I learned this month about prospects in this New Age of the Seller.

I was going over my sales efforts to check if I am getting the job done. I found out it’s not because my sales team isn’t working hard enough, it’s because the rules of prospecting have changed – the New Age of the Seller.

Here are reasons why:

1. Cold calling is over. In the New Age of the Seller, prospects want to get to know you first.
2. Potential clients don’t need a salesperson to make an informed decision, buyers are acquiring much of that information on their own, online.
3. Prospects are pre-qualifying prospective vendors. In the New Age of the Seller, a prospect might have considered a dozen vendors, but in the new Age, that number might be as few as two, maybe even just one.
4. Reality, vendors are being ruled in or out before they know the prospect even exists.

This new empowerment for prospects are finding it saves them time, contributes to their decision-making journey, and reduces contact with uncompetitive, and therefore, irrelevant vendors. Consequently, getting in front of a prospect for a first meeting requires more time, effort and strategy.

New rules:

1. Demonstrate some level of relevance before granting an introductory meeting, let alone a sales call.
2. How are you relevant to that individual prospect, because the prospect decides what’s relevant.
3. Networking – in person and online – you must become a professional networker.
4. Prospect development and nurturing must be practiced with patience and a dialed-down sense of urgency.
5. Don’t lead with any element of the price/product/service value proposition. That won’t get you through the door.
6. Demonstrate your corporate values. Today, what your company stands for is a major relevance factor.
7. “Contribute first, contract second” is the Holy Grail of relevance.

Today is a whole different story of how to get in front of your prospect. You have to put more emphasis and resources in training, equipping, budgeting and measuring prospecting skills.