Thanks for leaving the comment. Its appreciated. I agree with a lot of your comments and perhaps sales is evolving rather than dying, although, I do think there is a need for a re-brand.

However, I do believe that people like our Mum’s will become a minority. Generation Y won’t even need to be present to buy a £200k yacht, or a car, never mind small ticket items, thereby that will not even evolutionise but revolutionise the sales role.

Cheers

Ann

Just because “the difference between Audi and Skoda is minimal” it doesn’t mean that my mum doesn’t need to speak to a someone before she buys a car.

The fact that she’ll make the decision based on the experience the sales person gives her, rather than the marginal difference in fuel economy, doesn’t negate the need for the sales person.

What I WOULD say, however, is that while sales people are still needed (perhaps more than ever?) their role in the overall customer experience needs to be appreciated.

If the difference between competitors is the customer experience, then the role of the sales person needs:

a) To sell
b) To make the first experience the customer has of your company an excellent one
c) To manage the customer’s expectations .. so they’re more likely to be happy later

It’s no good being the “old school” guy (and it was a guy, wasn’t it?) who will promise anything just to get the sale and claim it’s not his responsibility to make the customers happy .. that’s down to production/shipping/customer service.

The new salesperson needs to set the customers expectations, so they’re not disappointed down the road AS WELL as trying to make the sale.

There’s no point selling a Land Rover Discovery if you’re going to tell people’s it’s fuel efficient, has amazing performance at high speeds and is great for squeezing into those tiny urban parking spots.

They might buy the car .. but they’ll be pretty pissed off when they discover it’s not what they were expecting.

In other words, you need to manage their expectations .. even if it means losing the sale.

8 happy customers are better than 10 customers with 20% who feel they’ve been let down.

That means you need BETTER sales people. Sales people who can make the sale EVEN without misleading. Who can make the sale and be totally honest.

I actually think managing expectations can help build truly excellent customer experiences.

Imagine you went into a PC showroom and instead of just trying to sell you Norton Anti Virus and 3 year break down cover they tried to manage your expectations and to meet your needs?

Would you rave about the pushy, 21-year-old “uber-sales” guy who got you to sign up for a 3 year warranty despite the fact you didn’t really want it? I doubt it.

What about the girl who told you “actually, I wouldn’t get a laptop .. I’d go for a netbook. They’re cheaper, lighter, and from what you’ve said, you’re mainly going to be web browsing when you’re out and about and checking email .. so you don’t need the extra power a laptop brings. And you can download AVG Anti Virus for free.”?

Very possibly.

So, I’m not sure sales is dead. Just evolving.