The digitalized death of a salesman

Don't worry. This is not the next episode of Arthur Miller's stage play. The only similarity may be that salesman are still running for their clients' budgets to become rich and be well-liked. Still, after days of Covid19, society lockdown and business uncertainty, the digital reality of business decision makers is in danger of running salesmen into a loss of their sales identity. Sales transformation is becoming the ultimate challenge for companies and their management teams. The longer this extraordinary period lasts, the clearer it becomes that the C-level tries to transform offline into online sales processes in a very simplistic manner, which raises the question: How can a salesman become happy in todays digital reality?

Like politicians have locked down traditional business, companies seem to have closed doors for salesmen. No bigger events. No workshops. No conferences. No meetings. No offline exchange. Customer touch points have transformed into social selling, videoconferencing, webinars, and virtual conferences. This forced digital transformation is turning around sales organizations, their tactics and workflows, commission and incentive structures as well as opportunities and sales work-life amenities like never before - quite like George Clooney's experience in the movie "Up in the air". And many sales leaders hope that with the current pandemic-forced trial phase, the digital sales transformation is coming by default.

But why is this sales transformation such a challenge. Let's dive into the digital sales transformation opportunities...

Videoconferencing - Covid19's Miracle Weapon

Providing a the best possible personal atmosphere for customers for pitches and lead generation is key for sales people. Videoconferences seem to be the Miracle Weapon for lost personal offline interaction. Sales people see their customers face-to-face, and vice versa. It's like sitting together in a room. But is it really comparable? Probably not. The monitor cutout takes away gesture and mimic, apart from not being able to perceive and represent the full appearance of a personality. In meetings, persuasive salespeople act like on a stage. They stand up, paint on boards, use branded material to bridge the gap between them and heir customers. Apart from that, they do feel and build personality with a handshake from the beginning. This most personal habit only comes to life in the end of videoconferences. When all participants are waving Goodbye. The "virtual handshake" as we found out in a poll on LinkedIn. But is this personal sign of humanity not coming much too late in the sales meeting's online process? What are digital tricks to get more buy-in from attendees? Can videoconferences be as convincing as business lunches that often break the ice and become the tipping point of fruitful collaboration? And why do so many sale people tell us that they are struggling with a longer sales cycle online than offline? Will continuous networking be as powerful as the a regular catch-up of a salesman?

Social Selling - the emerging pitch

Content by sales people is exploding on LinkedIn (less on XING) with a means to manage networking for profit. Te approach sounds promising, but the output value of salesman is often not engaging, not much customer solution-focused, not extremely professional, too "brand-serving" and very often semi-smart in their messaging. Company messages get spread wildly like digital advertising. Most of those are written in an impersonal style without positioning the salesman's unique expertise, resulting in a lack of trust building. From verbal to written communication is a rocky path for many sales people. Ideas, inspiration and intuition is missing. Knowledge around content production and communication tactics is low as salesman have seen this as the job for marketers and communicators. Marketing often remains the unaligned revenue generating partner. And, sales ambition is too greedy to grow the network and address the next lead. What was the email newsletter tactic to find leads without an opt-in becomes the connection request without a personal note and a clear connection message. The approach is obvious: Connect, connect, connect. Whoever accepts, gets spammed and pitched. Who can blame them? A full sales pipeline is wanted by the bosses and unrealistic social selling KPIs like Social Selling Index (SSI) shall do the revenue magic. The connection cern rate burns the salesman's motivation. Training is needed to win with social selling, but budgets are low. Kind of a vicious circle...

Webinars - the pitch platform

"Free webinar. Join us. Register now. Last chance." Almost all webinar promotions sound similar. Words do change positions - from time to time. Presented content stays superficial, stays a sales pitch. Added value? Well, remember Albert Eistein: "What costs nothing is worth nothing"? Fair point? In times when the purchase enthusiasm and engagement with sales people comes down to Zero, this new sales pitch via webinars appears to be newly found lead generation machine. Afterwards the hope lies in marketing automation tools to nurture attendees down the sales funnel (with the latest EU Privacy Shield regulations even more problematic). That's why especially software companies start handing out free test version on top. This tactic increases the challenge of monetization in competitive markets. Friend of revenue but foe of margins? Post Corona days will tell when industry uncertainty ends. Quarterly target figures and shareholder value seem to eat a strategic webinar approach for breakfast. So, what will be new webinar approaches that describe the customer value of product solutions when compliance hinders testimonials and block partners to participate in webinars? Do not marketing and sales need to transform their vertical strategy and merge into a common collaboration for less but more qualified leads? Which then means a complete restructuring of commission models?

Virtual conferences - the avatar pitch

Virtual conferences are the biggest challenge from a salesman's perspective. In an offline world, every salesperson tries to engage when someone enters their branded booth. The competition for leads was tough for salesman at offline conferences and summits, so they do whatever is possible to win the "leads sheet championship". Unfortunately, virtual events are a relaxed job for sales parties. Although there is all elements of booth activities from presentations, leadership speeches up to workshops, the openness for engagement with sales people sucks. And when buyers enter their nicely designed online lounge, companies and salesmen tend to copy the offline communication process. They behave like (chat)bots or pushy salesman in shops. Pling! Immediately when someone comes in the virtual brand area, a realistic avatar (or even the real picture) of a sales person pops up. In typical sales markets like the US, it might work. In Europe it proves to be difficult. But is the copy of a conversational behavior from offline to online events the way to approach people? For sure, it is a normal sales behavior. Their ambition is as tense as a bow - but hits the targets' sensitive nerves, and often misses the customer moment of truth. Is it a lack of empathy and patience? Why is selling at virtual events so complex? Have we ever asked ourselves and our customers how a successful online sales pitch could look like?

Was not a salesman's happiness literally running after revenues, collecting air miles, bringing buying teams to one table, "staging" their expertise in meeting rooms, bringing product features in meetings to live, getting signatures under contracts, and exploring the next customer need over a coffee or lunch? Do they not feel downgraded when they work like influencers from their home, bed and table? How much have digital tactics like the above changed the traditional sales personality and identity then? What have the management teams done to enable a smooth and sustainable sales transformation?

In meetings and workshops, we often raise the same questions. Why do we not find the secret sauce of digital sales transformation? What are the ingredients to enable a digital sales process? How can we take our sales people and our customers by the hand on our digital sales transformation journey? Management teams are struggling with answers, the conclusion is different from company to company, and the sales transformation process becomes a complex change management challenge.

Sales transformation is not digital transformation. It's a transformation that asks customers for the experience that they expect - without chasing them, without disturbing their business and without digitally pitching them to death. Based on this premise, sales leaders in a digitalized world are facing William "Willy" Loman's ultimate question: How can we pave the way to digital sales in order to make our salesmen happy? Arthur Miller reloaded.

Thoughts?

PS: Salesman = saleswoman. Diversity is key. I just referred to the Arthur Millers' title.