In her new book, SNAP Selling, Jill Konrath explains how sales is changing as buyers become more informed and frazzled. SNAP Selling is a practical guide for savvy sales people looking to improve their performance at a time when it’s not easy to do so. The skinny: stop selling your stuff. Start selling your personal value to each buyer. Help frazzled buyers fix their most important problems with the least disruption. Do so in ways which are exceptionally valuable for every buyer. Let the focus + cadence of buyers’ interests dictate the cadence of your efforts. Make everything simple in a world which seems endlessly complex. In doing so, your value to buyers will be amplified. The bigger your value to buyers, the, faster you’ll succeed.
Read her book and you’ll find many nuggets of wisdom, including:
SOMETHING NEEDS TO CHANGE
Businesses, today, face some daunting hurdles in sales performance. In recent years there’s been an alarming erosion in sales rep effectiveness. Life as a buyer isn’t any better. Buyers are now surrounded by complexity and chaos, yet yearn for simplicity and order. Despite the frenetic pace of business, changes occur slowly. Buyers have little if any appetite for risk.These conditions make sales challenging.
IF LIFE AS A SALES PERSON SUCKS, TRY BEING A BUYER
Konrath sees in these conditions a rising importance of sales people who ‘get it’. Frazzled buyers want to fix important problems with the least disruption. They haven’t the time to think about the bigger picture of their business situation, nor can they tolerate anything which adds risks. Today, few sales people recognize these buyer burdens. As a result, day-to-day, Konrath concludes that buyers are often left with little choice but to find comfort in what they already have or have always done.
REQUIRES A SALES PROCESS THAT’S EXCEPTIONALLY HELPFUL TO BUYERS
In Konrath’s view, the 1st key to turning things around is for sales people to become Business Improvement Specialists whose personal value to buyers is obvious, and amplified by the buyer experience. At a time when buyers expect very little of sellers, Konrath’s model is one in which sales people don’t wait for customers who are ready to buy. They constantly learn how to initiate sales out of thin air from their thoughtful ability to create value for buyers.
THEN, SIMPLIFY THINGS FOR BUYERS
In Konrath’s view, most sales people fail to simplify things for buyers. As a result, their access to buyers is limited and they’re constantly looking for new prospects to call. A savvy sales person’s simple message is too important to ignore. Konrath concludes the smaller the idea, and actions required to implement it, the higher the odds of success; the higher the odds buyers will invite change, not fear it.
LEARNING IS THE KEY
Sales success hinges on each sales person’s drive to see their struggles as learning opportunities. Top performers will constantly dig in to figure out what works. They know success is achieved one decision at a time. For them, there is no failure – only many valuable learning experiences. Konrath’s take: it’s not possible to try to be successful at sales. It requires commitment; a willingness to do what it takes, including learning from things which fail to work.
The book includes, for each of these nuggets of wisdom (and many others), Konrath’s practical suggestions of things sales people can do day-to-day to improve their performance. Against the backdrop of the emergence of sales productivity as a key business agenda, this book is both insightful and well timed. If you’re a savvy sales person, or forward thinking sales leader, you’ll read it and learn much from it.
