Commercial Integrator November 2022 - 10

AV BRAINS & BRAWN
What that boils down to is that you're
more in control of your personal story than
you think you are. The ACT acronym -
Action Changes Things - tells us that.
Just like a book, your life is composed
of chapters. Inside each chapter, there are
changes. Challenges are specific changes
that we must face.
Let's link the " changes and challenges "
concept to one specific aspect of the
commercial AV industry: sales. This centers
on the three-foot distance across the
width of a table; this is what separates the
salesperson from the customer, and the
outcome determines a business' ultimate
health. I would suggest that, over the last
20 years, nothing has changed more than
sales. Please permit me to make the case,
using historical context and considering
the challenges we face today.
A Salesperson's Traditional Role
The story begins with a salesperson and
their traditional role. Their primary role was
to collect, deliver and explain information.
Alarmingly, this sounds a lot like what buyers
get from the internet today. Historically,
we interacted with three or four stakeholders
on a project purchase. These days, however,
Gartner Research reports, we interact
with anywhere from 12 to 20-plus stakeholders.
In this environment, stakeholder
opinions flourish and everyone wants to
chime in. What's the " culprit " causing this
change? The availability of information any
time, any place, on any digital device.
We encounter a plethora of buyers who
think they know it all. This is most often
product centric. In other words, they know
a generic product description and what
we call " the speeds and feeds " (i.e., the
specs). They saw something online at a
" reputable " website, so it must be true,
right? The truth is, the " answers " they have
are, at best, incomplete and could actually
be wrong. The challenge lies in telling
someone that what they think they know is
not the real information that they need to
know. Accepting this truth is a tough pill
for many to swallow.
You don't necessarily have to tell people
that they're entirely wrong (although they
might be); just tell them that their information
is incomplete. Yes, their perception
10
is their reality, and, in their minds, you are
only trying to sell them something. But, the
fact is, you aren't (or shouldn't be) there
simply to sell products; you should be there
to solve problems!
Addressing and
Changing Their Perception
Addressing and changing their perception
is the biggest challenge that we face.
Recent end-user research (Gartner, Harvard
Business, Forbes, etc.) shows the following:
› Only 8% of customers say their sales
reps exceed expectations.
› Only 23% of buyers look to " vendor
salespeople " as a top-three resource to
solve business problems.
› About 70% of customers have already
defined their own needs and decided
to purchase something before they
engage salespeople.
› According to Forbes research, 55% of
salespeople lack basic sales skills and
are not effective communicators.
Here's the Good News
Now, here's the good news. As noted
earlier, our minds are flexible and adaptive.
We can train our brains to thrive amid
change. Sales is a skill that can be taught
and learned if you have an open mind. You
can wade through what is available for
sales training to see what fits (or take our
AVIXA-sponsored seminar, called " Sales'
New Role and the Importance of You " ). But,
whatever you do, get trained. Over 74% of
Fortune 500 companies say that coaching
and sales training can improve the
performance of individual salespeople by,
on average, more than 20%. Sales training
arms the sales team with the skills they
need to do the following:
› Provide a better sales experience for
current and prospective clients.
› Help improve the company culture and
promote professionalism.
› Help improve sales-team collaboration.
› Improve the desire for product knowledge.
Customers
can get product anywhere; they cannot,
however, get the value you provide just anywhere.
That is unique to you and differentiates you from
competitors.
Salespeople must change those perceptions.
We cannot change buyers' behavior,
so we must alter our sales behavior. Whereas,
at one time, we led with products, we
now must focus on buyers as individuals -
that is, we must understand their hot buttons,
their pain points and their problems.
Most importantly, we must understand the
implications of those problems for them,
their department and their company.
This injects the concept of " value " into
the equation. I'm not talking about the value
of the product; instead, I'm referring to the
value you offer by telling them something
they didn't already know. The secret to success
is to employ a new sales approach built
around really knowing the customer and
providing value in their eyes. They can get
product anywhere; they cannot, however,
get the value you provide just anywhere.
That is unique to you and differentiates you
from competitors. It also differentiates you
from the good ol' internet.
Commercial Integrator NOVEMBER 2022
› Stay up to date on industry trends and
the competition.
› Identify and address individual
strengths and weaknesses.
› Retain top sales talent.
› And...drum roll, please...increase and
improve sales performance.
Not every chapter or episode in your
personal book of life will be successful. And
that's OK - after all, you can always write a
new one. The beauty of life is that you can
course correct and adapt. Richard Branson
said, " In business, if you realize you've
made a bad decision, you change it. "
Don't feel frustrated if what you're currently
doing is not working as well as you
expected. Seek out answers and use your
energy to write the next chapter.
Alan C. Brawn, CTS, ISF-C,
DSCE, DSDE, DSNE, DCME,
DSSP, is a principal of Brawn
Consulting.
commercialintegrator.com
http://www.commercialintegrator.com
Commercial Integrator November 2022

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