Some years ago, I had a role in the sales training department of a large scientific instrument company. My job was to help train the sales team to be able to effectively sell the products and solutions we had on offer. The thrust of the training was typically to focus on the benefit to the customer, rather than the analytical capability of the solution. In other words, forget the sensitivity, think how much time you will get back in your day because you’re not re-running samples. This focus on benefit rather than feature is common in many if not most industries, but it wasn’t always like that. Hence today’s blog is a gentle look at how the marketing and selling process has changed, focused as always specifically on our niche of isotope ratio MS.
When I first worked in a “customer facing” role (by which I mean any role where you are regularly interacting with users), performance specifications were the number one sales tool. The company I worked for, and the ones I competed with, were engaged in a constant battle to show the highest sensitivity – that being the number one performance criteria. I don’t know whether the scientists buying the instruments were equally motivated by specifications (we probably never thought to ask them!) but I suspect not. I’d like to think that factors such as ease of use and reliability were bigger driving forces, yet we blindly carried on our “specification war” thinking that bigger was always better.
As I moved from company to company, the concept of “feature – benefit – value” began to play more of a part in the sales process, and by the time I took the role in sales training, specifications had become just one of a set of selling tools and not necessarily the most prominent.
But has much really changed? Browsing the websites of isotope ratio MS vendors, there seems to be little focus on specifications. Yet many of the salespeople that I know still use specifications as a key differentiator. When working in sales training, I used to create online training courses (the “eLearning” that most working people love to hate). Salespeople I spoke to during the content creation process insisted that specifications were included, usually in the form of a “specification comparison table” to show just how much better than the competition we were. The marketeers at the instrument vendors want to think that customers are buying into a “lifestyle”, that the brand does the heavy lifting, but my time spent with salespeople would seem to contradict this.
That’s the product positioning covered. What else has changed in the selling process in the intervening 25 years? Attire is an obvious one. When I started working as a test engineer, I wore a tie. These days it is hard to imagine engineers working in a very “hands-on” (and often dirty!) role wearing a smart white shirt and a tie, yet that’s what we did. The salespeople of the time would always be formally dressed (business suit and tie), though perhaps the tie would come off at dinner with the customers. This has obviously changed a lot, to the point that if I went to a UK university to speak about a potential sale, I’d avoid wearing a suit in case it looked suspiciously like I was trying too hard!
There was always a distinct regionality to the formality of attire, and this still stand today. The general direction is towards relaxed, more casual attire, but I note that some parts of Europe (such as Germany) are re-embracing the suit in our industry. This appeals to me personally, I like the excuse to dress smartly, even though I don’t tend to on a daily basis. Other parts of Europe differ, with the UK and Nordics being notably more casual.
And further afield? I’ve been to Japan a few times recently. It was once considered the last bastion of fully formal business attire, yet at a recent conference there, I noticed even the exhibitors (salespeople!) were typically not wearing ties. As to China, it seems to be outdoing even the UK in the casual wars, with chinos, sneakers and a logo’d company polo shirt being the sales attire of choice.
I’ve also seen a change in the use (or lack of use) of business cards. When I first started working, these were an essential business tool – I remember taking a fairly big box of them to conferences in the 1990’s. But they’re almost extinct, particularly in the West. I take a handful with me just in case, but they are rarely needed. Japan seems to remain the exception to this, where the careful exchange of (ideally, well made) business cards still seem like a cornerstone of building relationships.
What difference has the internet made? In my opinion a huge one. 20 years ago, when I went to a lab to see a potential future customer, they often knew very little about the products I was selling. Their interest was often sparked by visiting other labs, or speaking to fellow scientists at conferences. These days, the scientists that I meet have always done their homework; they’re fully versed in the technology and are able to critique any shortcomings they have identified. But is this true in all industries? I was told earlier in the year by a car salesman that “…most people that come in to this showroom know more about the car they are interested in than I do…”. Perhaps that says it all!
So with this in mind, is there still a need for salespeople? In my opinion it is a resounding “yes”. Early on in my sales career I devoured any information I could about being a more successful salesperson, and one statement that came up again and again was that “people buy from people”. I realized that what this means is that generally, people prefer to buy from someone who can help them through the sales process, and can reassure them that they’re making the right decision. You don’t get that warm fuzzy feeling when you check out at Amazon (other retailers, etc.).
A second point is that some technologies do benefit from having a human there to explain them, a great example being our own ATONA technology – which I can be honest took me a while to really “get”. Another way that a salesperson can be of help is to offer guidance in the early stages of the sales process. Applying for funding to purchase a mass spec is a very daunting process, especially the first time, and many salespeople I know are well versed in this process and of course are more than willing to help (slight case of self-interest here!).
Therefore, I believe salespeople are here to stay in our industry. Generally, they are not scary, they won’t try to strong-arm you into buying an instrument (we’re not used car salesmen you know!) and it is in their best interest to help you understand the technologies and solutions. We’re ready when you are.
That’s all for this month, but if you’ve got any comments or observations about the changing role of the salesperson, then please let me know, I’d be keen to hear (Stephen.guilfoyle@isotopx.com). More next time!
