The customer is now firmly in control of buying. At least in the B2C market – business to consumer.
Time to change our sales process and stop ramming it down our customer’s throats because they won’t want to play ball in the future. They like being in charge.
Let me explain.
Here’s a typical web-enabled buyer process:
- Go online to research
- Research and learn about solutions
- Compare solutions
- Seek reviews
- Whittle down preferred solution
- Buy online unless unavailable
- Reluctantly call/email provider
- Buy as quickly and painlessly as possible
Where do you appear currently in your sales process? Right at the end, if you’re lucky and this is just an “order take”. Selling has gone – now we need to help them buy.
Here’s a compatible sales process that matches:
- Put plenty of information about your solution online
- Articles, blog posts, videos that teach the solution, don’t sell
- Provide online third party reviews and testimonials about your solution
- Make available the answer to various questions online – don’t make them call you
- Make purchase available online, if possible
- If not automated, provide quick, efficient, painless way to buy solution direct from you
The only contact comes right at the end and we mustn’t put the customer through an arduous sales process. They’ve already done that, they just want to purchase.
The customer is firmly in control and will increase their desire to govern the buying as the Gen Y and shortly the Gen Z’s appear.
