With the ease of information access in today’s digital age, customers can learn a lot about our products and services before we make our first sales call. They comb our websites to research our offerings. They also read what our competitors, critics and customers say about us.
If customers can get all the information they need through research, what is the role of the salesperson? How do we bring superior knowledge to the customer when they can learn about our products and services without talking to us?
The Open Systems Era
In the late 1980s a major shift was happening in the computer industry from proprietary computing systems to open computing systems. In short, proprietary computing environments meant customers continually had to deal with systems integration issues, which decreased their productivity. Customers were also limited in their choice of software applications often meaning they had to settle for less than they actually needed.
It was the desire to enhance their operations that drove the industry to demand a standard server operating system based on UNIX. Even though all the major computer manufacturers had their own versions of UNIX, the foundation was still UNIX. This meant better cross-platform integration and more open choice for customers. Thus was birthed the Open Systems era.
Given the infancy of this new technology it was impossible for our salespeople to have superior knowledge. We were trained on the basics but many of the people who would be evaluating us needed true expertise. Since we couldn’t become experts overnight the next best thing was to make sure our customers had access to experts. The job of sales is to be the expert on the customer so we can connect them with exactly the right people to answer their questions and concerns. That’s what HP enabled for us.
We had come to a point when all companies were considering a move to Open Systems. At HP, we had spent years behind competitors like IBM and Digital Equipment Corporation because their systems had set the proprietary industry standards. With the advent of Open Systems, the playing field was again leveled and companies who once were closed to us were now open. With most Fortune 500 companies considering the move, we had to share superior knowledge in order to keep that door open.
It was impossible for our salespeople and engineers to become experts overnight. At the same time, the CXOs of all our prospective customers were clamoring for us to deliver superior knowledge about Open Systems. Would it make them more efficient? Would it reduce their costs? Their primary need was for unbiased education so they could correctly decide if Open Systems was right for them and, if so, who they should work with to make it happen.
At HP, rather than sending our salespeople out to do traditional sales pitches, we worked with a company called Cambridge Technology Group, in Boston, to provide educational opportunities for CXOs, so they could get that unbiased, superior knowledge, about Open Systems. Equally important, we got to attend the training with the CXOs of our prospective customers. We got to hear the questions they asked and they shared their concerns with us when we weren’t in the classroom. We got to spend two days with CXOs as they were pondering whether or not to make this significant change.
These trainings, not only delivered unbiased, superior technical knowledge, but we got to demonstrate the one thing prospective customers couldn’t research then and can’t research today. The customers were able to learn about us. While they learned about Open Systems they also learned what it would be like to do business with us, as individuals, and with HP, the company. In the end, this path to CREDABILITY earned HP a lot of business when companies migrated to Open Systems.
Superior knowledge delivered
We earn CREDABILITY by delivering superior knowledge to our customers, whether it comes from us or not. The customer simply needs us to be experts on their needs which allows us to properly represent them back to our companies and to the community that can help them, even if it’s not us. This is how incredibly successful salespeople consistently earn the CREDABILITY that allows them to win more business with more customers.
©2015 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities® LLC
