Competitive Advantage Has Changed
Jim Pancero, who has been a sales coach for 38 years, discusses how competitive advantage has evolved a lot more than we might realize. He provides great insight into how buyer behavior and expectations have changed and what salespeople can do about this evolution of sales.
This Sales Expert Interview covers:
The evolution of sales
- Jim has been selling for almost 50 years. He says that salespeople in the trenches might not recognize the thresholds of change because they just adapt. He goes through the evolution of sales by decade.
- In the past, a competitive advantage could be as simple as manipulating your demo, but this stopped working.
The Amazon Model
- Customers today care about speed, simplicity, and ease of use. The only way you are going to compete with this is if you add tangible value.
- The only time someone buys on price is if they don’t see the difference in the products they are considering. It’s the salesperson’s job to combat this.
Overwhelmed buyers
- Let’s face it. Buyers today are swarmed from every direction with our competitors. The worst thing that can happen is that they feel so overwhelmed they make no decision or they make a hasty one.
- The internet is not the friend of salespeople, and the more options people have the more price sensitive they will be.
Knowing who to trust
- Being proactive as a salesperson will set you apart and allow buyers to trust you more.
- Salespeople have to understand their prospect’s industry and the problems they are having.
- The total cost of ownership piece is an important piece that buyers don’t usually look at. Going with the lower price is a risk to the buyer.
- Salespeople have to ask assumptive questions and have stronger messaging.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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