Getting in Early: European Perspectives

Getting in Early: European Perspectives:by Zeke Sexauer
“Our customers just don’t call us in anymore!” 
This line, from a Head of Sales in the manufacturing space, articulates the difficult reality that all sales organisations, from across industry, are faced with in today’s buying environment. The truth is that, even if customers do call you in, they’re nearly 60% down their purchase decision already, leaving your sales reps to battle it out on price.
In some industries it’s even worse; one member in the chemicals space shared “not only is it our customers and our distributors, but even our end users already know what they want.”
These sentiments certainly got 35 Sales leaders all nodding their heads at the most recent Sales Executive Council’s (SEC) Executive meeting here in London, where we discussed the SEC’s latest research on Getting in Early: Shaping Demand through Pre-funnel Engagement.
While there’s always a lot to talk about when you get 35 like-minded peers in a room, the day was really dominated by two questions:
1)      Where do your customers learn?
2)      To what degree do we leverage social media in sales?
Let’s start with the first one: where do your customers learn?
“Consultants – Industry Forums – the Internet – Social Media – Conferences – their peers.” What struck me in these answers was that sales leaders know exactly where their customers are learning. But then the thunder bolt follow-up question: “What are your salespeople doing about it?” A muted hush descended across the room.
Now, that is not to say that organisations aren’t doing anything. It’s just that salespeople have traditionally relied on Marketing to do that for them. As another member in the Healthcare space put it, “You have to redefine who your competition is – the competition is no longer the other guy sitting in the corridor waiting to meet your customer. It’s the internet.” It requires a different approach.
SEC’s latest research confirms that this is exactly what your high-performing reps have figured out. They teach where their customers learn. They shape demand, using newly available tools and technology to build personal brands as trusted advisors to their customers. (SEC Members: Check out this webinar replay to learn more about effective B2B Social Selling techniques)
Which brings us to the second question: what should be the role of social media in sales?
The fear many sales leaders have was best articulated by a member in the transportation and logistics space: “Would I even want all my reps using social media? Sounds dangerous. How do I get the rest of my reps to go out and teach where customers learn?”
Our answer to the first question is absolutely, so long as the organisation supports and enables reps to leverage this learning channel. There are a number of examples of companies getting this right. For example, Morgan Stanley allows 600+ of their advisors to leverage LinkedIn and Twitter to generate leads and re-engage previous clients. IBM has gone one step further and armed their inside sales force with non-commercial “social sound bites” to send out to recommended social networks. This has resulted in a 12X increase in Twitter followers and a 2X increase in page views of seller profiles, culminating in increased lead generation.  (SEC Members: Learn more about IBM’s “social sound bites” and register for our upcoming webinar on this best practice.)
Ultimately, the heated discussion on these questions prompted a number of takeaways, probably best summed up by a member in the chemicals industry: “I know we have some examples of our high performers doing this already, I think I’m going to go to them first.”
We’d agree. Start with what your best people already do to shape demand and go from there. Have confident answers to the questions, “Where do your customers learn?” and “What are we doing about it?” Based on early feedback from European sales leaders, those questions may spark a lot of debate, but they’re the right questions to ask.
For those senior sales leaders who want to continue this discussion, join your cross industry peers at our upcoming executive briefings in Copenhagen on September 6^th, Johannesburg October 17^th and London November 29^th.