By Sarath Pendyala | 4/22/2016 | General

Guest Post: Note to Sales Reps – Don’t Sell Technology, Sell the Process!

Guest Post: Note to Sales Reps – Don’t Sell Technology, Sell the Process!

Technology and business are coming closer and closer nowadays and this trend looks only to strengthen as we enter the New Year. The quick proliferation of internet and Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery methodology is one of the prime contributors to this. The low upfront costs and quick deployment cycles associated with SaaS are a huge difference from legacy software applications, and this allows organizations to enjoy the benefits of technology faster and more economically. Also, today, there is increased awareness about the benefits of digitization and organizations don’t want to be left behind in a race that could lose them their competitive advantage.

SaaS companies thrive on the performance of sales reps. The SaaS market depends on well-prepared and well-trained sales reps more than most markets to gain customers. As such, the sales reps have to get their messaging right – they are not peddlers of technology anymore; they are selling a process, a streamlined and standardized process to manage business functions. As such, their role is not that of a traditional sales rep anymore; their role is that of a business consultant and the software is one of the suggested remedies to make the business process more efficient and effective. They should completely understand the prospective client’s business process and how the software could help manage and improve it.

This approach should guide their discussions, right from lead qualification. The basis for lead qualification should include a discussion on the lead’s business process and how the software can help. The discussion should be more about the business process than about the software. After all, we can code up pretty much anything and offer clients anything they want. What is therefore more essential is to understand what they want, and this is best understood in the role of a business consultant than as a sales representative. Since the leads are more comfortable discussing their business processes than the technology, this approach also allows sales reps to build rapport better and faster.

Let me illustrate this by taking document management software as an example. Though the software is pretty simple to deploy and use, first-time users may find it confusing with all the icons and precise set of instructions. At a quick glance, the interface might not be easy to grasp. Imagine you just got a lead for the DMS that your organization offers and it is now down to a sales rep to take it forward. Imagine that the lead has never used DMS before and is not aware of its functionalities. Here’s two ways how the sales rep could approach a product demonstration to the lead.

Approach Number 1: 

The sales rep launches into a spiel about how the software stores documents, how it does this, how it does that, and so on. After that, he is in a hurry to show the software application, its various menus and setups, and to create rules and schedules.

Approach Number 2: 

The sales rep does not broach the topic of the product yet. He asks the lead about how they are currently managing their documents, how document management is a part of their business operations, and which parts of the process can be automated and improved. He then proceeds to show how the software accommodates the business needs and how a seemingly complicated application like DMS is really nothing more than the folders on the desktop they use, only more organized and productive.

Which approach do you think worked? Common sense, you’d say. The second one, of course. Unfortunately, there’s nothing common about it. The sales rep manages to thoroughly confuse the lead and bungle up the sale in the first case (this illustration is not quite an imagination).

The second approach is what I advocate and what I exhort sales reps to take. So, once again, note to sales reps – don’t sell the technology; sell the process.

Author Bio:

Sarath heads the content team at SutiSoft. He has an MBA and is keenly interested in technology and SaaS trends. He frequently blogs on multiple platforms and expresses his vews on technology, business, and the integration of both.

By Sarath Pendyala | 4/22/2016 | General

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