I would like to argue the term “Sales executive / Sales Representative”
is very much out dated and I would like to propose to call them as “Customer
Specialist Sales Doctors”
When you deeply investigate the business lifecycle, you will
clearly understand the whole cycle starts and ends with the customer. Each company
is investing huge money on Research and Development to understand the needs of
the customer and to come up with products and services that will exactly meet
the demands of the customer. This paves the way for evolution of technology,
invention and innovation. So in short the above three cannot stop as far as the
customer exists.
After spending so much on R&D, the manufacturer develops
a product that will exactly meet the requirement of a customer; even then he
finds it difficult to sell his solution in the market. So now the question is what
can stop a customer from buying? And if the solution is so compelling, why
would a manufacturer need a sales person to sell? And should he be really called
a sales person?
If the concept about selling is to create a need, educate a
customer and finally convince the customer to buy, then it is completely
outdated. In today’s online and Google world, the knowledge available on
anything in the internet is surplus. So if you carefully watch the evolution of
buying lifecycle, the customer has moved from illiterate customer to a confused
customer. Thanks to the competition and the Internet
Because of competition, the benefit that customers get from
one product is multiple. In simple terms, more than what he wanted. This puts
him in a confused situation on what his requirements are? Rather to focus on
his requirement, he is now forced to expand his requirement to avail the
multiple benefits that he gets out of one product. He loses focus and he goes
to the internet to find best product at better price. The internet over
educates him with surplus of information. He is now completely confused. If he chooses
quality, he spends more on price and if he chooses price, he lose quality. He
is completely perplexed and today, this is the
situation of most customers
This changes the responsibility of a sales person. More than
sales person he needs to act as a doctor. Today’s customers are well-educated
on the products and also on the benefits they get out of a product but the
problem is they are very much confused on what to choose. The responsibility of
a doctor is to diagnose to the root cause of the disease (Understanding the
customer’s core requirement). Based on which he should suggests a product that
will solve his exact problem and only then he should suggest the other benefits
that may suit his need and this is why I argue the sales person should be
called as Customer Specialist Sales Doctors.
