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Have customers changed much in the last 15 years? The answer is a mega-yes. If you were selling prior to 1993 you have seen a big change in how customers buy. Suprisingly, many sales representatives sell the same way today as they did 15+ years ago.

What has changed?

1. Customers are much more knowledgeable about the products and services they are buying.
2. When it comes to sourcing products and services there are many more options.
3. Customers expect immediate, if not instant, delivery of products and services.

What’s so magical about 1993?

Customers started to change how they view their vendors shortly after 1993 because the common availability of the Internet created an entirely new, and better, information source for them. Since that time our customers have access to information about suppliers, products, services and pricing that would have been the stuff of our worst nightmares for those that remember selling prior to the Internet.

The Internet has totally changed how we sell because customers do have access to any and all information about our products, services, pricing, availability and competitors. The game has changed.

1. Because the Internet can make all vendors look the same to buyers, we must be careful to differentiate our company from our competitors.
2. People are social animals and like dealing with people. The Internet cannot replace you. We have to showcase our personal value (or personal capital) to our customers.
3. We must be better educated about our products and services. If we know little more than what is easily found on the Internet our customers will not be wowed.
4. With the easy availability of overnight shipping and super efficient e-commerce web sites for placing orders, our customers have become accustomed to very fast order processing. We have to compete against that standard in our direct sales efforts.
5. We can create a hybrid sales environment with our customers by encouraging them to use our company’s web site for ordering the smaller and simpler orders. [Of course, if your company doesn't pay you commission on these sales you'll probably have another view of this.]

Keep in mind that you can also use the Internet for selling. Never has it been easier to get information about prospects and competitors. Fight fire with fire.

Now, more than ever, we need to be sure to sell the value we bring the customer beyond just the products and services we sell. If we don’t, we’re nothing more than order processors and most e-commerce web sites do a pretty good job of that already.

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Tags: internet, personal-capital, technology

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