Jan 29 2008 9:52AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
Blog This! using: Blogger.com | LiveJournal |

I’ve talked to too many customers and visited with too many sales people, The results are in. What worked then … doesn’t work now. The market has changed and so have your customers. And why shouldn’t they?

You didn’t need to do much selling over the last five to ten years? Your customers took care of everything. All you had to do is have product … and you had a good chance of making the sale. Now times have changed.

What worked a few years ago doesn’t work now. And for a reason … a real good reason. Customers have changed how they shop and make their final decision. And because of that … builders are suffering. Which means builders are beginning to realize that their way of selling … maybe isn’t the best.

Now more than ever before, builders are starting to realize that they have to think about things they’ve never had to think about. Especially things that have to do with their sales process. Let’s think about selling in a fundamental way.

Some products cost a lot of money and some don’t. And if that’s the case, your customer’s decision process can’t be the same for both. Take a look at what I mean:

Products that don't cost a lot of money	Products that cost a lot of money
Single visit decision	Multiple visit decision
Decide alone	Multiple decision makers
Not much to think about	Many part and decision pieces
No decision risk	High decision risk
Can probably return product	Cannot return product
Emotion-based decision	The decision must make sense

If your customer’s decision process changes … shouldn’t your sales process change too?