Page 16 - Security Today, November/December 2021

one point of contact for decision giving. They built a relation- ship with that one person and, even if the salesperson occasion- ally dropped the ball, the customer kept the relationship. That is because they had established a friendship, a rapport, an ongoing relationship. In today’s world, though, the decision-maker has to get a Buy In on all purchases from a committee.
Therefore, it is important for the salesperson to understand that their contact has to go before a committee. There is a reason this happened. No one wants to make a poor decision that hurts the bottom line, and in today’s world of free information, anyone in the organization can challenge a decision.
3. Customers and prospects are distracted more than ever, rarely focused on salespeople
A: People have always been distracted, and salespeople trained to keep customers’ attention. That is not new, but it is the magni- tude of it. People have a shorter listening threshold and attention span today, so when a salesperson does an initial discovery call now, they have to do all they can initially to gain their attention.
When you show up for a meeting room appointment, you can be sure that some of the people in that meeting will actually be disappointed that you showed up! That is because they have so much to do they had hoped you would have canceled. You are the last thing on their mind – they are thinking about a million other things. We all used to be able to compartmentalize better because we did not have everything in our face 24/7.
While customers have always been distracted, the magnitude
is significantly higher now. I coach SI’s on how to effectively start a meeting and capture the customers’ attention in the first few minutes of the meeting.
4. Salespeople must make their customers successful
A: While friendships and relations are still – and always will be – very important, they are not enough to maintain the business. Customers must feel like their success relies on their relation- ship with you. In the past, the ability to make friends quickly got you in the door and helped you win business, but compe- tence made you great. Today, you will not get in the door with- out competence.
Finding Success in a
Modern B2B Environment
Peterson is firm in his view that we see a different way of buying today than it used to be. Systems integrators need to be able to adapt to a new way of selling, which is why training on how to do that is so important. For companies that do not have the internal resources to do the training themselves, companies like Vector firm provide intelligent strategies, repeatable
processes, and effective tools that position se-
curity professionals to significantly surpass
their sales goals.
Erin Harrington has more than 25 years of editori- al, marketing and PR within the security industry.
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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | SECURITY TODAY 10/29/21 10:19 AM
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