Drinking Problem?

What do you suppose is behind our recent wave of layoffs?  The Fed?  Inflation?  Recession?  Is it lack of sales?  That’s one possibility: 

Several years ago, a car dealer in St. Petersburg, Florida fired his entire sales force and sales went up twenty six percent. 

Rick Page 

IMHO, the first step towards finding a solution is understanding the source of the problem.  Careful though – it may not be what we think.  

Take St. Michaels, a quaint town in Maryland its name derived from the Episcopal Parish established there in 1677. The church attracted settlers who engaged in ship building among other endeavors.  They don’t build ships anymore.  (Although with rising tides they may have to.)  The locals say: 

St. Michael’s 

A drinking village with a sailing problem.

Layoffs could drive one to drink.  However, lack of sales is actually a symptom.  I’m thinking the problem may lie elsewhere.  

Over the past few decades technology companies in particular have highly specialized their sales organizations.  With all of the sales specialists the customer has to deal with these days how easy is a vendor to do business with? 

Which of the many specialized sellers has their eye on the customer’s overall objective?  Irving Bluestone coaches us on the importance of keeping our eye on things: 

Somewhat analogous to the cross-eyed discus thrower; he seldom came out ahead, but he sure does keep the crowd alert. 

Today’s customers sure have to stay alert, too.  Let’s add it up: 

• Customers start with the vendor’s website, an AI chat bot, and marketing content; but marketing doesn’t speak with customers.
• To converse, customers gets passed to a “BDR” (Business Development Rep); but the BDR is there primarily to qualify and perhaps address a few simple questions. 
• When customers need more, they get passed to an Account Executive; but the AE is there primarily to qualify and perhaps coordinate access to additional specialists.
• When customers have in-depth questions they get passed to a Subject Matter Expert; but the SME is there primarily to qualify and answer detailed questions about “fit”.  
• When customers have questions on price, they get passed back to the AE; but the AE typically quotes initial purchase or subscription pricing.
• When customers want to know the implementation cost they get passed to a Professional Services salesperson; but that person is there primarily to qualify and quote implementation costs.
• When customers want to know about “Phase 2”, future needs, and future costs they get passed to an Account Manager; but the Account Manager specializes in renewals and future roadmaps without involvement in the current sales cycle.
• When customers want to negotiate a deal they get passed to a Sales Manager; but the Sales Manager is there to qualify and close, knowing little or nothing about the customers’ detailed needs and the proposed solution.
• When customers have contract language questions they get passed on to the legal or sales operations department; but that resource is there to qualify and address contract terms.
• When the deal is finally finalized customers are passed to an entirely new team who delivers the solution before passing their customers on to the vendor’s support staff (or another AI chat bot); but if implementation issues arise and customers reference answers received during the sales cycle they get passed back to their AE; who was recently laid off. 

Ishkabibble! 

Does that resemble your company’s selling process?  Careful - you might be giving your customers a drinking problem! 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.