SADMAN - Session 3 - The Basis of Selling Strategy
Dear Students,
I have been super busy with administrative responsibilities and convocation preparation since last class. I finally managed to squeeze out some time and I thought I should quickly summarise the session and charter a course forward.
First, let me welcome you to the course!!
Sales and distribution is something that is close to my heart and I am as excited as you are about the course. One of the first things from pop culture that comes to our mind when someone says ‘sales’ is perhaps the scene from the Wolf of Wall Street. If you have not seen the movie, I’m linking the scene down below (as a bonus, the video also features some clips of Jordan Belfort - the real Wolf of Wall Street). I sincerely recommend that you watch it fully.
I agree with what Belfort has to say!
The first step of sales is the identification of the need! Trying to sell something to someone who does not want it is an exercise in futility. On the other hand, if you manage to discover customers who need you, you could well be on your way to building a very profitable customer relationship. Such customers are also likely to stay with you and this will ensure that you do not have to go around exploring fresher pastures/newer customers. Therefore, it’s critical to ask questions to clients! Questions like, “for how long are you in the market for this product?”, “what kind of product are you currently using?”, and “what can I do for you?”. Clearly, selling is about the customer, not the product.
Let me give you a real world example to illustrate this point. Listen to Dr. Amy Lockwood talk about this issue and how marketers managed to make a difference.
Turns out condoms were difficult to sell in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) back in 2011. At the time condoms were heavily subsidised (they were also given out free in many cases), and yet, sales did not pick up. Did you ever think that an ultra affordable product that literally saved the lives of the customer could not be sold? Remember Dr.Lockwood every time you ask your bosses to approve a significant price discount for a customer. The price is not the problem. Then what is?
Remember the discussion of selling, product, and marketing orientation from Marketing Myopia (by Levitt)? (in case you have forgotten, I am linking the article to this newsletter). If Levitt were in the room with us right now, he would say Belfort is being terribly sales orientated. And that the job of good marketers is to make selling redundant or superfluous! (this is something Peter Drucker also said!).
Does that mean we are going to be out of jobs in sales any time soon?
No!! Clearly not!!
What I think Levitt means by his statement is that salespeople should take on the role of a consultant and try to make the sales more about adding value to the customer rather than the typical ‘pushing’ that contemporary sales people indulge in. They really have a problem with what is better known as ‘sales orientation’ and not the very act of selling itself.
But then, you may ask, how can someone who sells shampoos and soaps act like a ‘consultant’? To be honest, it may be humanly impossible to listen individually to every customer and provide him what he or she needs. However, there is a qualitative difference between the kind of ‘consultant’ we typically think of and the ‘salesman consultant’. In sales, we do use our ears to listen to customers, but then we also listen to consumers through surveys, focus groups, sales data, product reviews and ratings. This is precisely what happened in the DRC.
According to DKT International, a social marketing enterprise based out of DRC, “The modern contraceptive prevalence rate is only about 21% (in 2022), and the teen pregnancy rate is high. To engage young people on sexual health issues, DKT DRC created a youth program, Batela Lobi Na Yo (“Protect Your Future”) to inform young people of their contraceptive options”. These numbers are significantly higher than what they were in 2011 when Dr. Lockwood gave that TED Talk. The numbers are surely going to rise in the years to come. Also remember, there is also a change in consumer behaviour. Consumers in most parts of the world no longer choose free condoms, they choose to pay for it!
It is these concepts and ideas that we will be discussing in greater detail over the course of the term. We will also try and understand why and how salespeople should try and segment the market and understand which segments are the most lucrative. We shall also touch upon how technology has revolutionised sales and pick up a few learnings from a panel discussion that I am currently planning with some industry experts.
Let me also provide you with a brief glimpse of the responses that the class had provided in the sales survey. More than 70% (41 members) of the class is yet to make up their mind about a career in sales, while 17% (10 members) want a career in sales. About 12% of the students have clearly made up their mind not to choose sales as their profession.
While the student mix is somewhat different from what I had originally imagined, it may not call for a major shift in the way the course is going to be organised. For the most part, we will try and focus on understanding sales as a revenue generating process and work on hard and soft skills that will help you hone your skills as salespeople. There may be something in the course for those who are not interested in a sales career. After all, everyone is a salesperson in one way or the other, and I hope the course introduces you to some concepts that can be applied in your respective careers.
Having said that, there are few links that I think you should check out:
1. Why R should be part of your marketing toolbox - https://medium.com/@chrisBow/why-r-should-be-part-of-your-marketing-toolbox-875bd369006 - considering that we will be doing some level of R.
2. Book recommendation: Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into A Sales Machine With The $100 Million Best Practices Of Salesforce.com
3. Marketing Myopia - https://hbr.org/2004/07/marketing-myopia
In the next class, we will be diving right into the process of sales forecasting. Let’s meet in class!
