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“It is the world of omnichannel marketing. Customers can now engage with a company in a physical store, on an online website or mobile app, through a catalog, or through social media. Does that mean the end of the Feet on Street (FOS)?” This was one of the most important points brought up at a summit on Salesforce Management a while ago.
It got me thinking for a second – Have customers had enough of the Sales guys? Have they become an annoyance than an asset? Are buyers having the sign, “No selling!’ on their desks? And, does this really mean the end of FOS?
My answer was NO! It is not the end of FOS but it’s the end of transactional or brute force selling! Just having feet on the street is not going to ensure numbers. The customer of today is reasonably well informed and expects a consultative sales process. The customer doesn’t like to be sucked up to, instead prefers you to be a value adding partner or an advisor.
Many companies have now started making lead indicators (Knowledge Readiness, Skills Readiness, Discipline) as performance measures vs. just the lag indicator (revenue). This is a clear sign of the changing world of Sales and Capability building. We have been sensing this mood since last year and our R&D team has been working on launching a Sales Readiness Platform that helps to enhance Knowledge & Skills readiness through a Mobile-first approach. It generates a dashboard of Knowledge, Skills and Performance of each FOS in one view!
Organizations need to adapt to the need of consultative selling, where the sales force would require to understand the product, acquire the industry knowledge, discover what the customer values, and ensure that the company supplies it. No brute force selling! You can be in Pharma or Insurance or Consumer Goods or Auto industry – it applies to one and all!
This may sound like an uphill task, especially due to the quality of people we are able to hire for the feet on street roles. But Sales Readiness platforms are helping to make this happen at scale.
How are you building capabilities of your Sales Team to be prepared for this changing world of Sales? I would be keen to hear.
To discover our talent assessment & development solutions email us at hello@jombay.com or call us on +91 96733 10011