Today, the sales function (Sales Excellence) has an important role: to guide and ferry clients on a journey from the present to the future.
What does this mean?
Sales Excellence means that organisations should no longer wonder how to sell value at every stage of the sales process, nor should their focus be solely on designing a technically flawless project. Competition is now too fierce for this to be enough.
Our choices—whether purchasing decisions or any other kind—are not the result of purely logical calculations. Instead, they are decisions driven by emotions, by the image we hold of ourselves, by our visions of a desired future, and by our relationships with others.
In our Sales Excellence programmes with organisations, we support the journey towards change, showing that grounding any project requires harmony and alignment across all levels of the organisational system.
We work to ensure that an organisation’s core purpose aligns with its future horizon, its identity, its lived values, the beliefs and skills of its people, its actions, and the environment in which it operates.
A purchase is also a journey of change that begins with a significant decision. It involves taking actions that are increasingly guided by the values we hold, the image we want to project, and the motivations driving us toward our goals.
Decisions are made much more easily when these levels are harmonised rather than conflicting. When each of these doors is opened to look inside.
Yet there is another aspect we cannot overlook when discussing Sales Excellence
Back in 2002, Nobel laureate in economics Daniel Kahneman highlighted that human beings perceive the value of things and make decisions under conditions of high uncertainty. They never assess every single variable, as a computer would, to arrive at the objectively best solution on the market.
There is a simple formula that encapsulates his discovery brilliantly: DIFFERENCE = VALUE.
What is the difference that makes the difference?
Today, the value of a service is defined by the difference between the client’s world without our solution and their world with it.
It is the contrast between looking out at today—with all its challenges and obstacles—and looking towards tomorrow, a world of potential where goals are within reach. A world WITHOUT and a world WITH.
In our brains, it is precisely this difference between the present and the desired future that generates value.
What is the role of the salesperson today? Why do we talk about Sales Excellence?
In this new reality, simply listing every potential benefit of a product or service no longer works; nor does constantly lowering prices to beat the competition.
At the beginning of any negotiation, a client has a clear sense of their world WITHOUT—without our solution. By the end, they should have an equally clear vision of their future state, a future WITH, and make their decisions based on this picture.
More and more, the salesperson guides, acts as a consultant, and facilitates transformation.
They become an indispensable, trusted partner because they bring into focus all the essential elements needed to make sound decisions.
Working with the client is an act of co-creation and co-design, where together both perspectives are broadened: looking at today to uncover emerging needs and obstacles, and looking at tomorrow to make the future tangible and bring its details into sharp focus.
Embracing Sales Excellence is a collaborative process built on 3 key steps:
- imagination;
- anticipating and experiencing the buying journey beforehand;
- the decision-making process.
What should you pack for this journey?
It is vital to remember that the journey begins with the client, and the best work starts with authentic, deep listening.
We mean listening to understand the other person in their entirety, genuinely seeing things from their perspective to walk in their shoes, explore together, and co-create an experience. Often, it is on this very journey that the client discovers and embraces their own values and what they wish to bring to the world.
WHERE DO WE START? The best way to listen is to ask open questions and never be afraid to inquire.
