Can you have your cake and eat it? Can you really expect your sales staff to be consultative and deliver real value to your customers if you expect them to play a pure numbers game and practice transactional sales?
It’s not that transactional sales are a bad thing (I personally hate them – but that doesn’t mean they’re an ineffective tactic), but when you position yourself as a consumer-centric brand, delivering the right solutions for your customers, you cannot live up to your statement or goals by taking a transactional approach to revenue growth.
I’ve worked with companies that claim to be be consultative, to be their customers’ partners, to want to be there for the long-haul, but ultimately nickle-and-dime customers with gimmicky “upgrades.” Now that I spend a lot of time consulting for an automotive group, I’m seeing this particular behavior from services across all of the digital spectrum.
I guess it stuck in my throat today after I heard a sales pitch that went from: “We want your dealership to grow. We want to be there for the long haul” to “But I need you sign up today. This offer is only for the next 24 hours and won’t come around again.”
I get that everybody is in it to make a buck, but pick a hat and wear it. I won’t respect a company that pitches as being consultative but always wants the quick sale; however, I may just respect the company they tells me “we’re a one-trick pony that solves x, want in?”
Decide which you are and stick to your guns. Your sales reps will be less stressed and confused, the companies you deal with will know where they stand, and you can truly start to build on an honest value proposition.
Paul O'Flaherty 