The business of sales isn’t what it used to be, writes Mal Williamson…
You know when your mobile rings and for some reason you answer it?
“Am I speaking to Mr Williamson?”
“Yes – hello.”
“I understand you have a property you rent out…?”
And that is as good as the conversation gets. Or someone sidles up on the socials…
“Hi, we really like your work and are wondering if you are available to make a film in Tunisia this year?”
And the Hooded Head-Hunter…
“Mr Williamson, my client is interested in speaking to like-minded creators in the media industry. Can I pass on your details?”
Politeness and being reasonable is my first response, unless battling again with a nicotine addiction, but this soon transforms to a direct rebuff – “Are you buying or selling?”
I think this will become my normal response from now on. “Good morning – buying or selling?”
All of the above scenarios played out recently – and I was duped by all of them, stealing time.
While I enjoy some level of interaction and noting the new trends out there, in film and business, I now wonder when this relationship became normal? This opening lie.
Sales used to be the start of a profitable and useful relationship but now the technology of name-and-address databases pointing at our own social media marketing has led to a binary shortcut of Yes/No. Not even a sense of “Do I want this?” but more like “Do I believe this?”
I think this loses the opportunity to discover new software, information services and routes to market. Business has become an oppositional relationship, where we will all probably lose.
There is so much digital fraud out in the open these days, where international traders can hide behind the nuisance value of trying to get redress and run a kind of numbers game that if they hassle enough people, or make a suitably designed ad, there will be enough fools like me caught unawares that it makes sense to give people a phone script, a standard email, or post someone else’s product image and take the money.
Zuckerberg and Bezos do not take my calls. The police are busy. But I am best mates with my digital bank’s excellent card-cancelling staff.
Last week the bank spent some time warning me of some suspicious payments on my account – and they had the last four numbers of my bank card along with my address. Fortunately for me the numbers were from an old card two fraudulent incidents ago.
I played along with them, astounded at the nonsense they were prepared to say, and I was sure the background noise on the line was of a busy family household getting ready for school! Thing is, this approach has gone into the mainstream now.
Sales openers reek of this “buying or selling” dichotomy now. Being fooled by a sales pitch used to be non-existent because discussions are about research, suitability and weighing up the particular offer.
Again I look to the digital age where there can be many slightly adjusted tech or systems that can make the crucial difference for different customers.
A new solution was always welcome and it was straightforward to assess the interest of a potential customer or the usefulness of a potential supplier.
Selling used to be about a convincing story and reasonable offer, when even a “No” was a “Not right now but please keep me on file and talk in six months, thanks.” In the digital trading environment, six months is a generation away.
They do not make that product any more because some whiz kid has brought out a paradigm-changing alternative to the whole process. Buying used to be about keeping track of what advantage a competitor might get if we don’t join in.
Sometimes there was an easy saving to be had but other times we jump in with both feet then because of our staff training, cashflow or customer expectations we fail to make proper use of the advantage we had sought.
Today I feel every sales approach is a carjacking. Sales now is pretending to be in distress, or letting us know an indicator bulb isn’t working, before a smack to the back of the head and getting dragged from your vehicle.
Buying or selling… or stealing? Sales is over.
