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Continuing my series on applying lean/agile manufacturing principles to selling, I was reminded by Charles Green and Dave Jackson about an important aspect of these principles that is never mentioned by those promoting lean/agile in our sales assemblylines. We have to trust them to do the work.
We see trust plummeting, we see challenges to social cohesion in both business and social environments. We stop thinking of our customers as human beings, instead treating them as widgets we move along the sales assemblyline. Those assemblylines are failing!
We are creating massive sales assemblylines optimizing the order taking process. We nurture them until they have done much of the work, then we engage them running them through our sales assemblyline of qualifying, demoing, pitching, proposing, closing. At the same time, we see data that is alarming.
Customers and sellers have become widgets moving along the sales manufacturing line, losing the humanity, failing to build trust and confidence the buyers crave. But buyers don’t need to participate in that assemblyline, they are learning through other channels, so our assemblylines are underutilized.
Customers have become depersonalized widgets that we move along our selling assemblylines. The people impacted are those that trusted management and do the work management directed. For years, I’ve been writing about the mechanization of selling. Our people have become replaceable widgets as well.
But I’ve been alarmed by the rise of “assemblyline” thinking, extreme specialization, and obsession with our own efficiency—to the detriment of building relationships and trust. But then, I’m a physicist/engineer by training–and somewhat of an introvert. Much of this seems to be a R 3.0
This sales funnel model is so effective because you are gradually increasing commitment as you are building trust. You can learn more about his Content AssemblyLine method here: Build Backlinks to That Content. Here’s how Russel explains it: So if you want to increase online sales, you should create a Value Ladder sales funnel.
The second aspect of the predictive revenue model is the sales assemblyline or seller specialization or sales handoffs , primarily the AE/CSM split. Those two aspects, prospecting/SDRs and the sales assemblyline are the two key aspects that I challenge. Why prospecting sits apart from sales [6:59].
The SDR passes the customer to a BDR who passes the customer to an AM (Account Manager), who engages a Demoer, than a Product Line specialist. The customers move down our optimized assemblylines, with each sales person doing their job, maximizing the efficiency of our organization. And they are emotional.
We redesign knowledge work, emulating the principles of the industrial assemblylines of the past. We chop up work, creating assemblylines where knowledge workers focus on perhaps the functional equivalent of tightening a bolt. them passing the work to the next person in the knowledge worker assemblyline.
Specialization prevails as customers are moved from sales specialist to sales specialist, passing along the optimized sales assemblyline. They focus on their own efficiency, automating and mechanizing as much of their work as possible.
There are three main models for sales teams: the assemblyline, the pod, and the island. The AssemblyLine. In the assemblyline model, also known as the hunter-farmer model, sales teams are organized based on each individual’s job title. What Are the Types of Sales Organizations? Customer Size.
This has a number of advantages, skill levels don’t need to be as high, we can leverage role specialization more effectively (creating sales assemblylines with customer widgets passing through each station), and we can effectively leverage all the traditional selling skills.
To put customers on an assemblyline where they are touched by an SDR, moved to an account manager, moved to a demo-er, moved to the next step and the next and the next…until the customer makes a decision. They are expecting them to think for themselves and trusting them to do so. Trusting them to do so.
We see too many signs of mechanization, losing the person, treating customers as widgets to move through our highly efficient selling process assemblylines. The Not So New Principles Of Sales Relationships Are Secondary To Sales Effectiveness Don’t Trust Your Sales Process, Challenge It,… My Favorite Sales Books.
Often, these are those with the assemblyline version of selling, optimizing our process, treating the customer as a widget they move through the process—lead, SDR, Demo, Account Manager, Specialist, Customer Experience Team… The customer is an object upon which we execute our selling process, working the numbers.
Likewise customers are widgets in our sales assemblyline. In our quest for efficiency, we treat people as replaceable widgets. If someone isn’t performing, we fire them, replacing them with someone else, and someone else. Business has always been about people, caring, meaning, and creating value.
One begins to see images of assemblylines with customers on a conveyor belt moving from station to station. Perhaps the most subtly arrogant assumption of this assemblyline mentality is that we are in control. Things like trust, relationships come into play. The problem is, customers are not widgets.
This is another case where they will have to just trust the information that Google Ads is giving them without seeing the inside of the process. The result is a cookie-cutter, assemblyline style of marketing that prioritizes measurement over customer needs. Read more here. Quote of the day. Chris Walker , CEO, Refine Labs.
We pitch our products, we manage customers to fit into our selling process, we move customers through our sales assemblyline because it is more efficient for us, though perhaps not helpful to what the customer is trying to do. How we engage the customer, how we develop empathy, trust, how much we care and demonstrate that care.
It almost seems that we have an assemblyline that we pass our customers along—we try to attract attention, building a relationship through our digital presence–web sites, blogs, other materials. How do we build trust across our organizations? Instead, we focus on our efficiency in handling the customer.
We have highly focused roles, each role focuses on it’s job in the sales process, once complete, the widget–I mean customer, is passed to the next function, then the next, then the next… on down the sales assemblyline.
In many organizations, the customer journey looks like an assemblyline. Additionally, buyers know that the salesperson they work with and trust ultimately won’t be the person servicing their account once the contract is signed. Bring customer success into the sales process.
Trusting opinion more than data. When you think about making a car, everyone’s specific job on the assemblyline works together. Opinions are valuable, but data is priceless. Too many CEOs let their opinions get in the way of undisputable data, even if their opinions may be valuable. Scaling revenue is no different.
Isn’t it ultra-satisfying to watch a perfectly automated factory assemblyline? An emotional bond between two parties can only be established if they trust each other, and if there’s a reason to keep the relationship going. It could be cars, machinery, or maybe just ice cream sandwiches. See how smooth things are?
a factory assemblyline). With your potential ROI missteps under control and your champion offering up the right information, you’ll provide a deeper understanding of your product and remain a trusted and reliable source. In most cases, they aren’t correlated. Mission accomplished.
Brian is regularly referenced in popular books including Chris Brogan's Trust Agents and Seth Godin's Linchpin. Or like Henry Ford went to a meat packing plant in Chicago and saw how they had conveyor belt assemblylines, and he applied that to the automobile industry, which was completely unheard of before then.
We know people buy from people, yet we create assemblyline/transactional processes. We know customers struggle with buying, yet none of our programs or activities focus on helping them learn how to buy, or helping them align the diverse interests in the buying group. We know that we have to research, prepare.
In many instances, it’s still seen as a creative support function to sales, not as a function that has bottom-line impacts.” Dig deeper: How to convince leadership why they can’t ignore SEO We’re incentivized to avoid risks Without a clear ROI, we suffer the consequences of not being trusted. I’ll never do that again!” Duffy said.
This is the downside of the modern Sales AssemblyLine — both buyer and seller feeling like a cog in the wheel. Whether you resist change or not, it is still a game of know, like, and trust. How did that make you feel? Like a piece of meat? Like just another number to be counted in the queue? Modern sales is buyer-centric !
It’s like an assemblyline. . If your sales reps don’t know what your business developers are doing — or vice versa — you might end up with trust issues, or worse, have steps in the funnel fall through the cracks. . Business Developers fill the pipeline. BDRs and SDRs perform different tasks.
Jessica Gilmartin: Yeah, so I would say there’s 2 things that I did that extremely deliberately cultivated environment of kind of trust. So I, I just, I spend a lot of time building trust with my team so that they know me as a person, not just as this random person, three levels above them that they’re scared to talk to.
We don’t take the time to build relationships and trust. We view the process as a transaction, moving the customer from person to person on our sales assemblylines. We don’t get to know who they are as people, we don’t understand what drives them, what they aspire to, what they fear.
After all, some jobs have already been replaced by AI and robotics ( assemblylines come to mind). AI can analyze reams of data and identify patterns, but it can’t build those relationships or establish trust with prospects for you. . For now, let’s look at a question that might be on your mind. . It’s a valid question. .
We were working with a customer who had an assemblyline and they had a couple stations along their assemblyline. When you work with a customer for a while and you gain their trust as a trusted advisor, sometimes you get into projects that you just never would imagine. I can give an example.
This kind of interactive approach fosters trust between brand and consumer leading up towards increased sales—not bad for some clever coding. It’s not just about posting; it’s about engaging smarter and building trust with prospects—without the extra legwork.
Adam Honig: Yeah, that’s amazing, I can just see the frogs rolling off the assemblyline, sealed up in the packaging, ready to go to squeamish high school seniors, taking those things apart. Steve Kingeter: And it’s a lot more diverse than frogs, trust me. Adam Honig: Wow, that’s amazing.
Apparently the speakers were noticing the fact that to develop trust and confidence with our customers, we have to build some sort of relationship. And we are discovering that running these people through our sales assemblylines is about as effective as my “just the facts/data” approach was.
Its narrow offerings were all produced in an assembly-line-style system. You want a trusted team with skin in the game at your side as you move into the implementation phase. The owner realizes that by blindly trusting Harry, he has put his business in serious jeopardy. Creating the vision will be the easy part.
Then we move them to the next step in our process, always with the suggestion, “If you order by the end of the month, I might be able to do something on the price… ” Each customer is moved along a sales assemblyline that is designed to maximize our efficiency—not the customer experience. Then we wonder.
For S&OP success, you must have committed leadership, clear roles, and a culture of collaboration and trust. A manufacturer might streamline its assemblyline to meet increased demand and ensure on-time delivery every holiday season. This cross-functional team brings different views and skills.
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