The way goods and services get sold is ever evolving. A half a century ago there were “traveling salesmen” that traveled all around the world representing a company and closing sales. Before the phone was invented the only means you had to close a prospect, was in person or via the Pony Express.
Flash forward a few decades and there are less traveling salesmen and more “phone salesmen.” Phone salesmen saved companies the cost of travel and lodging. This took a lot of salespeople out of the air and off the roads and put their asses in seats, smiling and dialing. They even built giant high rises to fill with call centers packed with phone sales staff.
Flash forward just a couple decades latter and the internet has thinned the phone sales and traveling sales heard. These days people go to Amazon more than Wal Mart. Sales pages on websites are more aggressive, efficient and reliable than most salespeople.
The sales community are a lot like pit-bulls. We are everyone’s favorite dog to hate on. We can change the lives of billions of people and the world goes on. But if one of us “bites” someone the media and even Hollywood is all over it, talking about how we are out of control savages.
Corporations are doing all they can to sway away from using the title “sales” or even appearing to be a “sales driven organization.” The stigma of a “used car salesman” is forever looming on our industry, no matter how many people we help. Companies have been using titles like “customer service rep” and other codewords for sales, for years now.
Companies are always looking for ways to cut costs. Websites don’t ask for commission. Amazon doesn’t have a salesforce hitting the phone calling consumers. The webpages sell it all without even needing human interaction. Those webpages don’t go on strike, they don’t show up late, they don’t come in hungover. They just make sales all day every day and never bitch about a single thing. Humans can’t compete with that.
I’m not telling you all this to scare you or instill fear in your life. I’m telling you this because you need to face the facts. The first step is to wake up. When you awaken and see the trends that are in effect, you’re aware. Once you become aware, you must focus on a solution/game plan. I have that game plan. It’s gonna be up to you to follow it.
Step one, now that you’re awake, is to realize this shit is changing and there nothing you can do to fight it. The evolution is gonna continue with or without you. It is only once you accept this, that you can adapt to it and follow the rest of the plan. If you’re gonna hate on me, shoot me down, or doubt me on this, it’s not gonna help anything. So what if I’m wrong. But what if I’m right….
After you realize this shit is really happening, you gotta fall into the plan here. If you know robots such as websites, sales pages, direct mailers and auto-responders are what companies are using to replace us, you gotta start creating your own. A true salesman finds a need and fills it.
If companies are moving more towards web-based-selling platforms, you need to do two things. Thing number one, you need to build, make, create the website platforms they want, so you can sell them to them. Thing number two is you need to do the same thing the companies are doing and automate everything you can in your business. He who owns the most robots will be the salesman that wins in the end.
I’m sure you’re aware of the 80/20 rule. The internet is getting rid of the 80%. Think about this example. E-surance started up and grew super fast. Their skip-the-salesman approach appealed greatly to the public. Allstate might have had 10,000 salespeople on staff and e-surance did the same volume with less than 1000. Robots -1 Humans -0
If you’re badass enough to be a 20%r you better keep stepping up and get ahead of the curve. If you’re an 80%r you’re in some serious trouble of being replaced if you don’t step it up. Companies like Hancock Mortgage and Quicken Loans are building technologies to do to the mortgage industry, what esurance did to the insurance industry. They own the robots. These companies and more see the future and it’s robot heavy.
Stop worrying about a looming recession and start preparing your robots to be deployed. The sales industry is changing, and you can change with it or be left behind. I’ve been on the leading edge of this change for 4 years now and I don’t plan on falling victim to it.
