How selling has changed

We are in 2024, the economy is doing weird things and people have slowed down on their buying decisions.

What does this mean for you as a business trying to help people?

Well first things first —

How people buy has changed

How people buy has changed.

The days are disappearing when you can just stick up proposals or quotes and follow up on progress. Sales now requires more meaningful touchpoints that are based around collaboration and connection.

Here’s the thing: Businesses are still buying, they’re just buying a lot SLOWER.

Your prospects will do more research, learn more about you, learn more about your reputation. What they’re doing is looking for more reasons to trust you — people need more reassurance.

What that means is that:

Decision makers know they have options. So they’ll compare those options based on experience. If your marketing or sales experience does not match or exceed their expectations, you’ll lose out on further engagement with prospects.
Online demonstration will play a bigger role in proving that you are the right person to work with.

Businesses are buying a lot slower compared to 5 years ago.

We know that the economy is in shambles right now.

BUT we also know that the market still has pains and problems that they need to fix.

Let’s address the “buying slower” part:

Prospects taking longer to make a buying decision means there are more opportunities to leave the buying process.

That means, you’ll need more layers of demonstration for them to re-engage with you if necessary. We get it — people are busy, it takes tons of time and effort to just LIVE right now. That means people are going to read your message and forget about it, or see your email and plan to respond later (but forget to) — it all happens.

What can you do as a business to counter this?

Build enough online demonstration layers so that your prospects have more opportunities to engage with you.

Developing online demonstration

Demonstration is proof that you are the right person to work with.

Online demonstration are assets deployed through online channels..

A few examples of demonstration assets that we help develop:

Live workshops (online or offline)
Events (online or offline)
Social media posts
Books
Podcasts
Webinars
Online communities (like Facebook / discord etc)
Digital products
Video trainings etc

Now notice, all of these have an educational component attached to this.

The #1 difference between sales winners and sales losers is that sales winners educated their prospects and created an environment of collaboration. So it comes as no surprise that education is at the helm of demonstration.

So the principle is to educate. Of course, this comes with a nuance.

The nuance here is HOW you educate — matters. I’ve always mentioned that technique matters. Technique is HOW you execute an activity. The same principle applies.

HOW you educate will greatly determine the success of your demonstration assets.

Let’s look at one component: Communication.

Communication and delivery (when you’re giving a talk) will either diminish or fuel attention spans, engagement and even interest.

Take speaking on a stage for example.

Even when someone is delivering information that is not categorically new to you. If they speak in a way that is really mesmerizing, engaging, they’re sharing great stories — you’d still be listening carefully to the presentation.

Now compare that to a slow and boring delivery — it’d be far harder to keep the attention of that audience.

My point: Good demonstration also relies on decent communication skills.

Focusing on build long-term relationships

Traditional sales is transactional. In a time where people have tons of options (and they know that) — trust is important.

You don’t build trust by pitching your solution the first time you engage with a prospect.

Trust is built slowly over time. Trust is one successful transaction after another. It’s like laying brick by brick.

When you approach it this way, you have the opportunity to develop relationships with people.

And the great thing is that when there is a relationship present between two or more people, that relationship can go anywhere.

But it has to start somewhere.

HOW a relationship is initiated is so important.

Most people burn their bridges when they start it off by pitching their service to people who they know nothing about.

But what if you led with value? Definitely a better approach.

Hint: The value you deliver could be your demonstration assets.

There is a saying that I go by:

Selling is a process not a single event, if you try to turn selling into a single event, you’ll lose the sale.

There is a powerful principle inside this. It helps you understand that “selling someone” is not something linear. Nor does it only take one meeting to have someone sold on working with you.

Humans are complex. It takes the correct effort to install layers of certainty and belief inside people that you’d want to help.

The principles inside this post will help you start molding the right mentality to navigate what is required of you and your team, to build a process that will help your offers get considered.

Have fun.

-Justin

Justin Booysen