Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Sales / Sales Management

Five marketplace truths about human customers

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Spend time in the marketplace and you’ll have many close encounters of the third kind with the most interesting species in all of nature: the human customer. And as we’ve learned, the nature of this being isn’t much different from other animals: All need to breathe, eat, drink, procreate and survive.

But there is something that clearly sets human customers apart from other fauna: sentience. And one of the manifestations of this self-awareness is that beyond what customers need, they’re the only lifeform on planet Earth that also wants. Your customers want things.

Every human who owns an automobile will need to buy new tires. But what they want is to keep the family safe without spending an entire Saturday shopping for tires. So, if you’re in the tire business, should you advertise that you sell tires, which are commodities that the Big Boxes can sell cheaper than your cost? Or should you develop, market and execute a customer loyalty program that combines peace-of-mind for the customer’s family with pick-up and delivery? How about this tagline:

“Let us help you keep your family safe when it’s time for new tires, and we’ll give you your Saturday back.”

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Mastering the sales discipline to shut up

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Contrary to what you’ve heard, selling is the oldest profession, because “In the beginning” the serpent sold the apple to Eve. You might say she bought wholesale and then sold the apple retail to Adam. And as we now know, that was one expensive transaction.

A key characteristic that clearly separates humans from the other animals identified in Genesis is ego. And while ego can be a beneficial motivator in selling professionally, in order to do that successfully, we must do something that’s in direct conflict with our ego – we have to let someone else talk more than us.

So, when you’re on a sales call – face-to-face with a prospect – what do you do? Do you unload the dump truck of stuff about products, pricing, etc. that your company installed in your head? If that’s your answer, your professional selling career is doomed.

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Cloud computing is awesome. But not always.

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In aviation, being “in the clouds” is a universal flight condition referring to a pilot’s inability to see the ground.

It’s also a common lament of parents about the troubling coordinates of a teenager’s head, which might seem to be “in the clouds.”

In the 21st century, “in the cloud” is a reference that has established itself in the marketplace vernacular as the interaction and delivery point between providers of “cloud-based” digital applications and customers.

Cloud computing is the availability of incremental processing power that resides on an application provider’s servers, instead of your hard drive. For example, community-building technology, like social media platforms. When you post something on Facebook, you’re in the cloud. When you conduct online banking, sell a stock, or hail an Uber from your smartphone, you’re doing that in the cloud. If you use Google’s G Suite of office products, or Microsoft Office 365, all are cloud-based.

No question, cloud computing is another example of technology increasing business efficiencies and leverage. And for small businesses, it’s been a godsend, because it not only gives us access to Big Business-like leverage, it’s also offered at an incremental price that fits our diminutive budgets.

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Shocking confessions of a legendary actor and the world’s greatest salesman

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After a lifetime on stage and screen, the legendary English actor, Sir Laurence Olivier, once admitted that he had always suffered from stage fright.

Imagine that. One of the 20th century’s most revered actors, appearing in over 120 stage roles, 60 movies, more than 15 television productions, and countless performances, actually battled the fear of rejection and failure. But when you look at the numbers of his body of work, it’s obvious that Sir Laurence didn’t let his “condition” cost him success.

And now, after a sales career that has spanned more than a half-century, a legendary salesman named Blasingame reveals that he’s suffered from the marketplace equivalent of stage fright – call reluctance – his entire career.

Imagine that. Having conducted literally thousands of sales calls on multiple continents, in front of decision-makers from the towering C-Suites of Fortune 100 CEOs to bell-over-the-door Main Street mom-and-pops, perhaps the greatest professional salesperson of all time struggles with…making first contact. But when you look at the numbers of his body of work, it’s obvious that the man known as JB to colleagues and “The Force” to competitors, didn’t allow his “condition” to cost him success.

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Professional selling skills: a fundamental now more essential than ever

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In 16 BIE (Before Internet Era), business purchases were made by decision-makers who needed to buy stuff for their operations, and they almost always needed help with technical questions, innovations, pricing, availability, delivery, etc.

That year, a/k/a, 1977, every business buyer went to work expecting salespeople to call on them, unscheduled. To a prospect, a “cold call” was not optimum, but usually was tolerated. Yes, in those days, you could walk into a business where you were previously unknown and leave with a sale. For current customers, dropping in was expected as good service. Remember, this was BIE, when a salesperson was the equivalent of a website.

As beautifully as this dance by motivated parties worked – one needed information and the other provided it – salespeople were still trained to conduct business with what Xerox (where I worked in 1977) called Professional Selling Skills (PSS). There were three key components to PSS: overcoming objections, closing skills and probing.

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The gold mining tool of professional salespeople

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Let me tell you a story about the most powerful tool in sales.

A few decades ago, a 27-year-old, shiny, new Xerox sales representative was minted. Already a sales veteran, it wasn’t his first rodeo. Indeed, he worked his way through college selling on commission.

Commissioned salespeople, like entrepreneurs, work the marketplace high wire. Observing this act, a salaried employee once remarked that selling on commission was “living by your wits.” In the vernacular, business-to-business sales professionals know “you eat what you kill.”

Pre-Xerox, this salesman received rubber-meets-the-road sales training from the small business owner who gave him his first commissioned job, followed by a multi-year stint with Sears, where more sophisticated sales training was acquired. And finally, he survived the rigorous hiring process and completed the Xerox Professional Selling Skills program. PSS was globally recognized as the sales training gold standard, and any Xeroid of that era will tell you of its positive professional influence on the rest of your life.

With the ink barely dry on his PSS certificate, our young Xerox salesman made one of his first calls on the local installation of a national firm. He was now a fully converted, Kool-Aid-drinking disciple of Xerox sales fundamentals, and his head was packed with product, pricing and probes. Unfortunately, as he sat in front of Mr. Keener, the plant accountant, all of the professional probing techniques and listening skills our sales executive had learned and practiced were no match for the cargo of content he dumped right there on Mr. Keener’s desk, like a truckload of, well, you know.

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