Why modern sellers should become expert sellers

Why Modern Sellers Should Become Expert Problem-Finders with Greg Alexander, #179

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The sales profession is evolving at a fast pace because of the changes in consumer behavior. B2B sales are becoming more and more like B2C sales in many aspects. That is why modern sellers need to level up their sales skills and adapt to the modern buyer.

One of those skills is the ability to find latent problems that prospects are unaware of. How?

Well, you have to listen to this episode of The Modern Selling Podcast to learn what my guest, Greg Alexander, has to say.

Greg is the Chief Investment Officer for Capital 54, where he decides which entrepreneurs to bet on, and which firms to invest in. He helps them scale and exit their firms by sharing how he scaled and exited his. Listen to Greg tell the amazing story of how he started SBI, a sales consulting firm, from scratch and how he sold it for 165 million without recurring revenue.

Greg is also the author of The Boutique: How To Start, Scale, And Sell A Professional Services Firm.

Listen now to hear his predictions about the future of sales and how your team can provide a better experience for your customers.

Helping your buyers solve a problem they didn't know they had is a skill that's specific to modern sellers! Discover why from @gregalexander of @collective54 and @M_3Jr, on the @GoModernSelling #podcast. #sales #virtualselling Click To Tweet

The Future of Sales

I’ve always said that sales is 51% science and 49% art. So, I was surprised when Greg said he disagreed with me.

“Right now, it’s 90% science, 10% art,” he says. “In five years from now, it’ll be 100% science and no art.”

Greg predicts that with the advent of artificial intelligence, B2B sales will become like e-commerce and inside sales teams will be replaced by robots.

“If your product is easy to understand, easy to buy, people are going to buy it through a shopping cart. And when that happens, it’s going to be all sites.

It’s going to be things like literally changing the wording on a landing page to get somebody to a shopping cart, and analyzing abandonment rates of shopping carts to improve sales conversions. Now, that’s going to push the overwhelming majority of the B2B salesforce towards the science.”

For years, salespeople have been experts at solving problems for their customers, as a lack of sales pipeline or prospecting problems. But machines that can process tons of data per second are becoming better than humans at solving problems.

What humans can do that machines can’t, though, is finding problems. That’s where the art of selling will remain.

“Machines can’t find the problem. They can just analyze it. The human being, which has human judgment, has the ability to locate the problem. And that, in my opinion, will be the distinguishing characteristics of great salespeople going forward.”

A fantastic seller will help a client discover a latent need or become aware of a problem they didn’t know they had.

What a fantastic topic on this episode of the @GoModernSelling #podcast! 👍 Tune in now and learn from @gregalexander of @collective54 and @M_3Jr why modern #sellers should become expert problem-finders. #modernselling Click To Tweet

“The second part of the equation is not only finding the problem, but it’s finding the solution and thinking as a whole product, not a piece of the product. I think that’s the next frontier.”

Greg advises sellers to think about who they’re reaching out to, and make sure that their problem plus the solution is targeted at the right person and not the tactical budget holder.

Listen to the whole episode to discover why, according to Greg, the culprits of the failure in sales quota achievement and lost revenue are not sales leaders but CEOs. It’s certainly a very interesting point of view!

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