Welcome,
This week, we talk about looking at your career from a new perspective. I look forward to your comments.
Sincerely,
Paul R. DiModica
Editor, BDM News
For recent articles, please visit:
http://www.bdmnews.com/features.htm
If You See Yourself as an IT Salesperson, You Are Already a Commodity
by Paul DiModica, Editor, BDM News (12-08-04)
Earlier this year, I was giving a motivational speech for a large IT sales team at their national kick-off sales convention. The room was filled to capacity with several hundred experienced IT salespeople listening.
According to the VP of Sales of this company, the average number of years experience for their sales team was just over 5 years.
During the part in my speech that I was talking about how to turn your IT into business value your management prospects could identify, one of the sales account executives raised their hand and asked the following question "Why can't I just tell the CFO I am a software enterprise data salesperson?"
Often, IT salespeople feel more comfortable describing what they sell based on their IT features or functions rather than the business results their IT produces.
In IT sales, management prospects see you
the way you see yourself.
Management does not buy IT features or functions; instead they buy based on their impression of your IT business value. If you see yourself as "just" an IT salesperson, you are already a commodity with the prospect.
When the IT sales account manager asked me this question, I asked him "If the CFO of a prospect company said they had a $5 million budget for enterprise application consulting only, would you as a sales rep take their purchase order?"
The software account manager said "yes, of course."
"That's the point," I said. Many IT companies sell consulting to clients but do not 'see' themselves as consultant. Even more, many IT firms give free consulting to clients to induce prospects to buy.
If you have been selling technology, software or professional services for awhile, you know that Requests for Proposals (RFP's) and Requests for Information (RFI's) are many times really free consulting requests by prospects in disguise.
Yet, many IT salespeople struggle with seeing themselves as anything else but an IT salesperson. They feel more comfortable talking about features, functions, staff resumes and speeds and feeds than the business results their IT offering can produce.
At DigitalHatch, we have trained over 10,000 IT salespeople during the last 3 years. We have found that sometimes, the larger the IT company we work with, the harder it is for salespeople to become more business strategists than commodity IT salespeople.
All IT salespeople aspire to be a client advisor. It sounds good when they describe their skill sets but selling is more than just asking prospects what their business needs are. Being a client advisor is an approach where you must UNDERSTAND their business, not just their IT needs.
It means that you must invest in your career and your sales approach.
Commodity: "One that is subject to ready exchange or exploitation within a market." Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Did you plan on being a football player or maybe a violinist, but now you're an IT salesperson? How did that happen?
Let's be honest, many of you who are reading this article did not go to a university or college to become an IT salesperson.
It just happened.
Maybe you were lured by those huge internet bubble salaries of the 90's. Or maybe it was the foosball table in the break room of that hot dot-com that got you interested.
But here you are . . . a full fledged IT, software or services sales professional all grown up with a quota, a boss and senior management prospects who avoid you like you are going to sell them a magazine subscription.
I recently got an email from a BDM News subscriber who wanted me to tell him the secret on how to sell more IT. "Tell me one thing I can say or do right now to help me hit my sales quota" he pleaded.
The one thing all IT salespeople can do right now to sell more is . . . admit that selling IT is your profession.
No, don't worry this is not going to be a motivational column. That's for informational ads on late night TV. I don't want you to look into the mirror and say 17 times "I am a great salesperson and I am going to hit my quota." I just want you to commit to selling IT as a sales profession.
IT sales is not a hobby.
IT sales is not a waiting station until your Uncle Harry leaves you money in his will.
IT sales is not a job that's OK but you'd rather be selling margaritas at a bar in the Caribbean.
It is estimated that there are over 2 million IT salespeople worldwide. Do you ever wonder how many are daydreaming everyday of doing some other job? As soon as you admit that this is your career and your profession . . . things happen.
So how do you stop being a commodity salesperson?
You start by accepting that this is your professional career.
Paul R. DiModica
President
DigitalHatch, Inc.
(770) 632-7647
http://www.digitalhatch.com
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