Applying the Customer Filter

While our survey study of small to mid-sized information technology (IT) buyers does not presume to speak for the entire world of customers, it does offer an interesting perspective on the strategies discussed in this text. The good news for sales organizations is that the customers in our survey do find a salesperson who “understands my business” to be differentiating. They are clearly more influenced by salespeople who “know the product” and are “responsive” over “friendly,” and they do feel that there are more factors, such as “service reputation” and “product reputation,” that can be more important than price.

On the flipside, there was little evidence that the buyers in this survey felt like their salespeople were becoming trusted business advisors. They valued their salespeople’s knowledge of product features and benefits but did not look to them for “diagnosing my IT problems” or for “identifying strategic IT opportunities for me.” If you think back to the Sales Impact Ladder in Chapter 5, customers in this survey characterized their salespeople as price sellers and content sellers. There is clearly, then, still a long road ahead for sales professionals. Not only will it be harder and harder to earn Trusted Advisor status with a customer, there are more and more competitors who are trying to position themselves the same way.