We’ve always stressed, in talking about what makes a good set of sales behaviours, the primacy of a consultative approach that reaches to the heart of customer needs. And nothing has happened in the last 50 years significantly to change that truth, whatever fashions in sales methodologies might have come and gone in that time.
But the question we may now be faced with is: how many times are we going to have to have those conversations to make a sale?
New research published by LinkedIn this week seems to indicate that the number of people involved in making a buying decision has risen to its highest number ever. The average size of a buying committee today is 12.9, compared to 9.5 in 2020. Possibly that’s because decisions are themselves becoming more complex, but equally there is probably a trend towards defensive positions on capital expenditure in many organisations as the economic times grow more uncertain. Put simply, the price of making a purchasing error may be higher than ever before and is certainly more visible than ever. To some extent there may be strength in numbers.
Read more about this on their website.