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Can We Talk?
January 27, 2009 
IDC just announced some interesting research on sales enablement.
The research, presented by Lee Levitt in a telebriefing today, showed that B2B sellers are not doing a very good job aligning with buyers' needs.
80% of companies are trying to "improve the quality of face time with buyers" but only 16% are doing a good job at "solution selling."
What can companies and salespeople do to improve?
The #1 answer from buyers: "Put aside the generic pitch." This beat the #2 response by more than two to one.
We have seen this over and over again in our work: The level of engagement with an executive buyer is a direct result of the quality of the conversation. Not the quality of the presentation --- but the quality of the conversation.
Lee had some great things to say about improving sales enablement.
But one thing was missing. All of the focus was on information management -- the systems and processes to manage sales-related information.
Sales organizations need to think not only about sales enablement, but conversation enablement.
Buyers make up their mind within the first few minutes about a salesperson and what they are offering. I believe that for an executive, this is as much about the information the salesperson is presenting (the value proposition), as the way in which they present it (presentational or conversational).
The executive is thinking: Is this someone who can listen, who will reflect on what I have to say, who will share relevant experiences, make useful connections, and offer insight beyond the product they are selling.
If companies are serious about improving the quality of face-time with executive buyers, they will work on these questions too.
conversation enablement, sales enablement | in Selling 
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Reader Comments (1)
OK. Agreed, conversation enablement is the way to go.
Who is a thought leader in that space?
Where can I find an approach for conversation enablement that works?
Are we talking wikinomics and opening up of enterprise social networks to our customers to get the voice of the customer in our organization?
Or are we talking about our internal sales enablement application having more web2.0 components and providing the sales force with more food for thought for better conversations?
Should the conversation with the customer happen online more often and face to face less often to leverage the collective conversation skills of more of my employees?
Or are we looking for more dynamic client presentations that can be generated customized by audience, industry vertical, type of meeting, country, etc...?