We thought it only natural to share this point of view with our own readers!
What role does CRM play in your customer approach?
Dominique Seguin: CRM is an essential part of customer relations. You wouldn't think of working today without smartphones, e-mail and other time-saving tools! CRM, the application for managing customer relations, enables much more than the technical and prohibitive image that salespeople have of it: you can manage your follow-ups, analyze your figures, do emailing, store your customer data for other departments in the company, evaluate your sales performance...
Salespeople don't like CRMs because they feel they have to re-enter their working days to fill in tables that nobody really reads. Like any tool, it has its constraints, let's face it, but we've observed among our customers that no experienced salesperson would dare to manage their opportunities on Excel, their reminders on a notepad, or their forecasts on a blank sheet of paper. The challenge of getting teams to take ownership of the system is therefore particularly high, and this requires a genuine perception of the associated benefits!
The subject isn't new (we even carried out and published a study in 2012 entitled: "Sales reps and CRM, why so much hatred?"), but it remains topical.
Our advice: seize this tool as an opportunity and make the most of its features!
In today's digital age, how do you interest prospects over the phone without sounding intrusive?
Dominique Seguin: The rules don't change! If we're interesting, people will be interested! If not, they tell us very simply: "I'm not interested".
How do we interest our prospects? By telling them about THEIR concerns. Either we find material available on the web and use that as a hook, or we bring in one or two topics specific to the target market and see if they bite.
Don't get your hopes up about call-to-appointment rates: the average is less than 10%. But if you prepare well with the right pitch, you can double your performance.
What role do you see for social media in boosting sales?
Dominique Seguin: Let's just say that the sales function is on the verge of uberization!
50% of the purchasing process takes place without a salesperson. Digital technology has become this profession's main competitor.
How can you hope to be more relevant and demonstrative than a 2-minute 3D Youtube video that highlights all the product's features with a nice soundtrack, just when you need it? You have to create value elsewhere!
Be even more differentiating in your understanding of the customer's issues (stop asking them what they want, ask them why they want it!), put a value on the cost of the current situation and the dysfunction observed, and finally stay present in their minds after you've left their office.
Social media is a fabulous opportunity to stay in touch with the customer after the appointment stage.
It used to be the brochure that did the job, but now you can showcase your track record, your expertise and your latest news with up-to-date, interactive tools.
In other words, you can influence and promote your recommendations. In short, if this is the end of the brochure, it's the beginning of sales 2.0, and it makes the job even sharper and more exciting!
Beyond the tools, what makes a salesperson a top performer?
Dominique Seguin: Method, method and method! Beyond the reputed innate sales "talent", it's the method that makes the difference. In sales, as in any other profession, method is key.
Do you think a baker wonders every night how to make good bread? No, he follows a tried and tested recipe every night. It's less tiring, and he's sure to be able to serve his customers in the morning!
Good salespeople don't reinvent the wheel every day, hoping to get the right smile at the right time, or the right formula, or the right product...
The bait is less important than the trap itself! It's a bit of a stiff mantra, but it's so true. The trap is the sales techniques that are repeated every day to constantly improve the gesture.
Very good salespeople, well versed in these principles, sometimes fall flat on their faces in the negotiation phase... Why is this and how can it be avoided?
Dominique Seguin: The main problem is lack of preparation. Hard training, easy war! Most salespeople prepare by applying the handbrake. That's a recipe for failure, and the good old way of resorting to the salesperson's weakness, begging his manager for a price cut.
Good salespeople are seen in the bends, not the straights. Negotiation has nothing to do with sales. Great negotiators are not salespeople. And the reverse can be true.
A good negotiator will be able to create a new territory for both parties that does not exist at the start of the negotiation, with each party initially intent on protecting its own.
The challenge is to move away from this vision and towards the search for a new configuration. Otherwise, we're left counting the points, and in this game, it's often the customer who wins!
Let's change the frame of reference. The real issue for a customer is not winning the negotiation, it's taking advantage as quickly as possible of the benefits brought by the coveted solution that justified the purchase, to solve the identified problem (expensive machine, service too slow, inefficient process...).
You've been a Sales Performance Consultant with KESTIO for almost three years now. How would you sum up these years?
Dominique Seguin: After 18 years in operational sales, from the field to managing a P&L of 180 million euros, I thought the changeover would be easy.
I can say that my best decision after 6 months was to wipe the slate clean and learn a new trade, one where you first think before you act, where you study before you decide.
Our job is to help our customers approach their challenges differently, because our time is not theirs, and that's what we bring them.
An operative doesn't need a consultant to ensure day-to-day execution, he knows how to do it very well and is the man of the art. We'll never know our customers, their teams, their culture, their history, their own customers as well as we do....
The consultant brings the ability to make complexity simple, to bear witness to best practices in all sectors, to identify what causes failure, dysfunctions, to find the right balance to calmly tackle bottlenecks, and to bring about change in employee practices through genuine, long-term support, without the pressure of numbers.
We help our customers find space in their day-to-day lives, so they can better prepare for the future and enable their teams to stay ahead in their markets.
My operational background is of great use to me because I understand my customers' lives, I know their doubts, their desire to succeed, the incredible energy they put into achieving their objectives every day with their teams, and we often provide the little spark that makes everything move...
Maybe also because at KESTIO, we don't take ourselves too seriously, and that makes all the difference when a Comex entrusts us with a serious subject. They don't need any more complication than their subject already gives them!
What's your favourite mobile application?
Dominique Seguin: I love Pocket because, being an infovore, I like to eat content all the time. Between newsletters, monitoring, blogs and news sites, how can I find an application that brings together all my playlists easily and intuitively? Pocket does it so well, I can't do without it.
KESTIO supports companies (from SMEs to large groups) in acquiring and retaining customers, through its dual expertise in Sales Performance and Customer Experience.
