In their work at CEB Global, Nick Toman and Brent Adamson are on the cutting edge of what’s happening in the sales arena. They also do studies to determine what their observations really mean. In response to their recent article posted on CEBG, “The New Sales Imperative,” Anthony invited them to come on the show to talk about what they are seeing in this new age of sales when buyers have more information prior to contacting a salesperson than ever before. New times require a new approach and the guys cover what they think that new approach should look like, including the necessity of becoming a trusted sales advisor, on this episode.

Becoming a trusted sales advisor to your clients is more vital than ever.
Buyers these days are able to get more information about solving their problems than ever before. Most of the time they come to you, the salesperson, with a load of data already - thinking they understand their options. It’s easy in that situation to believe that you simply need to give them what they ask for - but that’s not always the case. They need you to serve them as a trusted advisor, one who knows the solutions to their needs better than they do, in spite of the knowledge they’ve amassed. You need to help them understand what they’ve discovered and how to apply it to the specifics of their situation. Find out how Anthony’s guests, Nick Toman and Brent Adamson suggest you go about that, on this episode of In The Arena.
How salespeople inadvertently overwhelm potential buyers.
When a potential buyer comes to you, the sales professional, they often have all the information they need about the solutions to their need that exist. The temptation is to go deeply into the specifics of your particular solution to try and convince them that yours is the best solution. But often that results in information overwhelm and the buyer winds up NOT making a decision in your favor. Brent Adamson and Nick Toman outline how you can avoid doing that and actually guide your potential customer to an understanding of the solutions they’ve discovered, and they do it in this episode.

Why more information doesn’t always help buyers make buying decisions.
Our instinct as salespeople is to assume that a buyer who comes to us about our solution has everything figured out already. They talk that way in most cases because they’ve easily done their own research on the internet. So they really do know a lot, but is it enough? And does it really help them make a decision? It’s becoming more and more apparent from the research guys like Nick Toman and Brent Adamson have done that buyers are experiencing “information overload” that leads to a type of decision paralysis and they wind up not making a buying decision at all. Find out how you can become their trusted sales advisor and help them overcome that overwhelm, on this episode.
Why over 40% of purchases have some form of regret attached to them.
Buyers today appear to be making their buying decisions independent of sales professionals more often. It makes sense on one hand because they are able to get as much info as they want about the solutions to their problem that exist. But still, 40% of buying decisions have some form of regret about that decision attached to them. Why is that? It’s because they didn’t have a trusted advisor who knows the details of the decision alongside to help them. That could be you if you’re willing to learn how to pivot your sales approach to serve them as they really need. Brent Adamson and Nick Toman are on the show to help you know what that looks like, so be sure you listen.

Outline of this great episode

[0:44] Anthony’s introduction of the article and prompting behind this conversation with Brent and Nick.
[2:09] The beliefs behind the article, “The New Sales Imperative.”
[5:20] Why more information doesn’t always help ...