The Augmented Salesperson (ePub)

The traditional sales representative is no longer. His extensive product knowledge, in-depth understanding of the customer's situation and excellent personal relationship with his accounts have been proven to be insufficiently distinctive - even after he developed into an expert in his segment A growing slice of the sales process has been taking place online since the end of the 1990s. Digital and social are more and more often the ideal way for prospects to search for and compare products. Inbound marketing is gaining ground. Companies create content, consisting of blogs, podcasts, videos, infographics and white papers, that is interesting and relevant to the target group, and position themselves as thought leaders within a certain domain.

Inbound & Online Marketing is not the Holy Grail, however. The need for personal sales remains, particularly in a business-to-business context. In many cases, personal interaction with a prospect is still a requirement. This is certainly the case for innovative and/or complex products and services. New and multifaceted products and services that require extensive explanation, but also projects and initiatives that consist of several integrated products and services. In these cases, a salesperson is a deciding factor in the process. This input goes much deeper than the mere provision of information about the new product or the new service. The prospect expects to be inspired by the salesperson. Solid knowledge of a customer's situation, with information on both the customer's company and the market which the customer operates in is a prerequisite these days. Customers expect nothing less. This formula is certainly not enough to build up long-term relationships with prospects/customers, built on trust and, most of all, enthusiasm. To do this, you have to inspire your customer... But how?

The answer to this question is: by building a sales organization consisting of "Augmented Salespeople".

This book discusses the four crucial ingredients for the Augmented Salesperson. Furthermore, it provides insights in how to recruit, train and manage the Augmented Salesperson and it explains how a winning sales organization can be built around Augmented Salespeople.