Why not: Product Specialists

November 22, 2020

A while back I did a small research related to trust and job title.

“Who would you choose to do business with”. The results came in as follows:

  • Sales Advisor/Consultant 36%
  • Sales Executive/representative 8%
  • Product Specialist 47%
  • Sales Engineer 8%

 

The title Product Specialist was a clear preference.

When people go out to buy something, a need or a want, they go armed to the teeth knowing that the salesperson is going to try his best to sell them something (understandable). They always have the perception that salespeople are all thieves (also understandable).

The salespeople must reach a target, the economy is very volatile, their livelihood depends on the numbers they make. So, they are forced to hide the truth sometimes and some other times, lie.

Can we blame them? No! When they are depending on the numbers, no we can’t.

So, where does the problem lie?

Here is where I think it does. When salespeople introduce themselves as sales consultants, advisors, representatives, or whatever, they already started wrong; the word “Sales”.

That word brings the worst in buyers. “He is a salesperson, of course, he is going to lie to me.”, they say.

The way I recommend starting right is to change the business model to having Product Specialists and Finance Specialists and remove the sales and cashier titles (cashiers, don’t hate me)

The Product Specialists would be the matchmakers, they match the needs and wants of the buyer to the products being sold. Then the Finance Specialists deal with the money, they could be as well Business Managers.

 Advantages:

No more word “Sales”, so the buyers start by lowering their defenses and engage in the exploratory conversation that leads to getting what they want.

“Money aside, is this the right product for you?”

Customer experience would have the chance to become the main focus.

The usual price negotiation won’t be in the hands of the Product Specialist, rather in the hands of the Finance Specialist or the Business Manager who can easily turn the negotiation into a payment solution depending on the buyer’s finances if they were well trained.

Challenges:

Figures based incentives: how do we pay the Product Specialists if they did a good job, but the Finance Specialist or Business Manager was not able to reach a solution.

What do you think? What advantages or disadvantages do you think we have?


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