100 years ago, the personality and the perceived character of salespeople were key determinants of success as these traits would command both liking and respect.1 However, in Arthur Miller’s 1949 play Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman complained that the sales profession was becoming “all cut and dried” and that you no longer could sell with “personality” or the personal relationships you have with your customers.
This play was set in the American post-war era when marketers indeed were becoming more “professional” conducting market research studies, targeting specific demographics, developing a better understanding of consumer behavior/psychology, etc. Customers at the time also did not seem to care much about close relationships with salespeople as they were too busy buying whatever goods they could get ahold of throughout the prosperous 1950s and 1960s.
As a result, salespeople were trained to soften the edges of their personalities to not offend customers even if salespeople with “bland personalities” likely were doomed to develop at best superficial relationships with their clientele. The thinking was that personalities could only damage the likelihood of a sale, not the other way around. Instead, the focus was on salespeople being professional in offering the right product to the right customers at the right price.
In today’s business world, salespeople are as professional as ever armed with a toolbox of sales and CRM (customer relationship management) technologies enabling them to keep track of customer requests, deliveries, etc. The problem is that most of their competitors have access to these same tools and that the offering of the right product to the right customers is no longer necessarily a differentiating factor. It may only be a prerequisite to get in the door. In fact, many salespeople find that CRM systems are not really useful and refuse to adopt them.
It is perhaps in this context that we can better understand why salespeople are rapidly embracing social networking technologies such as “social CRM” as a means of researching the interests of prospects and staying connected socially with existing customers between (or sometimes instead of) regular face-to-face meetings. Salespeople also recognize that they can benefit from a presence on various social media platforms to make good first Google impressions on prospective customers who check them out before a meeting.
The question is to what extent salespeople should let their personalities shine through on social media sites and blogs by showing not only their professional selves but also the personalities behind their images? Salespeople have long wanted to know the hobbies and musical interests of their clients to be better able to develop rapport but how interested are customers in getting to know salespeople better? I would love to hear your thoughts on this!
1 “‘Personality Wins the Day’: Death of a Salesman and Popular Sales Advice Literature,” South Atlantic Review (Winter 1999): 1-10.
Now, in the final days of writing my master’s thesis on self-employed and their usage of social media (sociology), my comprehension is that the experience of a humble and genuine person is essential to be perceived as a sincere person in social media. Thus creating a paradox where the presentation of the ‘brand’ should be as close to a personal identity as possible.
However, there is one major discrepancy on this account. Self-employed who does regard social media as tools, rather than a goal in itself, seems to loose their confidence in other self-employed who are too present and too ‘private’ in their usage. As well, my informants over all seem to use more and more private messaging to avoid being perceived as ‘uninteresting’. Another problem occurring here seems to be that the tool-oriented user experience a kind-of meaninglessness (alienation) or normlessness (anomie) when social media marketing become too private.
On the other hand, those self-employes who doesn’t have a problem with using their identity as their brand, and shaping their identity in that way, still present a kind-of colonisation of their life-world (to use Habermas words) where they experience a more crammed space for their private communications.
To me, this seems like if the development of social media does not aim for a more tool- and user-oriented approach private persons will move on to other, less commercial, networks where they have more power over what information they give away and receive. Thus, the dialogue between salespersons and consumers will abruptly end, since they won’t risk open the door because the friendly face outside may be a salesperson, with whom they doesn’t want to waist time. To sum up. Don’t let your personality shine though too much. It may be a profitable solution for a short time but in the end the customers will feel cheated. It’s the same kind of strategy as to crash-and-burn a known clothes brands by buying them and starting to sell much lower quality products to extract the profit from the brand in itself.
Thanks for your insightful commentary of my post, Jonas. I find it particularly interesting in how you apply it to the specific context of self-employment given that the lines between the “brand” and the “person” may be difficult to find. I think that you are right in that many choose to “hide” their personalities online and it is also likely true that some self-employees have lost business because they seem to be too much of an open book. On the other hand, there could be business won by people who successfully have utilized social media tools to build trust and showcase their sincerety, and I don’t necessarily see this as a short-term solution unless it is used to push through one sales transaction but rather is building a more genuine long-term relationship. I guess the effective use of social tools in this regard might be a good research topic, but first I have to read your master’s thesis, congratulations on being nearly done!
Dr. Myhr I definitely agree with you that many customers and salespeople could benefit from knowing each other better, especially in high technology B2B sales scenarios. I’ve been working with a web development firm named Miner Technologies out of Laguna Hills that has seen some benefits of letting customers know more about their salespeople and staff. The main benefit has been in finding a consistent metaphor base to use when describing complicated products. Clients who take the time to learn about developers and designers seem to consistently have more realistic expectations and awareness of what can go wrong. I think this is largely because the parties involved in the sale have an increased comfort level and are actually comfortable communicating in a casual manner
Adam, thanks for your input and great example of how this can play out in real life. I think that you bring up an important aspect, that better relationships can be helpful not only because it can feel more “engaging” or fun or whatever, but that getting to know the other party also can facilitate and motivate discussions about more serious business matters when necessary, which is often the case in a B2B setting. Keep me posted on how things are going!
This is an interesting question, and in my opinion, a question with no clear answers. First off, I think it’s important to distinguish between two “types” of sellable categories, products/goods and services. This is an important distinction because the act of selling a good versus selling a service is different in nature. A product/good is tangible, one can observe the quality, test it in production, or order a prototype before a capital commitment is made. Additionally, there is a substitute factor related to goods. If a customer is unhappy with say the quality of an input (product) they can switch brands or find a new supplier (assuming the input isn’t scare/rare and can be substituted). Alternatively, you purchase a service on the assumption that a project will be completed to specifications but there is still some unpredictability ( i.e. you won’t know the outcome until the service is rendered).
So what does this all mean? Well to me, it makes the performance and thus the reputation of the service provider the most important purchase factor. You may not personally like the CPA firm auditing your business but when you have to get it done right the first time, quality is more important thanauditor likeability. In that sense, I don’t think the personal lives (or personal branding through social media) of service providers matters as long as the service is performed to spec. Contrastingly, with a high availability of substitutes for goods, it would be nice to know that my salesperson is genuinely looking out for my company’s best interest.
Thanks for your perspectives, Doug, appreciate it. First, I agree that there probably isn’t a single “right” answer to be found, especially not since I realize I raised more than one question! However, I do think that the distinction you make between physical products and services can be very helpful in delving deeper into the issues involved. Like you say, “just” selling physical products exposes you to more competition and price pressures as they often (not always, especially not in a B2B context) can be more easily substitutable than pure services. To escape this “commoditization trap”, many businesses choose to add a service bundle on top of the physical product as a way to differentiate themselves. Thus, we could even include a third, hybrid category of products and services both being offered.
What you suggest is that a personal relationship with the sales representative can be an alternative way of differentiating a physical products company and I think that you are right in that regard even if it may sometimes be difficult to distinguish this investment in a personal relationship from the offering of services as some of those communications may simply be helpful from a services standpoint.
When it comes to the importance of the personal relationship in the pure service context, I agree that it is unlikely to be critical to know the musical interests of the salesperson and perhaps I overly trivialized what I meant by using that as an example. Anyway, I think that the example that you bring up of not just an average service, but a mission-critical one, brings us to the importance of trust in the company as represented by the salesperson.
Thank you for this input as I realize that I need to consider this relationship in a more multifaceted manner and “personality” is only one of those factors. Even trust is considered a multifaceted construct with two main categories, one is the degree to which you believe that the provider is competent to provide the services they offer, the other the extent to which they will put your interests high on their agenda. Perhaps the personal relationship can be helpful in instilling the necessary sense of trust and by offering the sales representative opportunities to showcase their character and credibility? Thanks again!
I think it may be very helpful for many sales people to build their brand online. From customer standpoint the ability to find out who is the person selling can be of value. Furthermore it may reveal common interests and help with relationship building. Of course it goes without saying that the online profile must be trustworthy, genuine and professional.
Thanks for your comment, Jiri. I agree that making a good first virtual impression via an online brand or a profile could be helpful for many salespeople. Then, of course, that is only the start of the relationship!
Interesting post and interesting comments. First key point here is the statement that ‘salesmen’ say CRM is not really useful. The information collected in a CRM, that is properly well done and collected, is only useful when you focus on 1: the Customer; 2-Relationship. The tool works when you are engaged with your client in / through any means and record the information to measure behaviors, patterns, contacts, data. Obviously, as the underlying theme of this post suggests, ‘rebirth of social’, which is actually “Customer Engagement’ is what really works. To do that, you need to be more interested in the Customer themselves, as well as share info about yourself. Doesn’t matter the medium or tool. A customer has to like you, get a feel for you (working relationship match), and get a feel for the level of your work or what you are trying to sell. This applies to B2C & B2B.
We forget also, that it used to be the ‘salesman’ that led to the sale. People were lured by the story, the romanticism. After the sale the salesman moved on. That doesn’t completely work today. A whole other discussion on human behavior and social media.
The underlying premise throughout time hasn’t changed – the customer, and the relationship, and you use the tool that works best for them.
The trend is sharing your personality to that sweet spot of what works for your customer base, in the medium that works for them. It doesn’t matter if you are self employed, a salesperson, a professional, or a corporation. What matters is knowing who comprises your customer base. And that’s where many fall short. It’s not about the tool.
Thank you for an insightful comment. I note that you state that a precondition for the successful implementation of a CRM system is that it “is properly well done and collected”. Clearly, it is already here where many CRM implementations have fallen apart suffering from the GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) syndrome. Two reasons for why the proper data collection is not done is that (1) some CRM systems have not been sufficiently user-friendly for input to be readily enterered in the right places, and (2) some salespeople prefer to hold on to their “proprietary” information regarding their hot leads, etc, so that no other salesperson in the same company can “steal” that customer.
However, the bigger issue you raise is that the tool choice is secondary to the underlying focus on the customer relationship. Yet, I believe that for many organizations, it is unrealistic to have each individual salesperson pick their own favorite system and run multiple systems in parallel even if the salesperson may prefer that approach. At the least,
organization-level systems ought to strive to reduce the time that salespeople have to spend on administrative issues so that they can work more on the relationships instead and perhaps also display more of their personality as discussed in this blog post.
I like how you end with the discussion of a “personality sweetspot”. Indeed, it could very well be that suave salespeople can determine the degree to which a customer wants a very personalized approach and also hold back some of the relational issues with customers that just want to get down to business as soon as possible and get the transaction over and done with. This latter approach is akin to when my dad used to tell hairdressers “just the haircut please, no rubbish”!
I completely agree with your comments about the CRM, and for raising the issue – who really ‘owns’ the lead & the customer relationship.
First, CRM: as an implementer, selection facilitator, and Project Manager of those systems as well as others, there are MANY reasons why the right tool isn’t selected – and the dynamics of that alone could be the subject of a thesis & behavior analysis project. As we see so often in an organization, there are many levels of power struggles going on, among other things. But the tool is there, or others are available. Sadly, most professional tools are developed and driven by those with left brain strengths. They don’t necessarily support the way an operator uses it or processes info. Hence, the popularity of social media tools & all the info you can gleen from it for developing leads. The bureaucratic process in selecting a universal organizational tool makes it outdated before it comes in. I know all the issues & opinions here. But the more productive a sales person can be, the more time they have to grow relationships & make sales.
Second, the whole notion of owning the lead and relationship.
a. there is a lot of ego in the sales field, but bottom line, they are selling a product or service for a company, so they are merely a representative. (no offense to sales people).
b. but, what makes them great & successful, is their ability to foster the relationship and turn no’s into yes’s. The customer ‘engages’ in that representation of the company. If a salesperson is allowed to be more social, and really works that angle….then that ‘courting relationship’ belongs to him or her. That customer buys because of the ‘personal connection’. Therefore, the salesperson has equal rights to some of that data. Exports & uploads, when handled properly within company policy support both parties.
There are tons of side conversations & debates with this post & its topics, but the title is the Rebirth of Social Salesman….& use of other tools to stay engaged with their customers. No matter how you slice it – they will still use tools to research leads, mine for opportunity, and use some tool to capture the data / the results. And sad to stay, most companies are far behind in being nimble enough.
Sorry – I am very passionate about these topics & go on & on from my inside work, and outside observation in several Fortune 500s, & may have taken this topic down a whole other road. Sales people will do what they need to do to bring in clients. but at the end of the day – it’s the customer and the 100’s of people competing to acquire their limited $. As customers become more savvy & intelligent so must the skills & tools of the salesperson.
Thank you for elaborating based in your deep insights! Always good to calibrate my take on the world with a real-world litmus test. I think you are right in that the central systems tend to be left-brain oriented and that is perhaps where social media platforms have a huge opportunity by adding a social, emotional, personal layer on top of the rational side. Both are clearly needed. Also, organizations are likely better off allowing salespeople to complement some of the central tools with systems they see working with their types of clients and that social media may be a significant part in some of these relationships and perhaps less so in others.