The best man for the B2B high-tech sales job is often a woman
The best man for the B2B high-tech sales job is often a woman
We’re at a time in which the one-time-sale is quickly becoming a thing of the past, and with it, aggressive salespeople who just want to ABC – always be closing.
The world of B2B sales is now fully open.
When the pandemic hit, “pivot” was the word on everyone’s lips. How could businesses pivot to accommodate the new normal?
But the word that seemed better suited to what I was doing in my newly acquired role in the world of sales was “repurposing.” Here I was, a Delivery Service Partner-turned-CBE, in charge of North American mid-tier operators and new logos and I was in isolation at home, without so much as a desk but with a million questions. How could I talk to my customers without meeting them face-to-face? How could I address business needs that the pandemic had rendered moot? How could I repurpose existing products and resources to offer new and unexpected value propositions?
From recreation to B2B
Luckily, I had much experience in repurposing – at least on a recreational level. Refashioning, or repurposing, old or broken items is a beloved pastime of mine. I once turned a decrepit pair of pointe shoes, which no ballerina worth her salt would ever let touch her feet, into a stunning piece of art.
The idea captured the imagination of Amdocs’ (mostly male) marketing mavens, and so it was, in an Amdocs rebranding effort that predates “Make it Amazing” by eons, my team and I refashioned ballet shoes to match Amdocs’ new color palette. The resulting marketing material was beautiful.
The best woman for the job
We’re at a time in which the one-time-sale is quickly becoming a thing of the past, and with it, aggressive salespeople who just want to ABC – always be closing. The world of B2B sales is now fully open; it’s a softer world in which SaaS and cloud solutions offer consumption-based formulas and open-ended subscriptions, and as a result, it’s a world in which the best man for the job is often a woman.
Today, cultivating customer relationships mandates a more emotive and human approach than ever before. It often demands that we reshape the way we view things in order to understand them from the customer’s point of view – allowing us to be fully empathic to their needs and their own customers’ needs. Our customers are not interested in the names of our products or services. They are interested in the story we have to sell.
Our story shows them that we identify fully with the operational challenge at hand and can offer true value propositions. Doing so ensures that it is the customer’s compelling business events that drive engagement, rather than our products and services. In that way, we are putting our money where our mouth is and truly allowing them to make it amazing. Understanding that is the starting point for closing any deal.
