Death usually comes slowly in sales.  More salespeople died in sales in the 20’s because of an inability to find enough prospects to sell than for all reasons combined.  Same in the 30’s, and the 60’s, and the 90’s, and every decade in-between.  Finding prospects and marketing to them has always been the leading killer of sales careers, and that death has typically been a slow, agonizing one due mostly to a lack of effort on the part of the salesperson or more often, the ineffective use of the marketing methods they chose to employ to reach prospects. 

Today, the very marketing methods that have been used by both successful and failed salespeople for the past 100 years are themselves dying a slow, agonizing death.

There was a time, not too long ago, in fact, when prospects and clients looked to salespeople for advice and guidance.  Prospects knew they needed information.  They knew they needed help in finding and evaluating alternatives and solutions to problems and issues. 

In an environment where prospects needed salespeople, the personal marketing methods salespeople employ such as cold calling, fliers, direct mail, and such worked well to reach out to and influence prospects.  Moreover, a skilled salesperson could use those methods to set themselves apart from their competition.

Nevertheless, the sales environment is fundamentally different today from in the past.  Today’s reality is that prospects no longer need and a rapidly growing number no longer want salespeople involved in their purchasing decisions.  For most salespeople, the world has moved beyond them; however, they have yet to recognize it.  They’re still living in the past, in a world where prospects and clients needed them. 

For a great number of prospects, both individual and business, the salesperson as supplier of information and guidance is outdated.  These individuals and businesses have passed over the divide from those who feel a need to rely on a salesperson for guidance, to those who believe they can make better choices without a salesperson involved in their decisions.  Moreover, the numbers who are moving over to the do-it-yourself side of purchasing are growing larger everyday.

With the proliferation of the internet; the avalanche of books, magazines, and white papers addressing every conceivable subject; cable TV with programming covering everything from personal finances, to virtually every business subject one can think of, to the most intimate personal, family, and social subjects, a huge number of prospects believe they already have the information they need to make decisions.  Now, all they need is someone who will provide the cheapest price for the product or service the prospect has determined will solve their problem or meet their need.

The sales environment is undergoing a swift and dramatic change.  Over the past decade, prospects have become more aware of the bombardment of marketing they face everywhere they turn.  Their mail is dominated by direct mail offers.  Almost every internet site they visit is flooded with marketing and advertising.  Newspapers and magazines are more than 50% advertising.  Radio and TV are, of course, marketing driven.  Everywhere one looks is marketing:  billboards; the side of the car next to you may well have a magnetic sign marketing something; the license plate frame on the car in front you advertises the dealership the car was bought from; the pen in your pocket may well have some company’s logo; and the horde of cheap signs on the street corner advertising shops going out of business, cheap internet, cheap insurance, cheap everything. 

Then, of course, the cold calls.  Cold calls for investments, insurance, internet connections, phone service, you name it.  Cold calls at work.  Cold calls at home.  How many do you get everyday?  5?  10?  More?

Of course, we’re not done.  Spam.  How many spam messages do you get?  How many lotteries have you won this week alone?  How many dead princes, long lost relatives, and just plain old Good Samaritans died and their representatives have contacted you this week for you to claim your inheritance--or someone wants you to help them sneak ill-gotten funds out of some third world country?  How many lonely hearts have you heard from this week wanting to become “friends?”  How many offers for discount software, discount drugs, or incredible stock tips have you received this week?  How many legitimate businesses have stuffed your e-mail box with junk that you didn’t request and didn’t want?  I will typically get about 1,500 pieces of spam every week--over two hundred a day.  Everyday.

And what do all of these things have in common?  Well, besides being unwanted, all of the businesses pushing products or services claim to be the best.  They all claim to have the best price or the give the most value.  They all claim to have the best customer service. 

They all have the same message, which means none have any message.  Every direct mail piece is virtually the same, only with different pictures.  Every salesperson sounds exactly like all the other salespeople.  Every ad is just like the others.  None can be heard over the din of the racket made by all this marketing.

Is it any wonder people despise marketing?  Is it any wonder people will go to great lengths to avoid salespeople?  Is it any wonder that marketing and sales as it has been practiced in the past is dying?

Why are these millions of personal and business consumers convinced they no longer need you?  They believe they no longer need you because they are getting their information from “objective” experts, not from biased, commission-oriented salespeople.  They are making their own decisions without need for you because they have read an article or book, or heard a report by an unbiased expert who gave them “objective” information that they can act upon.  Rather than relying on the slanted and obviously prejudiced information a salesperson gives, they turn to the experts who they believe don’t have a dog in the fight. 

Prospects don’t want to be sold, despite what some salespeople and even some sales trainers think.  They want to be educated.  They want real information as a basis for making their own decisions.  They don’t want marketing; they want knowledge.  They don’t want sales brochures; they want reporting and facts.  They want to be dealt with as educated people capable of making their own decisions based on reliable information.  And whether they are right or not, they don’t believe salespeople provide that information.  Instead, they rely on recognized experts.

Moreover, companies are reinforcing this belief by rushing to provide these prospects with the means to make their do-it-yourself purchases at the lowest possible price.  There are companies in almost every industry you can think of that are catering to this growing mass of consumers.  There are thousands of these companies, and the list is growing daily.  Some companies even try to have it both ways by maintaining a traditional sales force while undermining their sales team by at the same time trying to lure prospects by providing a do-it-yourself internet site or 800 number where the prospect can purchase without having to speak with a salesperson.

Companies such as LegalZoom.com turn many legal document issues into a cheap, fill in the blank exercise.  Esurance, AIG, Geico, Progressive, and many others encourage consumers to eliminate the insurance agent for auto insurance, while other companies are doing the same for home, health, life, and even business insurance—after all, it’s just insurance and who needs an agent to make the purchase more expensive?  Mortgages, investments, real estate transactions, and hundreds of other products and services also have their version of the do-it-yourself product and service provider.

In part 2 , I look at what this radical change in buyer behavior means for salespeople and personal marketing.