Philadelphia, PA – At a conference full of next gen digital ideas for smart and tailored solutions, Doug Braun and Atul Goyal from Zoetis Animal Health shared some thoughts on a novel concept – maybe greater personalization for our customers can start with a person, the sales representative.
Today, there are fewer differentiated products and many new challenges that they face. This is true for therapies designed for humans and animals alike. And all of our customers’ needs are growing more and more complex. Zoetis’ approach to differentiation is done through it’s people. They have shifted the role of the rep from sales person to trusted advisor by moving the conversations from selling products to having richer discussions that focus on goals, unmet needs, and opportunities.
Atul explained that the message you convey on a call is communicated by:
7% – your words
38% – your tone of voice
55% – your non verbal communication
and he stressed that to get the desired response from customers, the sales call really needs to shift to something like 30% talk 70% listen (vs the other way around).
After doing all that listening, the rep needs to be armed and ready with solutions that can be tailored to the needs that the rep is hearing first hand. For Zoetis, these solutions are composed of various tools that veterinarians need to help them manage and grow their business – from ecommerce and ordering solutions, to educational tools designed to empower vets to adopt the newest vaccination and treatment protocols and then more easily teach and pass them on to the farmers that they serve. Leveraging a richer, conversational sales call approach allows Zoetis’ reps to hone in on the specific tools to meet the individual’s needs and then get them up and running. And the process builds deeper relationships and greater differentiation.
The 2 closed with their six dimensions to go from traditional selling to “solution selling”:
1) Question, listen and teach
2) Demonstrate your knowledge of customer’s business. identify opportunities for strengthening by leveraging your industry insights
3) Build value in the sales call
4) Establish reliability and knowledge of the customer’s business
5) Help your customers compete against his/her competitors
6) Co-create solutions with your customer
#6 should be of particular interest to all of us in this age of greater demand for personalization. Finding more ways to co-create will help make our work stronger and more meaningful to our customers.
