許多 5 年前雇用的業務人員，現在還在學習網路時代以前、早就失效的銷售技術。然而，人們已不想再被「推銷」任何東西，他們要的是影片、說明書及網路研討會，讓他們在決定購買前有更多了解。
☆ 行銷軟體公司 HubSpot 業務及行銷通路總監 Peter Caputa IV 等名人推薦
回顧往日美好時光，你有行銷團隊為產品打開知名度，還有業務團隊懂得以數百種方法讓顧客成交，並能回應各種拒絕。而今，強迫推銷已行不通──主導權完全掌握在買家手中。買家只要敲幾下鍵盤就能研究任何東西，他們買東西前也會先上網研究。簡單說，人們已經不想再「被推銷」了。
Back in the good old days, you had a marketing team who created awareness of your product and then a sales team who knew a hundred ways to close the sale and answer every objection. Today, hard selling doesn't work – buyers hold all the power. Buyers can research anything with just a few keystrokes and they want to research online before they buy. In a nutshell, people don't want to be "sold" anymore.
為了對這些現況有所回應，現在應該徹底重組業務和行銷結構。特別是，應該解散現有的業務和行銷團隊，然後再立刻回聘他們加入強大的新團隊，稱為「營收部門」。讓每個人齊心協力，而非各自為政。
To respond to those new realities, it's time to fundamentally reconfigure how you structure sales and marketing. In particular, it's time to fire your existing sales and marketing teams and then immediately rehire them to be part of a new and powerful team you call the "Revenue Department" where everyone is pulling in the same direction rather than at cross-purposes.
現在也應該一改過去把 95% 比重放在對外銷售的努力，改採行銷 75%、銷售 25% 的混合比例。要做到這點，你原來的業務和行銷人員必須變成「銷售導遊」，專心引導潛在客戶自行做出正確決定，而不是企圖脅迫他們去做你希望的事。
It's also time to move away from weighting 95% of your outbound efforts on sales and instead move towards a mix of 75% marketing and 25% sales. To make this happen, your former sales and marketing personnel need to become "Sales Guides" who focus on guiding prospects to making the right decisions themselves rather than trying to strong-arm them into doing what you want.
行銷人員的傳統戰術──陌生電訪、電話行銷、商展、直接郵購和廣告──近期的成效和投資報酬率每況愈下。如今新的態勢是行銷必須製造有用的內容，吸引潛在客戶進入銷售漏斗，再由業務團隊引導潛在客戶自己做出正確的購買決策完成交易。今天的銷售漏斗外觀和運作方式比較像這樣：
The traditional tactics of marketers – cold calling, telemarketing, trade shows, direct mail and advertising – are all declining in effectiveness and ROI these days. The new dynamic which exists today is marketing has to make available content which will attract potential buyers into the sales funnel and then the sales team finishes the sale by guiding the prospect to make the right purchase decision for themselves. Today's sales funnel looks and works more like this:
【關鍵思惟】
「我們在要求你提供業務團隊，強大、內容豐富的行銷環境，吸引條件符合的準客戶來你的公司。終結老式電話行銷、陌生電訪，以及讓人害怕的「強迫推銷」。你需要的是一組導遊，幫助客戶做出正確的購買決策，然後簡單地完成交易細節。這種新的引導式銷售是為了對應新的買家行為，我們希望幫助你的公司採用這種新手法，讓你完成更多交易。如果你認同改變想法和做法的必要性，你將親身感受這種手法的威力。要有效面對潛在客戶，將潛在客戶轉化為顧客，業務和行銷必須合併成單一、線性的作業流程，組成一整套直接面對潛在客戶的無縫溝通。」
──邁克．利伯曼和艾利克．凱里斯
【Key Thoughts】
"We are challenging you to surround your sales team with powerful, content-rich marketing that drives qualified leads to your company, eliminating the need for old-fashioned telemarketing, cold calling, and the dreaded "hard sell." What you need is a team of "guides" who help clients make the right purchase decision and then simply wrap up the details of the deal. This new Guided Sales Process corresponds with new buyer behavior, and we want to help your company adopt this new method so that you can close more deals. If you commit to the work necessary to change your thinking and your process, you will experience the power of this approach firsthand. To serve the prospect effectively and convert that prospect into a customer, sales and marketing need to be a single, linear process that orchestrates a seamless series of communications directly to the prospect."
– Mike Lieberman & Eric Keiles
【完整內容請見《大師輕鬆讀》No.452】
