Permission-based selling has changed all the rules in pharmaceutical sales

and any other B2B selling.

Today, complex B2B products or services buyers are driven by compelling

internal forces within their firms to evaluate then buy complex goods and

services---"stuff that matters."

Stuff that matters means the buyer has massive risk if the product or service

fails. Careers and companies are on the line. The dynamics of selling stuff

that matters is called a "campaign sale." There is no single buyer;

there is an evaluation committee and a sales cycle that may last up to two

years. This is often the case when a pharmaceutical firm or related tech

company is selling practice management software, medical equipment or other

large ticket item.

When selling in a "campaign sale" a single deal can make a sales rep's

quota for an entire year. It is often the case a single commission can be

over $100,000, sometimes $500,000 sometimes more.

Today, for the first time in the long history of sales, the buyers do not

speak with salespeople BEFORE they buy. They avoid sales people. They do

not want salespeople involved in their process.

B2B buyers determine their product, feature, benefit and competitive

knowledge from the Internet, before the salesperson ever knows they are

looking.

The sales rep by definition is unable to control the sales cycle, greatly

influence it before it begins or be the single major source of information

for the prospect.

The salesperson often enters a deal after the buying cycle has begun, most of

the rules set, the larger vendors reviewed, and opinions formed by the buying

community.

The sales model used almost everywhere, and the sales training that underlies

it, originates from the television age interruption model, where marketers

push their message out to anyone---regardless of need or want. People were

(and some still are) besieged with information about every possible product

or remedy.

Marketers understood the buyer would only hear the cold medicine

advertisement when he or she had a cold, so they broadcast it constantly

hoping to catch the buyer when he or she was sneezing.

This is the PUSH Interruption Sales Model. PUSH information AT people,

interrupt them, even if they are not interested. And it is DEAD.

Salespeople using the PUSH model are OBSOLETE. (But their positions are

open!)

The Internet and permission-based selling changed the rules forever. Now a

consumer or business learns far more Googling than a salesperson can tell

them. The potential buyer reads product information, third party validation,

industry reports on a host of companies or products before ever calling a

salesperson. They probably never want to even see a salesperson.

Buyer trust is built up from how he or she interacts with a company's web

site, not a salesperson.

And the buyer believes what he or she personally discovers far more than what

a salesperson or telemarketer tells them.

We live in the new age of the PULL Model-the buyer or consumer "pulls"

what info they want, in their timeframe, and they consume it on their

schedule. Information is evaluated and trusted, or not, without a

salesperson being involved in any way.

Anyone approaching the buyer needs to gain permission in order to add

valuable content to their evaluation. The sales moves to gain permission are

vastly different from those of the interruption days.