Change Readiness and Sales

If you’re anything like me, you regularly receive calls from telemarketers trying to sell their goods.  I had a call from a salesperson just the other day, and it reminded me of the importance of change readiness in the sales process.

It may not be one of life’s momentous changes, but shifting from one phone carrier to another involves a change.  And although it’s only a relatively small change, the process I would have to go through is exactly the same as it is for life’s really big changes.  First, I would have to think about whether the change is needed, what the pros and cons would be, whether I could see benefit in the change.  I would then have to make a decision for change, and be committed to that decision (i.e. I wouldn’t change my mind about it).  Then I would need to make the necessary preparations and follow-through with the proper actions – sign a contract, or whatever.  Finally, for the salesperson to be completely successful, I would need to maintain my commitment to his company into the future.

The difficulty the salesperson had is that he didn’t know whether I was ready to make the change he was hoping for.   What could be my motivation for changing service providers?  Maybe I was dissatisfied with the service I was currently receiving.  He had no idea, but importantly, this salesperson didn’t even ask.  He didn’t bother to find out whether I had any motivation for change.  Instead, he tried to ‘sell’ me by telling me I could save money with his company because they were ‘wholesalers’.  This didn’t really make me feel comfortable.  Questions arose in my mind – What does it mean to deal with a wholesaler?  How did he get my number?  What sort of service would I receive from this company?  He never bothered to ask whether I had any questions at all.

It was also a problem that he was ringing me.  If I had rung him it would have been because I had a motivation to change carriers.  But I wasn’t making the call and he hardly put any time into discovering what my motivation for change could be.

He also had a problem of trust.  Why should I trust someone I don’t know calling me without my consent saying he can save me money?  This must be an issue all telemarketers face.  Perhaps he could save me money, but the levels of trust were very low, and low levels of trust work against change readiness.  Unless he spent the time to build up some trust between us, I was always going to be less likely to buy.  Ultimately, he made a fatal flaw with respect to trust.  At the end of our 10 minute conversation, I told him I would speak to my business partner about the issue, and if we wanted to proceed, I would call him.  The next day he called me, interrupting an important meeting.  That did nothing to increase my trust.
The point I am making is that a readiness to buy is also a readiness to change.  Unless salespeople understand the nature of change readiness they are going to be less successful at selling.

Steve Barlow