It didn’t take long for authors Mike Lieberman and Eric Keiles to get your attention when they began describing how the Internet has impacted sales organizations. In their book, Fire Your Sales Team Today; Revolutionizing Your Company’s Sales & Marketing Strategy, they only take the reader to the first page of the first chapter before they describe how today’s buyer has leveraged the power of the Internet to change the dynamics that define the relationship between buyer and seller.

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According to the authors, “Buyers have access to more information from more sources than ever before. They ask questions, get answers, read reviews, do comparisons and start conversations with people they’ve never met; all on the web, all on their own terms and all on their own time schedule.

“Look at the buying patterns of your own prospects and clients. Aren’t they becoming more familiar with the act of researching the purchase of services and merchandise via the Internet? Marketers who are unable to adapt to this new system of buyer behavior are going to have a tough road in the near future. Anyone who is looking to gain an advantage in the years ahead should be testing, utilizing and measuring the impact of Internet buying behavior on their marketing tactics.”

As a means of coming to grips with this drastic marketing change, Lieberman and Keiles advise marketers to take the initiative and profile their clients’ wants and needs. They maintain:

• “Buyers expect to be educated, not sold.

“Buyers are using the Internet to get information about the products and services they purchase in advance of contacting suppliers. They’re looking for a deeper, more detailed level of information and they expect the businesses they solicit to provide it.

“Forget about what you want them to buy for a second. Instead, focus on truly understanding what your buyer is looking for. For example, if your buyers typically want a rate calculator on your website, provide it. Content that is highly relevant to the buyer (because it answers their questions) will be perceived as more valuable. The more helpful the content you provide, the more trustworthy your company becomes in the eyes of the buyer. Provide consumers with information that helps them solve their problems and they’ll love you for it.

• “Buyers are listening to what others say.

“While buyers are coming to your site to hear what you have to say, they’re also looking for validation from third-party sources. Most will only stay at a hotel with favorable TripAdvisor reviews and restaurants with amazing Yelp posts. Companies that don’t participate and facilitate these reviews are simply less likely to make it to the short list.

“You must identify the influential industry sites that your buyers visit and implement a plan to create a presence on those sites — whether it’s by pushing out relevant content, or joining in the conversation. Asking your clients for reviews and testimonials is easy and most are happy to help.

• “Buyers are more informed, earlier in the process.

“The increase in the amount of online sources means your buyer is substantially more educated than ever before. You need to change your sales process in response. Buyers no longer have to wait to have sales meetings or presentations from traditional salespeople to get a better understanding of what solutions your firm offers. Many times, they may not even be looking for your specific solution to a problem, but instead find your company as part of their daily search of the blogosphere looking to get smarter about what they do.

“When your buyer does reach out to you, they’ll most likely be better prepared than even a year ago. They may even come to the table with specific expectations in terms of pricing. Nothing is worse than a salesperson trying to ‘sell’ an educated buyer. Now is the opportunity to transition the ‘prospectors’ and ‘closers’ in your sales department to helpful ‘guides’ who better match up with your prospects’ behavior.

“Whole businesses have been built around improving the buyer experience. For example: Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, changed the entire way of thinking behind customer service departments. Instead of rushing buyers off the phone with cookie-cutter solutions, he encouraged his teams to stay on the line longer and provide an unmatched service experience for every single caller. He understood that those experiences would translate into referrals. This customer-centric business approach paid off for Zappos and, chances are, it will work for your company too.”

Following that introduction, the authors offer some valuable action steps:

• “Profile your buyer(s). Most companies have more than one target market. Create a concrete description of your buyers: Where they live, their job title, the geography in which their companies are located. What types of personalities are they? Are they men or women? Older or younger. Technology savvy? The more detailed your profile, the more effective your marketing.
• “Now that you have a profile of your buyers, map out their buying process. Do they require a written quote? Do they require an in-person visit? Do they purchase products and services at the same time or are these separate processes? Identify all the nuances of their purchase process.
• “Overlay your marketing to this process. How many times do you touch your prospects? How many individual marketing tactics do you have running simultaneously? If you don’t have ten to twelve unique marketing tactics working at once, you don’t have a marketing machine. Take a hard look at your current marketing efforts.”

Fire Your Sales Team Today: Revolutionizing Your Company’s Sales & Marketing Strategy
by Mike Lieberman and Eric Keiles
Greenleaf Book Group Press
171 pp., $19.95