We are in a Sales 3.0 world. Your mindset drives your performance. But, there is a catch.  

Almost all your sales training has created the wrong mindset — a mindset in which the seller journey dominates the buyer journey.  

Below I share four sales practices that will help you build the right mindset for a Sales 3.0 world.  

But first, let’s set some context with a brief history of selling.

Sales 1.0: Modern Sales (Early 1900s to 2010). For the first 100 years of modern selling, sales controlled all the information. If a buyer wanted information on products, pricing, terms, or discounting, they had to go to their sales representative. Some representatives were good, some were bad. It didn’t matter, either way, they controlled all the information.

Sales 2.0: Sales in Charge (2011 to 2019). By the early 2010s, the explosion of the Internet as well as social and digital media turned this world on its head. Buyers now had ready access to product, pricing, competitive, and peer review information. Sellers reacted foolishly by trying to dominate buyers. Sales methodologies exploded in the 2010s and each taught a different way to micromanage the buyer. The results for sales performance were disastrous.

Sales 3.0: Buyers in Charge (2019 and on). By the end of the 2010s with an assist from the pandemic, top sellers and sales teams realized they needed a fresh start. Rather than controlling and micromanaging buyers, they began to focus on serving buyers. They saw that buyer value had to drive all phases of sales conversations and the sales process.

In a Sales 3.0 world, all deal velocity comes from the buyer journey not the seller journey.  

And, here are four practices that will keep you aligned to the buyer journey:

• Value discovery: Start every sales meeting with discovery, rediscovery, or confirmation on buyer value. Get to a specific success statement.
• Value personalization: Present only products that link to buyer value. Use micro-presentations to prioritize that value. Share peer stories.
• Next commitments: End each meeting asking the buyer for specific commitments or next actions to secure the value they’ve identified.
• Meeting prep: Spend 10 to 15 minutes prior to each meeting to prep all three meeting phases.

Mastering these four practices will lead to top performance. Your time on quality deals, deal win rates, and time to close will all improve.

Over the next weeks, I will be sharing details on each practice individually. Follow me or add your name to our newsletter to learn more.