How Do We Sell Differently?

Times  are a changing!  Actually times have changed.  Senior level buyers and executives-the people who are now making the decisions on what staffing and professional service organizations their companies ought to use-are interested in buying business results, not just individual products or services ("skills," "talent" and "people") or features and benefits. Leading sales organizations today are recognizing changes in buyer behavior and client expectations and redefining what value means, through the eyes of their customers. In other words, they are taking the time to understand what their customer's business goals and objectives are and what business outcomes they seek. That is what the customer values. Translated into the world of IT staffing and consulting (and this applies for all of staffing/professional services), customers are interested in buying the business results that your consultants/candidates will produce for your customer. To achieve this we need to understand what their "current state" is and what their desired state or "end state" is.  And we need to understand why it is important for them to get there.  To operate at a strategic level sales professionals must understand the customer's problem, the impact the problem has on the organization (who, what departments, how, does it impact customers, suppliers and partners too?), and the group of stakeholders responsible for solving the problem(s).  Lastly we must understand what the customer must do in order to solve the problem (and determine if they are committed to doing so).