Don’t believe everything you hear about selling in a digital world.
You’ve probably heard the often-quoted statistic that says 57 percent of the buying process is complete before a customer talks to a salesperson. Rubbish. Believe that, and you’ll look like everyone else to your buyers. You’ll get in way too late. Your prospects will be confused about how your solution is different from the next guy’s. Sure, you might land the deal, but you certainly won’t make an impression.
The key to differentiation is getting in early—ideally before your prospects even know they have a need. How? Get a business referral, and you have a clear path to learning the real issues, building trusted relationships, and knocking out the competition before they even learn there’s an opportunity. There’s no confusion about why you’re different.
The problem with stats is that we tend to believe them—without digging deeper into their meaning or verifying
