Solution Explorers Blog

Software Technology – Buying & Selling

Series 1, Part 2 of 3 – Symptom: Distrust

Can software technology buyers trust sellers?

Well, at best, most won’t. It makes sense really. Sellers are in fact hired to “push” their product and/or service. They are often incented to increase sales – aka, a commission. Even in the instance that a genuine, well-meaning salesperson wants to have a professional, productive dialogue to determine if they are a good fit or not do they really have a chance? Unfortunately, predominantly speaking, NO they don’t. After all, how is a buyer supposed to distinguish the real deal from those who are just looking for the next sale?

It’s important to note that most salespeople are well-meaning. They really do believe in their product and services.

Even the professional, skilled salespeople struggle with this entrenched distrustful environment (symptom). They are trained to build rapport, ask open-ended questions, hold back information (esp. pricing), and get a commitment at each step. All of these instructions are sound. So, why haven’t things improved? Stated differently, why is there so much tug-of-war and so little cooperation?

I welcome thoughts from both buyers and sellers. To begin, below are some observations of characteristics in truly well-meaning, problem-solving salespeople:

• Ask relevant, probing questions
• Listener, rarely interrupting
• Maintains YOU as the primary subject, not THEM

What are some positive or negative characteristics that you have observed in either software technology buyers or sellers?