The power of feedback

2 minutes read

When you want to buy something on eBay, how do you know if you can trust the seller? Yes, you would check the feedback of other buyers who had experience with the same seller in the comments.That is where the power of eBay comes from.

It is no different in B2B sales. A seller’s long-term reputation depends on the buyer’s satisfaction with the transaction. It used to be like this in stone-age tribes in which there was no place for a fraudster to hide. And thanks to the internet, it is still the case today.

So, why do we still train salespeople about sales techniques? Should not we teach them how to build a reputation and become trustworthy partners instead?

Unless we want our salespeople to operate one-off transactions and get the maximum benefit through manipulation without long-term vision, training salespeople on sales methods do not make sense. Because most of the current sales trainings are all about the salesperson, the product, the company… The ones claiming to be customer-centric teach how to ask the right questions, creating robot-like sales teams asking the same questions regardless of the person and situation… trying to solve “a problem”.

Imagine that you are selling industrial equipment, and after each customer meeting, you receive written feedback from the customer.  And all those comments are published online, making them accessible to your potential customers. 

How would you be treating your customers?  If you want to stay in business for the long run,  you would probably treat every customer with high respect and honesty. Your discount policy would be very clear, and you would do anything to avoid selling the wrong solution to a customer. You would prefer to lose the deal to save your reputation.

You need no special training to get into this mindset.

I know that such a feedback system does not exist in B2B sales but what if you imagine it and start your day with this in mind?  How would be your learning performance, and how would it affect your selling performance?

That is what I call “the power of feedback.”