Leveraging 3-D for Sales Automation
Wayne Thompson and Christina Park - November 9, 2007

The “Googlization” of information has leveled the playing field between sales reps and prospects. With easy access to information, buyers are initiating purchasing cycles by performing extensive product research on the Internet long before inviting a sales rep into the process. Increasingly, buyers today know as much, if not more, about the product and the competition’s products as the seller knows. Product knowledge, once the manufacturer sales reps’ main advantage in the selling cycle, is now readily available to buyers. This shift in the balance of knowledge leads to more complex questions about the product universe. In response, sales reps need to know more about how the products they are selling can be used in specific circumstances, understand the sales advantages over competitors’ products, and be able to describe the resulting benefits...