I had my heart recharged this week. I was invited to speak in St. Louis to present a three hour, Nurture intensive and highly interactive morning with the CEO’s

and often their key sales and or marketing execs as well. You can imagine the electricity at these meetings. You have a room full of people who invest substantial time and money to belong. A tangible commitment to their own success by affiliating with the leaders of 16 other, compatible but never competitive, members and  devote a full day each month to working with their group on their business as opposed to just working in the business. Each group selects the topic and the presenter for each meeting and are led by a highly professional and experienced business Coach and facilitator who carry the title of Chairman. This week the host Chair was an old friend and an authentic nurturer, Allen Hauge of VISTAGE.
The main thrust of my talk was to assist them in getting their arms around the shifts that are happening at such an alarming increasing velocity. I laid out the scenario of what the shift meant to their businesses. I illustrated the radical shift in the balance of power between the buyer/seller roles today. The internet has  made the buyer smarter than the seller. Buyers are no longer dependent on the sales rep to guide them through the selection process (usually heavily biased toward the seller), they’ve got Google and the entire web to get the straight scoop before you ever meet them..
No More.

It graphically illuminates the rapid demise of selling as we have historically done it. It means we must begin to re-engineer our sales force (or ourselves) now to learn to deal with the realities of this irreversible shift. Perhaps it is also time to examine your complete selling process and to begin to become more aware of the critical

nature of their clients internal buying processes.