Sellers: Don’t Wimp Out Because Of Their Process!

Figure 1: Don’t get paralyzed by buying process!

Don’t get paralyzed by the buyer’s process.  Don’t let it stop you selling.  Even if your selling is limited to submitting a tender response, with little interaction in advance, don’t cast aside the basics of either solution or relationship selling.

Learning To Live With Buying Process

We are all familiar with the increasingly structured and process-driven nature of buying in large organizations.  In response to this trend we have been repeating a simple consistent message – ‘buying process trumps sales process‘.

We have been urging sellers to uncover the buyer’s process, to respect that process and to align their own sales process to it.  Those who have followed this advice have generally enjoyed above average win rates.

However in encouraging sellers to embrace the buyer’s process, we are certainly not advocating helplessness or fatalism on the part of the seller.  Indeed, far from it!

The Secret Of Success In An Era Of Buying Process

The seller shouldn’t wimpishly surrender to the buyer’s process and give up hope of influencing the decision and how it is made. Here is why:

• The buyer may have no process
• Maybe the buyer is following the wrong process
• Process evolves – it may not be the same at the end as the beginning
• Maybe the buyer is feeling straight-jacked by an overly bureaucratic process or is a maverick
• It is not just about buying process – the why matters more than the how
• Even in the most rigid process there is a degree flexibility
• The process is subject to change and it is also subject to influence
• There can be a lot of messy stuff even in a well ordered buying process or for an “in control” buyer

If you give up on influencing the buyer and the process, you run the risk that one of your competitors will succeed in doing what you don’t. 

We have to assume that another supplier will be trying to get involved in the writing of the tender documents, or at least meeting the buyer during the tender process. 

Instead of complaining about buying process and the other changes in buying, start looking for new ways to influence buying process, to shape it, even to turn it to your advantage. That is the secret of sales success in an era of buying process. 

Are you sometimes too much of a slave to the buyer’s process? 

3 Reasons To Stop Complaining

We have all done it – moaned about procurement, the competitive tender or the other changes in buying. But it is too easy to join in the chorus of salespeople complaining about the more process-driven or bureaucratic nature of buying. But it is not very productive:

1. It is facile to use procurement as a punch bag, or to bemoan the rise of the competitive tender. These changes in buying are a natural response to prevailing economic conditions. They are not just a measure of best practice, but a competitive necessity in most industries.
2. It is futile to complain about the new realities of buying (particularly in large organizations) because they are beyond our influence, or control. They are trends that in respect of many industries have an almost un-stoppable momentum.
3. It is frustrating and can lead to a sense of helplessness even victimization. The result can be that seller give up, or hold back. This is perhaps the greatest threat presented by the changes in buying.

Do you spend too much time complaining about the buyer’s process?

Helplessness In The Face Of Changed Buying

We see it very often – sellers discarding Solution Selling or Relationship Selling principles because they fell they are powerless or redundant in the face of the process-led or procurement-driven approach to selling.

Here are some examples of that thinking by sellers: 

• ‘It is a competitive tender and that means there will be little consideration given to anything other than price’.
• ‘They have set out their requirements, so let’s just focus on repeating back what they asked for’.
• ‘We are dealing with procurement and they don’t know what is involved other than to look for the lowest price’.
• ‘There is little point in suggesting a meeting with them in advance of submitting the tender’.

Does your perception of the buyer’s process stop you from really ‘giving it your all’?

Dangerous Self-fulfilling Prophecies About Buying Process

Such beliefs as these can quickly become self-fulfilling. Take for example the organization that believes competitive tendering has a low probability of winning:

• Gives an un-experienced person the job of preparing tenders
• Leaves proposals to the last minute and fails to invest sufficient time and creativity in it
• Interprets the buyer’s specification very literally and provides no more than what was asked for
• Varies little from a standard template in respect of tender documents
• Fails to go beyond the requirements set out in order to identify overlooked needs
• Doesn’t weed out those tenders that are less attractive

Don’t Get Paralyzed By Buying Process

The lesson for us all is: don’t get paralyzed by buying process.

Use your understanding of buying process to pre-qualify opportunities – to identify those opportunities that are simply set up wrong and cannot be won (or at least not without a cost of sale that would make it unattractive).

However, if the opportunity is one that you have decided to go after, don’t get paralyzed by a rigid view of sales process.

Don’t let it stop you from doing what you need to do. 

The rise of procurement and the growing importance of the competitive tender represent a significant challenge to all in selling. However, it is not the extent of the challenge, but rather how sellers respond to them, that matters most.

Seen in this way they are a test of the seller’s strategy, creativity and skill. It is a call to action, rather than a reason to give up hope. It requires that sellers do more selling, rather than less. However it is a more creative form of selling that is required.

Do you use your understanding of the buyer’s process to sell more creatively?

Empowering The Seller

Knowledge of the buyer’s process should empower rather than dis-empower the seller. It should give the seller new hope and confidence, enabling him or her to: 

• More rigorously qualify the opportunity
• Predict what the buyer is going to do next
• Validate estimates of the likelihood and timing of the sale
• Better understand the requirements of winning the sale
• Identify ways to help the buyer to buy (and in particular to overcome any challenges in respect of getting the decision sanctioned internally). 

Perhaps most important is to adopt a non-linear view of the buyer’s process. No matter what step you meet the buyer at make efforts to touch-off as many of the steps as possible. We call it sales hopscotch. 

If, for example you first get involved at the point where the buyer has the requirements set and is looking for quotes, make sure to connect back with what the buyer is really trying to achieve, with the needs of stakeholders, the metrics that matter to the buyer and so on. This is something that we discuss in more detail in another insight.

Could you be interpreting the buyer’s process too rigidly?

References: 

Collis Ray: Buyer Seller Insight: Sellers: Don’t Wimp Out Because Of Their Process! Retrieved August 27, 2013 from http://buyer.sellerinsights.com/2013/07/01/sellers-dont-wimp-out-because-of-their-process/

Blanka Cigler

Senior Consultant, Coach & Project Manager

Are You Paying Enough Attention to Your Sales Force?

There's a question all top managers should ask: "How can I make my sales force, which is one of the biggest and most important investments my company makes, perform more effectively?"

There are several reasons that question is so important. 

Sales forces are expensive. Despite predictions by some pundits that many sales jobs would disappear due to the Internet and "big data", companies continue to invest in sales forces in a big way. According to Selling Power magazine, the largest companies in America selling products such as computer and office equipment, consumable goods, insurance, telecommunications, and financial services, each employ tens of thousands of salespeople. By our estimates, the amount invested in U.S. sales forces exceeds $800 billion a year. This is 4.7 times the estimated $169.5 billion spent on all media advertising in 2012 and more than 20 times the estimated $39.5 billion spent on Internet advertising in 2012. 

Sales forces are empowered. The significance of a sales force goes beyond its cost. The sales force is perhaps the most highly empowered organization within most companies. Usually working alone and unsupervised, salespeople are entrusted with a company's most important asset — its relationship with its customers. To many customers, the salesperson is the company. As customers face a proliferation of buying choices, the way a company sells becomes a key point of competitive differentiation and a source of customer value. This makes an effective sales force essential for driving top-line performance. 

Sales force dynamics are complex and poorly understood. Managing a sales force requires many difficult decisions. For example, you need a sales strategy defining which customers to target, what value proposition to offer, and what sales process to use to engage customers and create mutual value. You need to decide what sales force size and structure best allows you to meet customer needs and achieve company goals. You need to choose who to hire for the sales team, and how to continually develop sales team skills and knowledge. And you need to determine the goals, incentives, and sales culture that will motivate peak sales force effort levels and performance. 

Many companies today are taking a more strategic and data-driven approach to making all of these and other sales force decisions. But regrettably, our understanding of what drives sales force success still falls short when compared to the cost of a sales force and the huge impact that salespeople have on customers and company performance. Sales continues to be one of the most poorly understood and under-optimized areas of business. Compared to marketing, the number of good books and academic articles in the sales force space is woefully inadequate. 

In the last ten years, only 3% of the articles in four leading academic journals (Marketing Science, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research) have focused on sales force topics. In 2009 (the last year that one of this blog's authors taught MBA students at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern), the graduating class left the university having taken over 4,000 course equivalents on marketing topics — but only 100 course equivalents on sales. Less than 1% of undergraduate institutions in the U.S. offer a major or minor in sales and none of the top 20 graduate business schools offer a concentration in sales for their MBA students. 

Improving sales force management is a huge opportunity. We believe that sales force improvement initiatives typically produce incremental short-term revenue gains of at least 10%, and long-term increases of 50% or more. Consider the following examples of companies that have implemented sales force improvement initiatives that had big positive bottom-line impact.

• A business within GE that leases over-the-road trailers sought to refocus sales efforts to improve productivity. Leaders invested to develop better measures of customer potential. In just one year, qualified leads increased by 33%. The customer potential data also helped GE redeploy several sales territories into more lucrative markets, allowing the business to grow sales productivity by 7 percent without adding people.

• Global healthcare company Novartis identified a group of outstanding performers in its U.S. sales force, and isolated a set of "success principles" and behaviors that differentiated their performance. Leaders developed a new sales process based on these success principles and behaviors, and aligned sales hiring, development, and other programs to support the new process. The initiative contributed to six consecutive years of double-digit top line growth, well above the industry average.

• Temporary housing provider Oakwood Worldwide transformed its sales force to align better with customers' need for a more consultative sales approach. This involved a new sales force hiring profile, training program, coaching process, and sales enablement tools and metrics. A large percentage of the sales force did not survive the transformation, but most top performers did. A year after implementation, deal win rates had tripled, sales cycle time had dropped by 50%, and salesperson turnover had declined to under 5%. 

More research and education on sales, and continued work to develop and refine frameworks for understanding the drivers of sales force effectiveness can make a significant business impact in the years to come. 

References 

Andris A. Zoltners, PK Sinha, and Sally E. Lorimer: HBR Blog Network: Are You Paying Enough Attention to Your Sales Force? Retrieved August 20, 2013 from http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/04/are_you_paying_enough_attention_to.html 

Tamara Ćetković

Consultant, Coach & Project Manager

What is The Difference Between Value and Price?

It is imperative that every professional seller understand the difference between price and value. Many do not. Instead, sellers often use these words interchangeably. They use words like “value” to signify the cost of an item. This blurs the lines between value and cost or investment.  

  

When value and price are thought to be one and the same, the inevitable result is that value gets diluted. The other components of value are forgotten. Real value (which is compelling as nothing else could possibly be) is not adequately represented in the sales presentation. Consequently, the customer does not ever have a chance to see the full value of what’s been presented.    

  

Buyers themselves are the culprits behind this blurring of the line. They use these words interchangeably, too. And, at a time when buyers are more empowered than ever before, they frequently focus heavily on the price. Sellers follow suit.    

    

Focusing on price alone commoditizes any product. It makes it seem as if one product is no different from another similar product. It ignores any service-related value, relationship-created value, or seller-differentiating value. Focusing exclusively or primarily on price weakens the seller's position.     

   

Price is merely one small component of value. When we allow buyers to magnify the importance of price, we miss out on all the other components of value. We do this even though the real value – what matters most to the buyer – will alwaystrump any discussion about price.      

    

Let me give you an example. Think about someone you know who seems to be very price-conscious. They may even tell you that price is what matters most to them when they make purchasing decisions. But you can easily test that position. Look at the car they drive. Is it, in fact, the very cheapest make and model available? Look at the clothes they are wearing. Do they appear to be the very cheapest possible clothing items available anywhere? How about considering where they live? Again, is it that truly the cheapest alternative that there is?

   

By looking at just these three things, you can easily see that even people who consider themselves to be price-conscious think about other factors when they make buying decisions. The car they drive, the clothes they wear, the place they live… even the food they eat will show you indications of what matters even more than price to them. 

People value quality, service, brand names, reliability, convenience and much more. Most people value these considerations above and beyond price. Of course, they will take into consideration the price tag. But it is not the sole determinant of what we buy. If it were, we would all be driving used Pintos or Gremlins. We’d all be dressed in clothes from the secondhand shop, living in dormitory-style housing and eating Ramen soup every day.

Price must be relative to value. It is not possible for a salesperson to appropriately position price until that seller understands exactly what the individual buyer values. 

Different people value different things. It is not a good idea to assume that everyone places equal value on various features or considerations. That's why it's so important to ask questions like these: 

 

Five Questions That Help Define Value From The Buyer’s Perspective:

1. What are your priority decision criteria?
2. What matters most to you? (You can even make this a multiple-choice question if you'd like.)
3. How important is quality to you?
4. What would cause you to invest at a higher level? In other words, what are you willing to pay for?
5. What do you like best about the options you've heard so far?

Questions like these give you insights into what matters most to an individual buyer. When you make a sales presentation, you should include these priority values so that your buyer can see exactly what they're looking for in your solution. If price objections are raised, your response should always include what matters to the customer. That's how you keep price relative to value. 

Create A Profitable Balance: Close More Sales Without Discounting Price 

There's one other key distinction between price and value to keep in mind. Imagine that you are holding a scale, the kind of scale that balances one side against another. On one side you have price and on the other side you have everything else that comprises value for your buyer. In order to balance the scale you have two choices. You can decrease price or you can increase value. Here's the thing to remember – you can only decrease price so much and so often. If you choose to balance the scale by decreasing price, your approach will not be sustainable. That's why it's far better to increase value in order to balance the scales.  

You cannot increase value by piling on generic features. You must increase value by calling attention to what matters most to this individual buyer. When you do that, price will become a distant second in the consideration of terms. What's more, your buyer will be able to see the high value of your product and that will prevent him or her from being easily persuaded by someone else's lower price.  

To keep your buyer clear about the difference between price and value, here’s one more tip. Don’t use these words interchangeably. Draw out the distinctions between them instead. Use language like this “the value you receive includes x, y and z for the investment level of…” This shows the interplay between price and value without treating them as one and the same. Being sure that your buyers understand this will enable you to close more sales without discounting price.  

References 

Calvert Deb: The Difference Between Price & Value: Create A Profitable Balance. Retrieved July 26, 2013 from http://www.managingamericans.com/BlogFeed/Sales-Business-Development/The-Difference-Between-Price-Value-Create-A-Profitable-Balance.htm

Blaž Mertelj

Managing Director & Senior Consultant

Why You Don't Have Enough New Opportunities in the Pipeline?

More connections, meetings and potential new business are being scheduled now as a result of social media use.  Said another way, salespeople are getting better at using LinkedIn and email while companies are generating more interest from their websites, blogs and newsletters.  But be warned, the appeal of 10 times more leads and the simplicity of connecting with someone you want to do business with has its drawbacks too. 
  

All those new leads?  They are very different from the leads of yesteryear; bingo cards from magazines, call-ins, and brochure requests.  Today your brochures live on or as with websites, call-ins went the way of the typewriter.  And the closest thing to a bingo card are the inbound leads requesting samples, white papers and free trials.  It's so easy to become somebody else's lead today because it's so easy to click for instant gratification.  More leads = smaller percentage of good leads.  
   

And the extremely easy ability to connect with your targets?  Just because they have accepted your invitation to become part of each other's network does not mean they want to talk with you, meet with you or buy from you.  There's a false sense of security there.  

And most of all, just like being part of a referral group where you have zero control over whether or not a memberever makes a valuable introduction to you, similarly, you have no control over whether your LinkedIn network will ever produce fruit.  
   

The lesson here is that these new sources of potential business are simply that - sources of potential business - that you can't control.  That's one of the primary reasons that so many companies are complaining that there aren't enough new business opportunities in the pipeline. Salespeople can't control these sources and at the same time, many have stopped making calls!     
  

When salespeople do make calls, they quickly learn that prospects no longer answer nor return calls from salespeople. Salespeople give up on prospects without realizing that today it requires as many as 10-15 attempts to either reach or get a call back from a prospect.  Then, when they finally do reach a prospect, their messaging, scripts, approach, sound and calls-to-action are so bad, they convert very few calls to meetings.  That's why people say that cold calls don't work.  It's not that cold calls don't work; it's that salespeople truly suck at making cold calls!  
  

Finally, what can you learn from commercial real estate firms and business machine companies?  Don't you still get calls from them?  How about insurance and investment professionals?  They still call, don't they?  They may all be lousy at getting through to you, getting your attention, and compelling you to talk or meet with them again, but they are calling. Don't let your salespeople off the hook.  If you need them to bring in more new business and it's not working, you'll need to do at least two of the following:  

• get them trained on how to be really effective at getting call-backs, attention, engagement and commitments;
• require more phone activity;
• help your salespeople be more productive on the phone;
• identify and select true hunters. 

   

References  

   

Kurlan Dave: Understanding the Sales Force: The latest Thinking about Sales from Dave Kurlam. Why You Don't Have Enough New Opportunities in the Pipeline. Retrieved July 22, 2013 http://www.omghub.com/salesdevelopmentblog/tabid/5809/bid/99966/Why-You-Don-t-Have-Enough-New-Opportunities-in-the-Pipeline.aspx

Blaž Mertelj

Managing Director & Senior Consultant

Are your testimonials effectively generating new business for you?

                                                                       Figure 1: This is an example of a bad testimonial

Client testimonials are the social proof that you can be trusted. Every small business needs them. But – are your testimonials effectively generating new business for you? 

Ineffective Testimonials    

Ineffective testimonials usually say things like,

- “Bruce was a pleasure to work with.”

- “Shannon is an excellent trainer.”

- “Chad always delivers on time.”

- “Natalie makes learning fun.”

Guess what? Those testimonials suck. They are not going to get you new business. Why? 

Your prospects, the decision makers at companies do not give a rat’s behind that you’re pleasant, excellent, timely or fun. “Fun” is not going to compel them to write a check to you. 

What will cause them to eagerly pull out their credit card? 

3 Types of Testimonials 

There are three kinds of testimonials. As, Bs and Cs. Level A testimonials are the key to getting more clients. They are the catalyst that will make people say yes to doing business with you.

Level-C:  

C testimonials are compliments. You do not want C testimonials. Here are two examples:

“Bruce is an excellent trainer.” 

“These protein shakes taste great.” 

Level-B:   

B testimonials are better. They include a compliment AND either what the person learned or what they are going to do as a result of your product or service. For example: 

“Bruce is an excellent trainer. I learned that listening is the key to selling.” 

“These protein shakes taste great. I’m going use them to replace my breakfast.” 

Level-A:   

What will cause a prospect to write a check? Tangible evidence that paying you will pay off for them. For example: 

“After taking Bruce’s training class, my sales grew by 40% the following quarter.”

“After using the protein shakes for a month, I lost 8 pounds.”

Who wouldn’t want to pay you for those kinds of results! 

How To Get Level-A Testimonials - 3 Steps 

Getting stats and measurable data takes some work and advanced planning. 

1 – Create a follow-up plan. 

Tell your clients that you will follow up with them several times over the next 12 months. I suggest 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 6 months and 12 months.The benefits of this are huge. First, you’re getting tangible data about how they are using your product/services. Second, your client is more likely to use our product/services because they know you will be calling them. Third, it keeps you top of mind with your client. WIN!

2 – Determine what to measure. 

This is very important. I want you to think like a CEO for a moment. Imagine that you are going to pitch your products/services to a CEO. What will the CEO want to know? Got it? That is what you will measure.

3 – Ask the right questions. 

Use the same questions for each phone call. You might consider:  

• How have you used XYZ in the last month? (60 days, 90 days, etc.)

• How has XYZ helped you? 

• How has XZY impacted your success? 

• How has XYZ mad a difference in your business? (personal life, relationships, health etc.)

• What are your results? 

Notice that all of these questions focus on positive results.    

Doing this one thing will radically change how quickly your leads convert into clients. Will you do it? What will you measure?     

References  

Arenas Alicia: Testimonials That Give You More Business – 3 Steps. Retrieved July 19, 2013 from http://saneracamp.com/2012/12/testimonials-that-give-you-more-business-3-steps/

Blaž Mertelj

Managing Director & Senior Consultant