Posted: June 22nd, 2012 | Author: bjanderson | Filed under: Sales and Marketing | No Comments »
Needs-based sales practices have dominated the marketplace since the 1950s; however, due to the complexity of the digital age an insight-driven sales model may be its heir apparent.
Historically speaking, there were good reasons why probing for customers needs worked as well and as it did for so long:
1) Marketplaces were stable in their design-operation so demand was as well
2) Decision-makers relied on salespeople for product information as their only other sources were magazines, trade journals and television
3) Tech advances (in office automation products (typewriters, copiers, postage metes, and early generation PC’s), for example, followed a gentle upward curve
4) Company needs were similar in nature and because of this, salespeople could probe for specifics, areas of dissatisfaction (price, service, turnaround), service upgrades, and trigger points (expansion, new services, new CEO, added headcount).
Innumerable other sales and marketing strategies-tactics were-are applied such as “nibbling:” persuading the decision-maker to divert a small portion of their business to the rep’s company for a service comparison.
The Web has Changed Everything
It disruptive ‘affect’ on formerly stable structures and practices is revolutionary. Entire industries and company processes are being re-designed, rationalized, or just replaced due to software advances, Cloud technology and the 12 Tech Trends I wrote about this past February.
Decision-makers are now conducting their own research online about products and services and are much more sophisticated; their responsibilities are more diverse and complex within their firms as well due to all the new information.
Salespeople will now have to increasingly create demand not merely respond to it. There’s no point asking the customer questions about info already known. Delivering insights in a way that creates value is now the skill to develop and master.
In the Challenger Sale, authors Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson make the point that despite the prospect having done research, they may still not know how they could improve their operation; or, they may be indifferent due to their long list of ‘A’ priorities.
What Can the Salesperson Do?
Trying to tell, teach or advise customers on what their issues are could easily aggravate, i.e. be perceived as self-serving or transparent.
Instead, ask questions that provoke and encourage deeper thinking about unrecognized problems and unanticipated opportunities for business growth.
This requires that the salesperson conduct research on the customer’s industry and type of business so as to be informed and topical. Raising a point for discussion is one thing, having the reasoning behind it is another.
Through discussion, a salesperson allows the customer to arrive at their own conclusions in a conversational way that can be duplicated with their peers. What about educating about trends and delivering insights? All well and still fine: just splice them in when appropriate for impact or accents.
As the discussion progresses, it will be the customer asking the salesperson questions instead of the other way around. Possible content? Is this or that possible? What can you deliver? Proposing a next step or that the salesperson meet with someone else in the their organization. It’s a much better position to be in
Posted: June 15th, 2012 | Author: bjanderson | Filed under: Sales and Marketing | No Comments »
Anyone who has spent some time in sales-more than 2 years-has been introduced to needs-based selling. More experienced sales professionals uncover both overt needs and develop less apparent ones. Addressing needs, solving problems or attempting to fulfill client goals form the foundation of sales cycles that follow.
However, whether a sale occurs or not is often determined by how well other, more subtle, needs are handled. Yesterday, Seth Godin invited us to “consider this hierarchy of needs, from the primary ones on down:”
• Avoiding risk
• Avoiding hassle
• Gaining praise
• Gaining power
• Having fun
• Making a profit
Avoiding risk: This is a natural human tendency and one which requires some thinking and action to reduce its effect in the minds of your prospect. Every decision carries with it rewards and risks.
Rewards are the easy part: they’re called benefits. Risks (exposure to the chance of loss) are factors that inhibit consideration and buying decisions of your product or service. No amount of benefits, regardless of the eloquence with which they are presented, will overcome a non-discussion of risk(s).
It’s best to identify and address the risk factors either generally speaking or by industry vertical, type of business, etc. before first contact is made. By address, I mean break risk down to their component parts: situations-conditions, origins, causes & effects, thought patterns and so on. And build them into the discussion. This is proactive but also common-sense behavior.
Avoiding hassle: There’s no substitute for clarity in communications as misconceptions are avoided. Being organized so as to deliver value in the allocated time is also important. If you’ve got 15 minutes, make ‘em count: have the great discussion that moves the sales process forward. It’s also about convenience or making it easy for the customer to do business with you: process, paperwork, ease of renewal, stuff like that.
Gaining praise: Motivational speaker Dr. Wayne Dyer says that compliments or verbalized recognition raises the endorphin levels (feel good hormones) of both the receiver and the giver. If or when someone in the customer’s company asks a good question (or even “a” question) during a meeting, validating them via a “thank you” or “good question” comment confirms their value or intelligence.
Other examples include confirming understanding, acknowledging good ideas or publicly commending a support person to their manager. Praising someone is about Emotional Intelligence which is increasingly being viewed as a favourable quality. Daniel Goleman’s book, Emotional Intelligence at Work, provides excellent background on the subject.
Gaining power: This need is one of the primary drivers of all purchase decisions. With your company’s services, buyers want to boost performance, productivity, win market share, increase prestige. Identifying how they’d like to increase power shapes discussions and illustrates you’ve been paying attention.
Having fun: Always important as is its timing. Business is business but people are people: everyone wants to share a smile, engage in banter or enjoy the camaraderie that fun activities engender. This applies equally to clients and employees.
Fun could mean contests within your company, a trip to a comedy club, karaoke night or anything that brings smiles, laughter or a sense of mastery. Making learning “fun” means a more interactive approach which lightens people up while firming up their recall.
Making a profit: Ah yes, El Supremo. Profit is usually associated with financial gain and if this is the hot button, focusing on it maintains attention. But profit can also assume other, indirect forms: higher productivity, time savings, efficiency of software due to built-in tools and functions and so on.
Calculating the relevant profit(s) expected, via informed reasoning, gives your buyer something to work with, internally, and in their presentation to others. Remaining conservative is a credibility-enhancing move.
Posted: March 29th, 2012 | Author: bjanderson | Filed under: Great Books, Sales and Marketing | No Comments »
Has stood the test of time
Complete title: “
Soft Selling in a Hard World: Plain Talk on the Art of Persuasion. ” I regard author Jerry Vass as a genius. I’ve read many book on sales but this is one I keep on my shelf and refer people to. It’s for professionals who want to reset the theory guiding their actions and for new salespeople who seek a strong, every-faceted foundation.
Every page in this 5″ x 7″ book offers sage advice, enduring insights and immutable laws, such as that of Credibility: “Don’t say anything you can’t prove. Be able to prove everything you say.” Combined with the pages on Puffery, no reader will ever speak again of superfluous topics. Want to learn the Art of the Open-Ended Probe? This is the book for you.
The 7-step selling cycle remains valid and Mr. Vass’s flanking probes bypass the Buyer’s resistance without alienating the individual. Never heard of those before picking up this book.
Amazon readers say:
The author has written another book,,
“De-Coding the BS of Business, Selling to Executives” which looks to be an attractive purchase.
Posted: January 4th, 2012 | Author: bjanderson | Filed under: Customer Experience-Usability, Sales and Marketing | No Comments »
Striving for the ideal customer experience has been a personal pursuit since the late 80s. Back then, I viewed what I was doing in sales as merely logical. However, I did notice that: my sales cycle became more predictable, questions about functionality were less frequent and my numbers increased.
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Posted: October 30th, 2011 | Author: bjanderson | Filed under: Sales and Marketing | No Comments »
I ran across this terrific article of the same name about 2 month ago ago on robot maker Bre Pettis’s site and view it as the engine of creativity and innovation.
Dear Members of the Cult of Done,
I present to you a manifesto of done. This was written in collaboration with Kio Stark in 20 minutes because we only had 20 minutes to get it done.
The Cult of Done Manifesto
- There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
- Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
Perfection Not Required!
- There is no editing stage.
- Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
- Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
- The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
- Once you’re done you can throw it away.
- Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
- People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
- Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
- Destruction is a variant of done.
- If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
- Done is the engine of more.
Liberating yet productive: likely more productive due to the non-necessity of not having to get it right the first time.
Posted: October 21st, 2011 | Author: bjanderson | Filed under: Customer Experience-Usability, Sales and Marketing | No Comments »
Despite the time and care you’ve put into your sales emails, blog posts or even tweets, there’s no guarantee anyone will read them.
But you can increase the chances of that occurring by avoiding the use of cool sounding buzzwords or phrases.
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Posted: October 10th, 2011 | Author: bjanderson | Filed under: Sales and Marketing | No Comments »
In the opinion of Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon from their upcoming book, The Sales Challenger, “What’s keeping you up at night?”
Quite a coincidence for me, actually. I set one of my personal selling trainees straight on this exact point 2 months ago. “It’s a cliche inquiry that means nothing and has no path. Decision-makers don’t think like that, anyway. they want to solve problems or talk about more important things.” He’d sourced the ‘question’ from friends in the insurance business.
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Posted: October 2nd, 2011 | Author: bjanderson | Filed under: Sales and Marketing | No Comments »
For anyone in sales it can be tempting to try to ‘sweeten the pot’ (increase the appeal of their offer) by referencing a new feature, product-service or pricing flexibility that’s been discussed in company’s meetings: discussed, but not agreed on and furthermore, not formally signed off as policy.
By doing so, you, the sales rep, run a great risk of:
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Posted: August 25th, 2011 | Author: bjanderson | Filed under: Sales and Marketing | No Comments »
Sales training is something I’ve been involved in throughout my sales career – even when I wasn’t working in the field.
It began during my initial business call centre job with Bell Canada when I was approached by management to put a long distance counter strategy together for the 60-person department. Why me? I’d worked for the competition, Call-Net (Sprint), 3 years earlier and had done well. After some weeks, I presented a working model, “The Psychology of Winbacks” and presented it to all 5 sales teams.
I followed up with role-playing classes to reinforce my concepts and that worked out even better.
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Posted: August 21st, 2011 | Author: bjanderson | Filed under: Sales and Marketing | No Comments »
Are salespeople born or made?
This is a historic question, the answers to which are too numerous to account for a single post; however, a discussion last week suggested that a more accurate question might be: which winning relationship qualities are shared by successful salespeople?
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