08.07.03
 By
Sharon Drew Morgen
For decades, our selling practices have been based on selling a product rather
than helping buyers decide how to buy. Indeed, the underlying belief has been
(and I'm being simplistic here) that products/services get sold when sellers pitch/present
the product well. Or they get sold when sellers create great personal rapport
with prospects. Or when the script is exceptional.
Sales has been seller- and product-based.
But buyers buy using their own intricate and unique buying processes that sellers
have had no way to understand. We might understand the need, or how our product
fits into a prospect's environment, but because we don't live in our client's
culture, we have no way to directly influence what goes on internally for our
prospects to reach a purchasing decision.
The fact is, when we don't close, we don't have a "sales" problem, or even a "closing
ratio" problem; we have a problem helping buyers decide.
Help Buyers Decide
Historically, sellers were required to give prospects the complete set of facts
about their products. We didn't have access to the types of branding or graphic
possibilities we have today, not to mention the Internet. Now, buyers have access
to as much information about any given product that sales folks do—more, in some
cases, as they can peruse the net and garner all possibilities. |
Sellers' jobs have changed and they no longer are needed to be presenters of information.
Indeed, if salespeople don't facilitate the decision-making process and learn
how to teach buyers to make all the decisions that a complex sales needs to address
in a CRM environment, they will continue to lose sales and face the effects of
lengthening sales cycles.
CRM technology is being used to supplant sales jobs as a result. But the problem
isn't disappearing: sellers need to learn how to help prospects decide. They need
to learn how to lead buyers through a systematized methodology to help them make
their complex decisions—decisions that affect multiple stakeholders and navigate
organizational politics—that must take place before a purchase can be made.
For some reason, we've gravitated toward the knowing by the mind and forgotten
that decision teams in corporations work in systems that are made up of people
who have unique and individual preferences that influence the group decisions.
The decisions they make are based on unique, idiosyncratic decisioning systems
that cannot be understood by anyone living outside of the system.
The buyers themselves even have difficulty with these decisions. They need help:
their decisionmaking environments are too complex to gauge the repercussions of
their decisions quickly. In other words, sellers must be taught to help buyers
learn how to buy. The good news is that it's possible.
The Decision Sequence
It's an interesting fact that all decisions get made using the same sequence of
thinking. That's right: from deciding on a new toothbrush, to a multimillion dollar
service, all decisions get made using the same check points.
Here are the issues that must be considered prior to deciding on doing something
different or new.
What's Missing?
People have to recognize that something is missing.
The seller recognizing a need is moot: until or unless a buyer recognizes that
indeed something is missing and understands the systems behind how it got missing,
they won't even have interest in buying anything new.
It's important to note here that while sellers have a macro view of a buyer's
environment and can see all possibilities, buyers have the micro view. They live
in the environment; they know what's happening on a minute-to-minute basis. They
know who is talking with whom and who is fighting, what political games are being
played by whom, who is quitting or getting fired, etc; they know the history behind
the status quo.
Here's a simple example: A major software company called to inquire about my sales
training programs. Their desired outcome was to become "more customer centric."
When I asked how their customers currently made purchases, I was told that the
customers called an incoming call center.
Sharon Drew: What happens when the prospects have to go away and talk to
others before they make the decision to buy?
Software Company: They call back twice.
Sharon Drew: So how do you plan on mitigating the distance between being
customer centric and having a one-way buying channel?
This question taught the buyer how to go back into the status quo that he lives
within and begin to question why things are the way they are. He was so comfortable
in his environment that he hadn't noticed that his current sales channel didn't
manage his needs. He wanted to add a new strategy without recognizing that his
current initiative was causing the problem.
Once a prospect recognizes that something is indeed missing—which the man did
in the above example—the first thing people want to do is to take care of the
problem in the most efficient way: by themselves.
Why Is It Missing?
Until people understand how they got where they are, they won't know how to change.
The decisions that created the problem have to be reexamined or people won't know
how to do anything different.
Example: A company made the decision to use internal consultants only, so it won't
bring in an external consultant even though they don't have the expertise they
need to solve a business problem. When asked if they would buy consulting services,
they'd say "no" and they'd muddle along attempting to fix the problem with the
very resources that created the problem to begin with.
But, if people are led to recall that this decision was made four years prior
when the company was going through a rough patch—and now find the directive moot—there
is a new basis for decision making.
That conversation would look like this:
Seller: How is your group currently finding the resources it needs to solve
difficult business problems?
Buyer: We're using our internal consultants.
Seller: How is that working for you?
Buyer: OK, I guess. They certainly are smart. They just end up playing
against company politics, so I'm not sure how effective they'll be in the long
run.
Seller: So I hear you're not using external support.
Buyer: We've had a long-standing directive that doesn't allow us to.
Seller: What would need to happen differently in order to re-visit that
directive?
Buyer: Well, I'd have to find out how it got created. I suppose I could
do that.
Seller: I'm hearing that you've got an historic initiative that might not
be relevant for your business today. I'm wondering what your people would need
to know to consider bringing in additional support consultants in order to help
you solve your problem more efficiently.
Buyer: That's a good question. Let me go find out how long the directive
has been in place and if there is any possibility of either restricting it for
this situation or getting rid of it. I suppose those in charge would have to know
why this situation demands a new initiative. Can you help me if they need some
rational for change?
In this situation, selling consulting services would be moot: The buyer needed
help aligning their systemic culture before the possibility of hiring a new resource
would even be considered.
This situation also exemplifies the next phase of the decision/questioning sequence—that
internal fixes are undertaken before external support is considered.
Fix It with What's Familiar
It's human nature to find a way to use what you've already got. It's easier and
cheaper. Before organizations will accept the use of external resources—and the
upheaval this may cause—they must believe that such help is needed. They will
examine familiar resources at their disposal—internal groups, vendors, suppliers—to
see if they can find a way to fix the problem with a familiar solution. It is
only when all else fails that they will consider bringing in an unknown consultant.
 When
you help clients figure out how to solve the problem themselves, they will either
discover an internal solution, in which case they don't need you, or discover
that they cannot fix the problem internally—and therefore realize they do need
you . . . and realize it quickly.
Address and Maintain Current Systems
What are the systems issues that must be taken into account before support for
change can be marshaled? What historic practices or norms or values must be adhered
to in order for people to be willing to do something different? Until there is
the understanding that whatever issues need alignment will be addressed within
the norms of the culture, change won't happen.
Example: In the preceding scenario, all adjacent departments would have to buy
in to bringing in a consultant. They'd also have to define all possible worst-case
scenarios and personal and political issues. They must consider strategic initiatives,
partnership agreements, stakeholders' undertakings, etc. and decide how to work
best within the system to discover a win-win solution for all.
People buy only after they:
- Recognize that something is indeed missing from their current situation (and
they often don't even feel "pain" around it because they've already adjusted);
- Notice how it got that way and see the possibility that something is amiss;
- Recognize they can't fix the problem themselves or they would have;
- Understand all the systems that need to be addressed within their internal
cultural/political environment in order for change to occur.
And, your product or service—even if they have used you before for other services
or purchases—is "change." It demands new manpower, new thinking, new systems,
time to learn, and time to adjust.
How to Help People Buy
This is a rough economy. People and companies are spending their money very, very
carefully. It's not that they won't buy, they just need to make a touch decision
as to when, why, or if.
Telling them you have a wonderful product is not good enough. Your new job is
to help them decide how to buy. Then the clients will close themselves easily—and
you'll just have to offer information according to their buying patterns, rather
than create sales materials in a vacuum. The buyer will understand the buying
parameters—so you'll both be able to work together to address them. The buyer
will appreciate your support in helping her discover all of those issues that
need to be addressed (the people, the initiatives, the politics, the time/money
factors) to bring you over to the buyer's side of the table and make you a trusted
consultant.
It's not about the selling. It's about the buying. After all: do you want to sell
or have someone buy?
First appeared at CRMGuru.com
About the Author:
Sharon Drew Morgen is the author of several books, including The Competitive Advantage:
Helping Buyers Buy, Selling with Integrity, and Sales on the Line. She is an international
entrepreneur, speaker and sales trainer. Her clients include IBM, KPMG, and DuPont.
She can be contacted at sdm@austin.rr.com.
To find more information on her latest book—Buying Facilitation(R): The New
Way to Sell That Influences and Expands Decisions—and to reflect on your sales
strategy, click here.
Read this newsletter at: http://www.crmnewz.com/2003/0807.html |
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