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How to sell the answer to a problem?
An introduction to the great ideas that will boost your sales
Jens Edgren
With a special section: selling 3.0
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How to sell the answer to a problem?
The map of how to sell complex solutions has changed dramatically in recent years. Customers’ power was strengthened via the internet simultaneously have the solutions become increasingly complex. How can we operate our business in order to achieve secure closure of the strong competition?
How can we create accurate sales forecasts, quarter after quarter? How can we lead the sales force to reach the budget?
This third edition is updated for 2010’s challenges: Sales 3.0 contains ideas on how to implement a solution driven
sales culture, how to sell to the new generation of buyers “click, try buy generation” and how to use LinkedIN as
a prospecting tool.
How to sell the answer to a problem provides an introduc-
tion to how thousands of com-panies worldwide managed to increase their sales.
Jens Edgren has since 1989 helped companies to improve their sales. He has been working with list-
ed companies and trained hundreds of managers and salespeople in the Solution Selling ® sales methology.
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To Camilla, Emelie, Rebecka, Sebastian and Olivia
The author has also written Sales Makeover,How to create a solution-driven sales culture, 2010
Brainstation förlag AB, StockholmCopyright 2007 Jens Edgren, Brainstation AB
Third edition 2011
ISBN: 978-91-980067-4-2
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ContentsIntroduction _____________________________________________________________2
Five fundamentals of selling the answer to a problem ______________________5
Pain ________________________________________________________________7
Power _______________________________________________________________9
Vison ______________________________________________________________12
Value ______________________________________________________________14
Control _____________________________________________________________17
The five most common sales challenges and pain, power, vision, value and control ________________________________19
Sales Challenge #1 ”I don’t very often get my customers to reveal their real business challenges” ________________________________21
Sales Challenge #2 ”I rarely get to meet the customers management” _____23
Sales Challenge #3 ”I can’t get the customers to understand how they can create new opportunities through our products and services” ________25
Sales Challenge #4 ”I find it difficult to motivate the value of our offer” ___________________________________________________________27
Sales Challenge #5 ” I lost seven out of ten deals at the quotation phase” _____29
The three most common problems for sales managers and pain, power, vision, value and control ________________________________31
Sales Manager challenge #1 ”Our seller have not control over their most important deals” _______________________________________________33
Sales Manager challenge #2 ”I have no control of the pipeline” ______________35
Sales Manager challenge #3 ”We miss our forecasts” ________________________37
Pipeline Management ___________________________________________________39
Weighted value, flow and timing _____________________________________41
Sales Strategies for the 2010s ________________________________________ 43
Sales strategy #1 To sell to top management ___________________________45
Sales strategy #2 Choosing the right deals _____________________________47
Sales strategy #3 Sales is a responsibility of the whole organization ________________________________________________51
Special section selling 3.0 ____________________________________________ 53
Find new customers with Social Media ________________________________55
The new generation of buyers: click, try and buy ________________________58
The introduction of a solution driven sales culture ______________________61
Jens Edgrens stainless ten tips ________________________________________64
List of literature and references _______________________________________ 66
About the author ___________________________________________________ 66
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The map for how to sell complex solutions
has changed
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“We must make our sales efforts more effective! 64% of sales manag-ers ranked this question as one of the most important in the CSO In-sights Survey1). The survey found that fewer and fewer leads resulted in completion and that only 30% of salespeople reached their targets The negative trend continues”.
How do I sell the answer to a problem?
I’ve been educating sales managers and salespeople for almost 20 years. During the 90s we trained people in sales methods, but in hindsight I doubt if it had any effect at all , for even then the game plan for selling complex solutions had started to change. The big difference was, that the customer himself could get facts about suppliers and their offerings, which meant that the salesperson no longer had an information advantage. I found out about the Solution Selling® concept by chance in 1999 i USA. It was a startling discovery. For the first time I realised how a sales methology could be support a complex sales process. Usually, the success or failure of a sale was dependent on the salesperson’s talent, not how the customer buys solutions.
We had focused on sales techniques so long and somehow forgotten about the customer, especially customers, where many policy makers would agree on a common solution. The most common reason for business failure is that the salesperson, after a short need -analysis, tells the customer what they need. The customer asks for a quota-tion. The salesperson, which might be used to simplify product sales, interprets this as a buy signal and passes quickly over a quotation. When the client reads the quotation, you understand nothing.
Even if the customer takes the offer on to the management team, it is often wrong. Other management team members do not see the value of the investment and may block the decision. The salesperson has missed the definition of the word solution: The customer’s opinion about what is the problem and what is the best solution. The sales-persons who can listen and gently guide the client’s opinions are most successful with solution selling.
But it also requires an ability to get the whole management teams and to ensure that the customers’ image of the ”solution” is possible to deliver in a safe and secure manner. Keith Eades, one of the founders of the Solution Selling® concept for complex sales, maintained that the salesperson’s role was ”to help customers do business more profitably” We took the method to Sweden in 1999 and put in a lot of work into to bring it into our business culture. The results came immediately. People we’d educated in solution driven sales methologies told us about deals where the customer had become actively involved and driven the sale to a conclusion, without that the salesperson had to hunt over. The salespersons were perceived as an advisor to the customer. We rarely used all methods from the methodology.
1) Jim Dickie, CSO Insights 2007
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You chose some principles and tried to live up to them, but consistently and comple-tely. Even the major public companies, which have already passed all other sales cour-ses, found a new successful method for raising its solution business. In situations where the market changes in race, new competitors are aggressively trying to capture market share or if you want to turn you into a new market there are good reasons to reconsider the way you sell and manage the sales organization. I have listed the most common sales and management challenges in this book. However, they are just symptoms of the way that selling requires a change.
Now when I finish this third revised edition, new trends have come to affect the solution selling dramatically. About them I do write my best tips in one special section. How can you find new customers through social media? And how to sell solutions to the customers who belong to ”click, try, buy” generation, those who want to try before they decide? Finally a few words on how to successfully transform a sales culture. Is it enough with sending salespersons to a new selling course or are there other ways?
In this simple book, I want to give you some ideas for how you can draw on your map of complex solution sales, thereby increasing the efficiency of your sales.
Good reading! Jens Edgren
Ps: What does the word ”solution” mean? The answer to the customer’s problem. It can be a product, a service or just a word of advice. The solution forms in the head of the customer when he/she realises that “it” is what they need. If you can get the entire or-ganization to work towards these goals, you will both get satisfied customers and more profitable business.
5
The five fundamentals
which will help you succeed in selling complex products
and services.
6
Pain
Power
Vision
Value
Control
Fundamentals
7
Pain
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What motivates the customer to make changes? Changes are hard, costing time and money and involves risks. Most people do not like changes. But when you are faced with a problem and do not know how to solve it - then new ideas are welcome!
For me, pain and change go hand in hand. If the client should implement a new sys-tem, switch or modify procedures, then it indicates that there are problems that would otherwise not be possible to solve. The bigger the problem - the bigger the change you are prepared to accept Approximately 80% of customers buy solutions first when they feel that they have major problems 2).
Today’s companies and organizations have received an increased pressure to develop. External changes such as new competitors, manufacturing processes or new customer requirements involve situations that create the need for a change. The same is true when the organization gets new owners and other strategic targets. But if the changes costs a lot of money and involves risks, it takes courage to take decisions. Then the customer needs to know the size of the pain. Is it worth solving, is it possible to solve? Should this issue have a priority?
You must get the customer to tell about their pain for you. Then you can analyse together the causes, set value of the pain. Remember that pain is always personal, asso-ciated with title and responsibilities. A manager’s pain can be that an important system does not work. This pain may be more or less difficult for the organization. But the conse-quences can be far more serious for the company. If stores can not sell, because of their cash system is down, then it can result in major economic consequences. The pain can therefore affect the entire organization, but in different ways. It affects direct and indirect costs and revenues. Learn to identify the “chain of the pain”!
I do therefore want to inspire you to find the pain out of your traditional touch. Then you and your contact can find pain that motivates management to set free resources and to make an issue of priority. The management may not understand the consequences of pain deep in the organization, let alone the causes of pain. Good news for sellers is that the pain is usually the same in every industry. Just because most work in similar ways. You can build up your knowledge of how your chosen industries and customer groups work so you will have it much easier to get the customer to share their pain and find so-lutions that fit. Add time to find the pain and causes early in the sales process. A strong, highly valued pain motivates the customer to change.
FundamentalsPain
2) Geoffrey Moore, Crossing the Chasm
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Power
10
Who has enough power in order to get their intentions through? Power is often synonymous with titles. According to limited compa-nies, the President is ultimately responsible for all decisions, but in practice, the power will be of those who have the greatest ability to influence. These are the people we need to identify, meet and build visions with. Then they will push through purchasing decisions.
I have studied the power for many years. I’ve noticed that people with high titles do not automatically have power. In the Nordic countries are the heads sensitive to what the personnel think. Important decisions can be slowed, because an officer feels the new business system as “complicated”. In other cultures the chief decides to a hundred per-cent “my way or the highway”. Who has the power to launch projects and to stop them at your customers? You need to have control over both parties.
Look at the customer’s organization chart. Who has a profit budget? Which depart-ments are cost centres? Usually there is both need and resources in business operations. There you can find decision-making power, often in which decisions are made. If the customer has a matrix organization, key people have two or more managers. This creates a hotbed of political battles. The real power is always at the people with a strong formal position - not among those who have the highest title.
We call the people with power to get through the buying decision for Power. Around Power there are the Sponsors. They have pain and need our help to solve the problems. They know who in the organization has power and can give us access, if we support them. They want to be heroes! In larger organizations power rarely can all by themselves make the buying decision. Their power lies in opening the doors that are required: for example, end up on the list of approved suppliers, that the investment meets the stated criteria, that the manager takes responsibility for the operation, etc.
Instead of asking the customer about who makes decisions, ask what they need to have to implement the project. If the customer wants have more people, you probably have a sponsor in front of you and are not yet in power.
If you have to win customers from competitors or get your customer to select a new solvent, then it will usually be needed more “power”. The managers who must support the decision are probably higher in the hierarchy than if you make additional sales to existing customers. Therefore, you shall layer on top managers when processing new clients. If you are delegated down, ask to come back with the result of dialogue with the person you were recommending to talk to. In this way, you get a chance to meet the Power.
FundamentalsPower
11
An good example on how different amounts of power are required to take a pur-chasing decision was when a receptionist at a large government agency could order parts for their telephone exchange for millions of dollars without asking her boss. She ordered as she thought it was needed.
Another seller was struggling to get a new customer to test a free service, he knew it would save them a lot of money. But the client’s financial manager, who normally was the person they used to do business with other clients, had to consult their president. The president who often played golf with the competitor sellers, referring to their policy to only have one supplier in each area, said politely but firmly no to the deal. A deal that would have meant thousands of dollars in savings. So you have to find power in any business!
How close are you the Power of the deal? Is Power willing to choose you? It will be crucial if the deal will be won by you.
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Vision
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What is the customer’s vision? What does the customer want to achieve? What is their image out of the solution? The customer has not our products as his vision. They may not even use the same name for their needs as you do. They only think about the opportunities they need to solve the pain that has been identified.
If you can help the client to understand what is required for the pain to disappear, you may be “vendor A”, the customer’s first choice. Have you bought a house or apart-ment at some point? Do you remember when you step across the threshold? Did you start to refurnish the house in your mind? When customers see how our offerings can help them to begin creating a picture of the future. We call this that the customer has a buy-vision.
Your products and services are at the beginning of the sales process completely uninteresting for a customer who wants to solve a problem. Show no brochure or Power-Point! Help clients on creating a picture of how their lives would be like if they could use the features that your offering can provide. I usually try to build up a picture of a Monday morning. Here is an example. The client enters the office, boot up their computer, log on to a program that displays three lamps: red for serious errors, yellow for congestion and green for “good”! Then I ask how this would simplify the customer’s everyday. The client is positive that he / she sees how they can solve their problems. I do use product presen-tations to prove that the solution will really work.
Let us remember that the customer is both intelligent and open to your competi-tors’ ideas. The vision may change along the way, when the customer starts searching for more options. If you receive a request where the customer seems to know what they want, perhaps a detailed technical level, assume that you are “provider B” - the client’s way of validating their “provider A”. You’ll need to change the client’s vision for you to get a real chance of winning the deal.
I have over the years asked hundreds of people if they would buy a car without test driving it. Only five percent said yes. The same principle can be used in complex solution sales. Customers need evidence to feel confident that they are making the right choice. You can help them by showing references, make demonstrations to get them feel confi-dent that they are making the right choice.
Do we have influenced the client’s vision? Have we proved that we can deliver the vision? Does the Power want “our” vision? When the vision is in its place, the customer wants to buy it to get the opportunities that solves the problem!
FundamentalsVision
14
Value
15
When will the investment be profitable? Today’s customers have to fight hard to make investments. They must demonstrate positive investment calculations. Before the customer is ready to take a decision, the economy and risks have to be con-sidered carefully. Being too many deals have been dismissed as too expensive and because the seller failed to demonstrate the value of the investment
“Show me the money” is a replica from the movie “Jerry MacGuire”. Same replica a finance manager said to me. Before I could reply, the sales manager opened his Excel Spreadsheet, pointing to the first-year ROI, Return On Investment. From the beginning, there was no budget. But the sales manager and chief executive had calculated that the sales force could increase its sales by 30 million by using a solution driven methodology. The project’s cost at a paltry one million was then easy to defend.
The value of vision has to be calculated together with the Power of the customer. Then they will trust the numbers. If the seller makes an ROI calculation himself, it be-comes just one selling argument of little value. To help the customers to manage risks in the transaction, you can help the customer to set up a plan for change before the final quotation is done. Then the client will feel much safer. Are you a challenger to the old provider, you are automatically at a disadvantage. It is always more risk-free to buy from a known and proven source than to take risks with unknown suppliers. You often have to negotiate with the client to get a fair chance to prove the value of your offers and that it involves minimal risk to choose you. If you are an established supplier you should be able to play this advantage properly. Be sure to show the value of your established relationship and how this will minimize the customers risk. Perhaps it can mean an economic benefit as well?
I had worked long with a deal. It did long look good, but ultimately the customer chose to buy from their old supplier. Our Power had encountered stiff resistance from proponents of their “provider A”. They pointed out the value to take advantage of the investments already made. But after three months I made a follow-up. My contact John complained that they have not managed to get to the end. John wanted a good price, but their supplier did not want to meet him. They did not agree about the value. John could not put dollars and cents on the value of the investment Probably their supplier thought they would lose face if they lowered the price. The deal took a new turn when I, together with Johan worked out a clear value proposition. We identified areas for im-provement, calculated on the value of success to achieve the goals that were established and came to what was a reasonable investment. With value justification in the hand John
Fundamentals Value
16
pulled up new guidelines to his management team two days later and we had confi-dence. This example has taught me the importance of to show and defend the value of the investment you ask your customer to do.
Another important point recently emerged during a workshop in solution-driven sales methodology. One of the coaches, Rikard Nilsson, emphasized the importance of focusing on the customer’s initial pain when doing a value justification. Otherwise, the high risk is that you take up the values in your offer that the customers decision phase values as low. Therefore he decided to get the customer to prioritize the values and goals that are most important. Then he makes the final value estimate with the customer. He said that although the value of the investment is lower, the customer feels more confidence in the calculation.
So the value of the investment will not be forgotten, should the criteria for measur-ing the project be defined and monitored. This lays the foundation for a good future relationship with the customer. We call these “success criteria”. Has the customer justified the value together with us? Is the investment sufficiently profitable for both parties? If the value is not verified or too low, the deal is always in danger.
17
Control
18
The customer wants to have control over the deal. The customer wants to verify that the right supplier and right solution at the lowest price will be chosen. The customer’s only way to main-tain control is to invite more vendors. The seller needs therefore a way to control the customer’s evaluation to influence decision-making criteria and thus win the deal.
The seller loses control by leaving the offer too early. Many sellers are too accus-tomed to chase the customer to get answers to offer. They then move the deal in the sales forecast several times before finally accepting defeat. The deal was lost in the moment that the seller lost control. I want to give you two tools to maintain control over the deal. A summary letter and a plan for the customer’s evaluation that you do together. You can write a summary letter within 48 hours after the meeting with the customer.
It should summarize the client’s pain, the vision you painted, the next step and help you make access to Power. Then call the next day and go through the letter. If the customer agree with your summary, you have demonstrated that you understood the situation and that you are serious. The first trust was created. The sponsor often send the letter on to those he or she needs to bring in the process.
I wrote one of my first summary letter in 1999. At the next meeting was the CEO, product manager and sales manager, with my letter in his hands, and nodded in agree-ment! Together with the Power you discuss a joint plan for the activities that they and you need to do and you will come up with a quote that reflects their preferred solution, how it is inserted and the value, return of investment.
Both the client and you can add a time-and resource plan for the project and avoid to get out of time. Clients will not be shocked by the price when the offer comes, they’ve got the numbers before. Before leaving the final quotation you should do a review of a draft of your quote. You go through all the points that you discussed and you ask the customer to make the changes they want. If these changes are acceptable you can go to the end here and now! When IBM applied the technique, 66% of the deals were closed at the completion of the draft offer.
In my role as a CEO, I meet many sellers. They are consistently bad at reconnect my wishes. It creates anxiety because I need to know that the seller sells the products and services needed for us to achieve our goals. An early confirmation of the clients circum-stances, pain and vision in a summary letter is the best way I know to raise the hitrate.
FundamentalsControl
19
The five most common sales
challenges.
20
The five most common sales challenges, and “Pain, Power, Vision, Value and Control”.Once the way to sell is out of synch with its customers ways to buy or when competitors become sharper, it leads to serious sales problems. Watch for warning signs such as missed sales forecasts, the key deals moves forward in time, low hitrate and that new sellers have trouble getting started. Another sign is that it is difficult to win new custom-ers.
The sales organization failed to understand the five cornerstones: the pain, power, vision and value. You do not longer have control over the business. See pain as an opportunity to find the areas where your map for complex solution selling needs to be developed. Review won and lost deals. Do you see any pattern?
This chapter describes what can happen when you miss the five fundamentals of your sales, but also how the problems should be solved.
Sales challenges
21
Sales Challenge #1”I don’t very often get my
customers to reveal their real business problems.”
22
“Customers want me to present our unique advantages and what they cost. Then they want a quotation. That’s where most of my deals end.” (Telecom salesperson)
How often do you get the customer to talk about their real pain? Without a clear understanding that any proposed solution would be a shot in the dark. But why should the customer talk about their problems with you? The customer is accustomed to be pressured of sellers who want to book meetings and closing deals. Often with manipula-tive closing techniques. There is a confidence that must be resolved before you ask the customer to talk about their problems.
Which people are you listening to? Probably the ones that know your situation, your concerns and priorities. I recommend that you spend a lot of time to understand the cus-tomer’s business works, typical bottlenecks and different challenges. Next, look at your company’s other customers. Can you provide reference stories about what problems you have helped to solve: the pain that existed and how the solution looked like? What did the customer win with the deal? The reference story and your knowledge of the custom-ers creates conditions for you to begin a trusting dialogue. You win customer confidence by telling them how you helped other companies in the same industry to solve their problems with you.
When your customer tells us about a problem or a goal that they want to achieve is your chance to identify the causes of pain. Remember to distinguish between the pain and the cause of the pain. An example: If the customer’s pain is that they have a low profitability, there can be many reasons. Maybe your offer can help them to work more efficiently. Then you need to find together with the customer the areas where they have deficiencies in effectiveness that causes pain. If you know in advance what possibilities that can be created with your products and services, it is also easy to prepare relevant needs issues. These issues will show the customer that you can your thing. Ask also to get the customer’s view of what other people are affected by the problems. In this way the customer’s needs are early controlled to areas where we are good and have an advan-tage.
Pan for the pain at the beginning of the sales cycle. Evaluate them together with your customer. Qualify away the deal where there is no severe pain or clear causes. This will increase the value of your exploration.
Sales challenges
#1
23
Sales Challenge #2 ”I rarely get to meet
the customers management.”
24
“I stuck with the IT manager or the project team. They say that the decision is delegated to them. Then I lose the deal to supplier with whom the CEO had worked before … “ (Salesperson – IT infrastructure)
The most common sales problem is that sellers are trying to sell to people without right decision. The sales process stops when the sellers’ contacts try to get his boss to approve the investment. The boss, who is rarely experienced in the process, do not see the value. In most cases there will be no deal. What if the contact person has actually succeed to get his boss interested? Often the chief asks of seeing quotes from other sup-pliers also as to push the price! Now it will be really hard to get meet the right decision makers…
Most sales managers believe that the solution is that their salespeople must pass the middle managers and instead meet with people high up in the customer organization. They believe that it leads to more deals. Many sellers, however, lacks the skills and experi-ence which is necessary to have a serious and fruitful discussion with the management team. What will they present to management? Product features? This type of meetings is often leading infallibly to that the vendor will be delegated to lower management. Middle managers want to keep the control. Only when they really need help, they are prepared to be resold.
How should the seller come to power, the right decision makers? First you must find the people who have pain that can be solved with your products and services. You need to get them to run the deal internally and create a buying appetite. They can help to translate the opportunities that can be created to host the Power Sponsor. They know which people have the power to make a decision. You need to get them to introduce you and your team to Power. Sellers rarely get this help voluntarily. It requires a negotiation with the sponsor early in the sales process. Explain that you can not make an offer before you meet all those involved in the project, because their opinions and priorities will af-fect the solution. But offer to prove to the sponsor that your company and your offer can work for them. Require in return that the sponsor schedules a meeting with the Power! Good way to convince your sponsor group’ are customer references, demonstrations and pilot projects.
I usually ask the customer early in the sales process: “What do you need to do and who you need to involve in to this, so the project should be completed? “ Almost always I get the names of the key persons. Now, my client and I have a common interest to have these with us. This simple question has increased my hitrate dramatically. Qualify away the business opportunity where you do not have access to Power. Then you work with the right deals.
Sales challenges
#2
25
Sales Challenge #3I can’t get the customers to
understand how they can create new opportunities
through our products and services.
26
“In my presentations, I try to focus on our unique product advantages, but I often receive objections. The customer says that their needs are different.” (Salesperson, business systems)
Our customers run into problems every day. They seek solutions and wants nothing rather than finding them. Unfortunately, most salespeople are bad at showing custom-ers the opportunities that they can get in their business. They have not made an effort to translate their ideas into product features that can help customers in their daily work. The customer does not see how his situation could be improved. You can compare this with how a cloudy days in March can suddenly change when you start thinking about the holidays, a cold beer in a hammock on a sunny beach in Bali. You have received a holiday vision! The same effect will a buy-vision have on your customer.
Prepare to create visions, ideas that will help consumers see the solution to his problem in practical terms. What are the critical situations that can be solved? How will it happen in practice? Who does what? You can get help if you put yourself into the work situation of your customer contacts. An IT manager may need opportunities to create a more stable operation, a financial manager might need opportunities to create more accurate financial reports. Often, people with similar responsibilities need the same opportunities no matter where they work. If you learn how your clients’ situation looks like, then you can quickly adapt your ideas to help new customers to a vision, a solution to the pain.
Few sellers are able to create visions for all products and services they sell. These efforts must also involve product managers, the marketing department and experts. The visions should be adapted to different industries and different customer execu-tives’ situations. I have worked extensively with telecommunication operators. A skilled salesperson I met often managed to create a vision around the concept “communication services”. When customer compared different solutions, they did not find exactly the same solution somewhere else. He won many deals with his strategy. If your competition is fierce the hitrate increases if you create unique buy-visions early in the sales process. When the customer takes in a competing proposals, you will still be the “provider A”. Just remember that the customer will look at further proposals to ensure that he has chosen right. You should therefore also have control over your competitor’s “unique benefits”!
When Power has a strong vision, a deal is qualified. Because a vision is followed by willingness to have the solution!
Sales challenges
#3
27
Sales Challenge #4I find it difficult to motivate
the value of our offer.
28
“Customers think our offer is the best, but they often choose a cheap-er alternative. I rarely get the chance to defend our pricing. They say their budget is too small.” (Key Account Manager – Outsourcing)
The customer needs to justify his decision. The price is the easiest way to put a value on something you bought. Customers often think that a cheaper option gives the same result as the more expensive.
You need to prove the additional value that the customers receives. If you make an investment calculus itself, it becomes just another sales pitch. You need to work together with the customers, Power, on the investment calculus. The estimate must show the client’s entire savings and profit. Even the parts that are affected indirectly. In the process the client will create the credible argument for its decision and put less emphasis on price. It is the customer who has the final responsibility to solve the problem and he need also to take over the ownership for the value. The seller’s job is to evaluate the plan and to create the right conditions.
“Decisions are not made with a value calculus.” This claimed a senior business wom-en I think she has both right and wrong. When a project feels right in the heart , than there is need for credible evidence that the solution is worth betting on. You also want to make a good deal. The evidence is generated in the value calculation process.
Have you ever done a value calculation? Do you think there must be a project that takes thirty days for that? Think again! I want to inspire you to work with the customer and to count on the value of the project. Keep it simple, use Excel, talk to other custom-ers you sold to. What results have they achieved? Can your customer make more money, save money and / or avoid unforeseen costs due to the solution? The three components shall be included in the value calculation. In addition, it is good to make a plan on when the customer receives “money back” - the repayment period. If it gets too long perhaps funding could be a good option for defending an investment. Make value calculation as part of your sales processes. It must be done before the customer receives the final offer. Then there will be no surprises. At the end of the buying process, price and risk is important. If the price compared to its competitors are perceived too high, anything can happen. Most customers want to haggle. You can protect your pricing if you and the customer knows what the value is.
Our experience is that if an investment calculation, ROI, is done in a proper way, it will be a deal in nine out of ten cases. The odds that the customer sees the value of the project will be much better. It creates happy and safe customers who can justify the investment.
Sales challenges
#4
29
Sales Challenge #5I lost seven out of ten deals
in the quotation phase.
30
“I have a good dialogue with my customers until the quotation is given. Then it becomes completely silent. Some people I’ve been chasing for months. It takes focus away from my other deals - the pipeline is always too thin.”(Salesperson ventilation systems)
When customers have got the offer in their hand, decisions are made. The customer enters the risk phase. The most of the customers always look for more options and other kinds of solutions than yours. This the customers want to do privately, without having salespeople hanging over him. Time tends to pull out of this phase of the buying process, the client is afraid to take wrong decision. If your competitors are skilled, they will do everything possible to come with a cheaper, smarter and simpler solution. It hap-pens every day. This is a control problem, when the quotation is left, the seller has lost all control over the deal. If this happens to you often, you probably made the offer early or to the wrong person.
Try this: Ask to do a review of a draft offer with the customer. If the customer wants to change something, do the changes you can place and confirm that he / she is prepared to go to completion. If your text fills the customer’s requirements, you can ask for clearance there and then. You can also retain control of a joint evaluation plan. If you are a “provider A” you should be able to get a chance to bring all solutions the customer wants even if the ideas come from their competitors. Then you can submit a quote that reflects the client’s entire vision. A skilful salesman solved difficult sales problems with this method. He had had a good dialogue with the client’s various decisionmakers to quote the draft. At the last meeting, when he was preparing the quotation, he noticed that the customer was not as willing to answer questions or provide feedback as earlier. After going through the draft offer, he asked for an oral clearance to start up the project. Customers’ chiefs screwed on and admitted that they brought in a vendor whose quota-tion looked very tempting, considerably cheaper and better. The seller gathered and asked for a “fair” chance to give their suggestions on the new ideas that apparently inter-ested the buyers. He had together with them worked hard for four month to find a good solution to their problem. He got the chance to come back with a new proposal. Thanks to this simple method, he could make some small changes and won the deal.
The offer should be a summary of what the buyer wants. It shall be left only when the customer confirmed that the content is correct and that they can make decision within the time the offer is valid. What should you do with quotes that are no longer valid and which passed the “best before date”? Ask to have them back, ask the customer to throw them away. Ask for a chance to restart the dialogue! But take away the “dirty old quotations” from the pipeline. Make sure they do not prevent you to discuss further with the customer. You can maintain control over the entire sales process with the right methodology.
Sales challenges
#5
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The three most common Sales Manager
challanges
32
The three most common sales manage-ment challenges and how the fundamen-tals can be used to help solving them. Will we achieve our sales targets this year? This is the burning ques-tion for many leaders. It depends on the sales organisation. If it fails to find the pain, to come to power, build visions, justify the value and maintain control, then the deals will be lost.
Many sales managers and leaders find it difficult to get sellers to put information in the CRM system. Or really tell you where they are in their sales processes. I often hear sales managers talk about their concerns that sales activities are too few. This are the sales challenges that almost all shares. Unfortunately, many sales managers wait in solv-ing problems. It is often first when the sales forecast failed to “secure” the deal is moved or lost by increasing the pressure on the sales force.
Do you recognize the most common challenges for sales managers? I want to get you to try new methods when you are coaching your salespeople, and as a result create reliable sales forecasts. In this chapter you will get the methods to identify pro-blems early and give your salespeople the support they need.
Sales Manager Challenges
33
Sales Manager Challenge #1
Our sellers have not control over their most important
deals.
34
“Every time I look at our main deals I find many problems that the sell-ers rarely do anything about. Their weighting in the pipeline is always too positive.” (Sales Manager, business systems)
Sellers who work with complex deaks tend to put most of their time on writing quotes. They only hear good signals from the customer. The client often needs the seller’s offer in order to verify pricing and the solution from another supplier. Especially sellers below budget are almost always too positive and values their business too high in the sales forecast without to have coverage for it. It is an over- living instinct. The same instinct gets sellers who are above the budget of the dark-sized deals, that is not to put every deal in the sales system. They want always have an ace up its sleeve if another busi-ness would go wrong. We call this phenomenon the “sunshine pump”. Everything looks good until the results is nullified. You as a sales manager want to have good news and the news quickly walk up to management level.
Sunshine pump starts spinning when the sales manager asks “How’s it going?”. Seller answers: “Good! We had a good dialogue with the customer. “ I asked a salesman if his contact was the “Power”. He replied “No, I do not think. But it has gone well so far. “ This particular business was likely to fall for the lack of “power” to make decisions. But the sell-er did not realize the seriousness of the situation. Perhaps the potential problem could have been corrected before it was too late. This is an example of how a simple question can identify a sales problem early in a business. Stop the “sunshine pump” today! Ask the seller to tell where is in the buying process the deal is. Ask about pain, power, vision, values and control. Ask for facts, not opinions. Ask to see their summary letter and plan for customer evaluation. Ask them to tell how the customer verified that the affair will closed in December.
Then you will be able to help the sellers before it is too late. Both sales and forecasts will be improved. Moreover, you will create a coaching atmosphere in the sales team.
Sales Manager Challenge
#1
35
Sales Manager Challenge #2I have no control
of the pipeline.
36
“Our pipeline is never updated. I can never be sure that we will achieve our goals. Often we do panic measures by the end of the quarter.” (CEO IT outsourcing)
Sales is about to reach the desired budget. For each year it becomes a little higher. Do you have a situation where your best seller year after year compensates for the others? Does the pipeline look good until the quarter is ending? Are many conclusion moved to the fourth quarter?
A chastened sales manager exclaimed: “Tomorrow will be my happiest day - we will sell seventy-four percent of our budget. “ He referred that the salespeople’s planned completion date was the last day of the quarter. Unfortunately, they did not have a confirmation from the customer. Many sales managers have too little control of how the pipeline really looks like. With a properly valued pipeline can sales problems on the individual level be early detected. Sales managers can deploy support early and get an effect. Exploration can be done in a timely manner so that the deals can land during the financial year. Wise sales managers build also the pipeline for the next financial year.
The key to success is a pipeline management. Use the five pillars, pain, power, vision, value and control, to qualify the business. Use the summary letter and a customer plan for evaluation of go / no go points when sellers are moving business in the pipeline. Make sure they are out of phase with the customers buy-process and send the offer too early. Look for the deals that do not move forward in the pipeline. They may already be lost and must be removed or reset.
Sales Manager Challenge
#2
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Sales Manager Challenge #3
We miss our forecasts
38
“We will win only 50% of our “secure” deals. Everything looks good until the last week of the quarter. Then just the deal disappears that could have saved us. I have to find explanations for the CEO.” (Business area manager – data and telecom)
“We had early on indicated that they were too high in price, but never got any re-sponse.” That was the reason why a manager did not choose my clients as a supplier. The seller and the rest of the leadership had nevertheless valued the deal at 90%! Why? They lived on on the hope to take a defeat, that would have forced the seller to lift the “cactus phone” and find a new customer.
The most common reason for “safe business” that slides in time is that they entered into the sales forecast too early. The reasons are too loose: the client has not verified that he is ready to make a purchasing decision. To reverse this usual situation the sales manager needs to take over control and get certainty confirmed by the customer. Let us assume that eighty percent of the value of the forecast comes from a few key deals. They will dramatically affect the outcome. A framework for how these key deals must be assessed is therefore of paramount importance.
A common reason for missed sales forecasts is that the sales management only focus on the deals to be completed in the quarter or month. They do not coach the sellers on building a strong pipeline in order to create business for next period. If the sales cycle is long, 6 months, the exploration has to be done in a timely fashion so the sellers do have a reasonable chance to reach their projected goals. Almost all sales teams who miss this will be very short, with missed forecasts as a result.
The most common reason that both the CEO and sales managers are forced to con-clude is that they did not meet their own projections.
I would therefore urge you to build a system for sales forecasts that is based on the five cornerstones: pain, power, vision, value and control. If the deals are properly valued by these parameters, the sales management can do the right measures in time. You will receive early warning signals for positive and negative deviations.
Sales Manager Challenge
#3
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Management of the pipeline
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“A proven pipeline is the key to reliable sales forecasts. If you can get sellers to describe where they are in the sales process instead of to talk about what they think about the deal. Then you have all the pre-conditions to create reliable sales forecasts.”(Johan Hellström, CEO DataMetrix)
What every business opportunity can be enhanced by S (pain), P (power), V (vision), V (value), C (check) we have previously discussed. I have shown how the five most com-mon sales problems can be solved by better distribution of work and compliance with customer buying process. In this part of the book, I will develop the methodology to make more accurate sales forecasts.
Keith Eades, one of the creators of Solution Selling ® methodology, said about forecasts: “To let the sellers make forecasts is as to give the key to prison to the detainees “1. The sellers are rarely interested in making forecasts. They feel it is urgent to give the promise of business they are unsure of. Are they over budget, they will hold the expecta-tion and vice versa.
One advantage of the sales manager is that he / she will get an overview of a variety of business. The larger base makes it possible to use probabilities for the various mile-stones in the pipeline. Sales can be calculated relatively safe.
Almost all are driving a car. In the instrument panel there is an instrument that can be translated to Sales Management: speedometer can represent pipeline, tachometer hitrate, mileage calculator, what we have sold to date and watch how much time is remaining until the end of the budget year. With a few key figures, you can create your own dashboard for you and your team.
Management of the pipeline
41
Weighted value, flow
and timing.
42
“Important value in the pipeline, the flow of the deals through the pipeline and the timing of the deals to close. These three factors will determine whether there will be failure or success.” (Keith Eades3)
Pipelines weighted value is the estimated outcome for the sale of all transactions that are in the pipeline. Each business is assessed based on the current milestone probability. If the deal is a request, it will probably reduce the likelihood.
You can put a key for pipelines value which must always be maintained, with sufficient value in the pipeline so you can sleep soundly at night. One sales manager I worked with concluded that the sellers always had nine million in the unweighted value of the pipeline that the quarter’s sales target of four million could always be reached. What must it always be worth to you to be able to reach your goals? Provide guidance value to the sellers and let them take responsibility! Pipelines flow shows where the deals are in the sales process. To get an even flow of closed deals, they need to be evenly distributed. The flow is based on the weighted value at the various milestones. Ratios can be set for how the ideal balance should look like. Measures can be taken early if the expected outcome in certain periods is too low. The latter can be very effective, when the sales cycles are long. Nine-month sales cycle for complex sales is not unusual.
The planned completion date indicates when the client will sign the agreement. Single deals can be monitored and the total sales can be calculated on a monthly, quarterly and an annual basis . Pain, power, vision, value and control can be used to assess if the closure dates will be met. Especially summary letter and confirmed plans for the customer’s evaluation provides a good basis. The Sales Manager will be able to detect sales challenges in important affairs. You will be able to avoid that deals will be shifted in time and sales forecast cracks.
Pipeline management requires Pain, power, vision, value, control and discipline. Sales manager must be able to follow the pipeline every week. The forecasts will be based on facts and qualified assessments. A forecast will still contain unsure moments, but these are now reduced to a minimum.
Management of the pipeline
3) Keith Eades, The New Solution Selling
43
Sales Strategies for the 2010s.
44
Sales Strategies for the 2010sBack to the Future is a summary of the 2010’s sales situation. We have to become even better at meeting each client’s needs of solutions while we need to streamline our sales efforts and create more sales per hour. This means that we must find new ways to streamline our sales but still get every customer to be satisfied.
This chapter introduces you to the “executive-level selling”, how to win procure-ment of intense competition and how the entire organization must support the sellers work. Three new ways to boost their sales. In the chapter on “executive-level selling” we’ll give you a glimpse into the management room and how to create business there. In the chapter on how to win an procurement, we will show how you can qualify off the deals you can not win. Finally, in the chapter “sale is not just the seller’s responsibility”, we give you a picture of how the entire organization can sup-port sales and open a door for the customer himself to find us.
The companies that succeed in organic growth during the 2010s has managed to lift sales to a teamwork with the seller as a conductor.
Sales Strategies for
the 2010s
45
Sales strategy #1To sell to top management.
46
Sales strategy #1
Executive level selling
”What business initiatives will you pursue the next twentyfour months? ”
One of the clearest trends is that companies and organizations are becoming increas-ingly top-directed. Management teams can over different systems have better control of the business and follow the development than before. The power of the buying decisions moved gradually upwards, driven by management’s desire to streamline and integrate strategic suppliers in their own operations. This could save money and increase focus on its core business, to develop and grow faster than the competition. Are you looking for the big deals, you must be perceived as a strategic supplier, a partner who can contribute to the financial results hoped for. Do you sell to the public sector is the equivalent to be perceived that the one who important decision possible that allows the customer enhance the ef-ficiency and give citizens better service. We must have the right attitude, “executive-level selling”. An “executive” ‘is a person of the management team, responsible for determining what action (measures) at the strategic level that will make that the company or organisa-tion reaches their goals. Business initiatives are of two types: those that increase efficiency and those that increases growth (sales). What will be needed to reach these “executives”? Keep in mind that their most important resource, time, is extremely short. I myself have re-peatedly booked CEO meetings twelve months ahead. You must also have a message they are interested in. If you make a regular corporate presentation, it will be a short meeting and no return visits. You are not interesting enough.
You should instead listen to what initiatives they plan to implement, how they think to make them and who is responsible. The management’s “pain” is that these initiatives stop at the drawing board and will never be implemented. Often because the responsible middle managers do not know what to do. This is where you can come in and help! Ask to be introduced to the person responsible for implementing the business venture. This takes you to a “assignment” from management. The meeting will be easy to book! A few good words on the way. If you prepare fifteen minutes before an ordinary meeting, you must add at least sixty minutes before an executive meeting, metrics, strategies, plans, personal his-tory, potential challenges and the business initiatives that are communicated. Consider also through your experience, reference stories and how you can help. Then it can be a good meeting which leads on to the real power!
It can be hard to come by these busy executives. You can reach them in three ways. Find them on the golf course or when they fly their model planes. You must then share their interests and create a natural atmosphere. Do you want to reach them in a more business-like way, you can convey your message to their secretaries. Often you will be asked to write down what you want in an email. The outcome is often disappointing, email, drowning in a thousand other requests. Then it is better looking out the manager’s cell phone number and either call before 8:00 in the morning or after 18:00. Then, they are available and more willing than you might think listening to your message. If they like what they hear, they will ask you 48 to call the secretary and book an appointment. The first step is taken!
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Försäljning är inte bara säljarens ansvar.
Sales strategy #2Choosing the right deals.
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“Of the eight major inquiries we won one. The conclusion is that we are poor to qualify out of the business we can not win” (Marketing and Sales Manages, IT outsourcing company)
Most sales teams spend endless amounts of time to respond to inquiries. Some companies have even created special organizations that do not perform other tasks. In sport it can be considered as a merit to get bronze or silver medal, but in business you just pay the bill for a dinner, you never got to participate in. I would say that 80-90% of the contracts are already determined. The client has learned that it’s smarter to ask the three firms and then push their favorite supplier than to buy anything from their old sup-plier. However, it is difficult for us sales people to submit a request unanswered. You live in a kind of Santa Claus dream to miss a great opportunity. Sometimes you perhaps do. The problem is often that if you follow the client’s procurement rules so you will only see Santa Claus at a distance. I would like to put some extra time to show you how to deal with you really think you have a chance to win the contract even though you were not the vendor that created the specifications.
How do you know that you and your company is not the customer’s first choice? You get a request for quotation where everything seems correct. The middle managers who hold the procurement are smart. They know that their bosses require at least three dif-ferent quotes to make a decision. So they meet first their primary supplier and get their perceptions of their needs. Then they write over the favourite supplier’s quotation to a contract document that is sent out to some other suppliers that they do not want to buy from. They can also the art of writing a request so that it appears to be easy to win. Then you get the best price and the best solution of your favourite vendor and you also have one ear to the ground if there are some new interesting solutions. But you would still not change unnecessarily you supplier and take unnecessary risks. Sometimes they hire an outside consultant as an advisor. Does that mean that procurement is now neutral? No, because the customer uses the consultant to justify the choice that is already done and not because now you have another filter to get past to reach the real decision makers. Expect that if the customer really is neutral, then the consultant has the stronger prefer-ence.
What do you do to win? Start to realize when you’re number two. The deal is lost and you have everything to gain! See the client as a patient who wants a dangerous drugs printed without having a proper diagnosis. No doctor would accept it. Begin then to do a needs analysis. Then come with your proposals that respond to the specification and an alternative proposal that is what you think they really need. Analyse the competition closely, what are your strength points? What will you highlight as unique solutions that competitors have not thought of?
Sales strategy#2
Choosing the right deals.
49
Ask to prove that your solution works for those who decide. Unless the customer wants to give you access to decision-makers or time for the evidence you have already lost.
How big chance of winning do you have unless you are the customer’s favourite sup-plier and helped to generate the request? Our experience is that the chances of winning 00-20%. from companies that work with mature products and services Unfortunately are the sell cost almost as high in order to respond to a requests as if you had processed the customer for six months before they sent out a request for quotation. Here are some signs you should look for:
• Short time to get in with a formal response • Inquiry is product-oriented • You may not meet with the client, but must go through consultants • You do not need to prove that your proposed solution works • The price is in focus
One of our clients had a large request for a system to simplify purchasing and en-dorsements. The deal was great and worth a lot of money. The sellers and the technical experts worked hundreds of hours to answer all demands. They had to make many major demonstrations of their software without being paid for the time they spent on pro-gramming. After six months they were told that they won the contract if the customer chose to purchase their own system. Now, they chose instead to hire an Internet-based software, so they lost the deal anyway ...
Some time later I got in contact with the winning supplier. They told me that they processed the customer and had the pilot rolling twelve months before the request was dispatched. The conclusion is that if you are not around and work with the customer before sending out a request, then there is a chance that you are just filling a column in the customer’s comparison matrix.
Ask to meet with those who decide to better understand the problems to be solved. If the customer does not want to give you access to decision-makers, you have already lost. Expect, therefore, that the first negotiation will be the toughest: to access the customer’s decision makers. How can we motivate the customer to give me extra time, time that you already believe they have used to “provider A”? Negotiate, offer to provide a great quote (which will probably take two to three weeks to do) in exchange for three one-hour interviews. If the customer says no to that, you know that there is no point to make an offer. How good solution you even have, you are too late.
A skilled salesperson, Mats Brandt, described his company’s policy and explained why they could not provide an answer to a requests without meetings with the manage-ment. After a day he received a call from the client’s senior IT manager who immediately invited him to the next management meeting. The manager understood the reasonable-ness of Mats requirements.
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If you get a chance to meet the customer’s decision-makers, you may NOT sell or display PowerPoints. Remember that the reason the customer meets you is that they want a quote, not even a sell presentation. Make instead a good analysis of needs and try to find the real pain behind the customer’s needs. The most important thing is to come up with ideas on how pain can be resolved even better than they thought and asked for.
The next step is to negotiate time to prove that your solution works. Imagine that you is looking for a new car. Your company has a car policy that approves Volvo, Audi and Volkswagen. Hardly any idea to look at an Alfa Romeo, right? But if you got your boss to test drive the car and he was completely “sold” maybe he / she could make an exception? The same idea is successful when you are supplier ‘B’, the customer’s second choice.
Have you weathered it so far, then it remains only to survive the final hurdle, the cus-tomer risk-phase. Now it is important to get the client the courage to change supplier. Right tactic is risk minimization. Nevertheless the change is even greater, then there is a chance that customer changes his supplier. Many deals have been won because pro-vider “B” has offered simple, low cost and therefore less risky solutions. Discuss and plan the change of supplier with the customer. Ask them what they need to do to change supplier and make a joint plan for it. This reduces the risk, that the customer hesitates in its final stages. Supplier “A” is often lost in his complacency and missed the customer’s risk concerns.
When you participate in tenders, then it is important to select the fighting so that you do not win the battle but lose the war. There are many examples of procurements that cost many marginal dollars to win and where the customer’s requirements have not been able to be met, because the economy did not allow delivery of the service which was expected anyway. All were dissatisfied.
One of my clients received an inquiry from a large commercial bank. It contained no unreasonable demands on the supplier. Among other things, it was required that the supplier would have an inquiry service, something that was hardly relevant to a data net-work. My client asked the bank to remove the requirement to change the rules, so that they became “fair”. So be very careful about spending time on contracts for which you have not been involved from the beginning. Can you win them? Are they worth to win?
Finally a word about your pipeline. A good pipeline contains a mix of queries and deals you have created yourself. Your hitrate on the various types of deals should govern how much of each should be found in your pipeline. A healthy pipeline might include inquiries twenty percent and eighty percent own business. If you are the market leader, the relationship will be the reverse, then you are the customer’s first choice automati-cally. Do not trust to manage your budget using requests. They must be used to win business from customers that otherwise are closed for processing.
Sales strategy #2
Choosing the right deals.
51
Sales strategy #3Sales is a responsibility of
the whole organization.
52
“Effective sales requires that marketing, sales and delivery organiza-tions are coordinated. When the different groups act as individual is-lands conflicting objectives will arise. The customer will get squeezed.” (Jim Palmqvist, Country Manager, Elanders Sweden.)
How often does conflict not arise with the customer when complex solutions should be delivered? How often do not engineers and consultants have to take responsibility for the unrealistic expectations created during the purchase process? Schedules and budgets are bursting.
What determines whether the customer is satisfied or not? Customer expectations determine what makes them happy. Those that meet the customer, affect the expecta-tions. Therefore, the message that the marketing department go out with should be in tune with the sellers customer dialogues. The promises that the sellers provide will be honoured at time of delivery.
Look at a typical web page. It is mostly product-oriented with numerous menus. An interested buyer must find the right menu and scroll down to “references” to get informa-tion about how other customers have been helped. I have studied every detail of Swed-ish telecom operators and their websites. Promises of “moon” are many. They need to be developed to contain messages that will help consumers understand their pain and what opportunities are required to solve it. They will be the start of a sales dialogue and help the customers to identify their needs. The effect is that the sellers receive real leads. I had a dialogue with a CEO of a large listed company on how he is looking for informa-tion about new suppliers. “I want to find good reference stories with a click, like to see a short movie.” Perhaps your clients are equally impatient?
If the marketing department and the sellers are selling ideas that they know that the company can deliver successfully, then the projects will also be profitable. The corner-stones can help the marketing department to design customer-oriented sales message. The delivery organisation should be involved in the sales process long before the deal is completed. They can verify that the vision is reachable in helping customers manage potential risks. They can, together with the client draw up a plan for implementation as part of the sales process. The seller can use the investment calculations and the success criteria to guide the customers expectation.
What does the word “solution” mean? The answer to the customer’s problem. If you can get the entire organization to work towards these goals, you will achieve satisfied customers and profitable deals.
Sales strategy#3
Sales is a re-sponsibility of
the whole organization
53
Special sectionselling 3.0
54
Special section Selling 3.0
Special Section Sales 3.0 “It is folly to expect new results when using the old methods”, free after Albert Einstein.
The world of how business is done changes constantly. New market places opened and old ones disappear. In this special section, I would like to capture three trends how relationships are created, business is done and how you can create a culture that is and remains solution-driven. Maybe you know these trends, but few vendors have integrated them into their sales activities.
Find new customers on LinkedIn gives you a quick start on how you can create networks and use them to find new business. “The click, try and buy generation” I have written about to show how you can master a new shopping behaviour and which meth-ods you should use. Finally about the solution-driven sales organization. This is close to my heart. I do not believe in quick sales tricks and hard finish. Sellers who cares about their customers and take responsibility lasts longer. But a good sales leadership requires much more than a pipeline management, sales meetings and aggressive sales targets. The chapter is about creating a sales culture that draws vendors and customers to themselves. It is interesting and exciting. The chapter gives you some, hopefully, valuable clues on how to find your sales culture and refine it.
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Find new customers with Social Media
56
How can you use social media as an exploration tool to create new business?
Microsoft made a marketing campaign for business and achieved the following results: 18,000 clicks on the website, 580 requests for more information, 240 qualified leads and 18 deals. Finding customers via internet marketing can be a costly and time consuming way. In addition it requires market resources and a lot of money. What can you do that is fast, simple and for free? The answer is called social media. Many have had a negative image through Facebook or Twitter. It is not about to tell you what you ate for lunch when you are building up a professional network. One of the fastest growing networks is called LinkedIn.com. It grows by 1 user per second and is the world’s largest professional network on the Internet. You build your network, ask your business associ-ates if they want to be involved in your network. The basic principle is simple: after a handshake, you can submit a request. Then you build your network quickly.
What can you achieve with a large network? • You strengthen your relationship with your customers by showing interest. • You will always get an automatic update of everything they do on LinkedIn. • You can find new prospects through to see what your customers have in their
networks and ask to be introduced to them. • You can search for people you will meet and want to know more about. The more
contacts you have, the more people will be visible to you. Big advantages for an active seller in other words.
The best opportunities for business are when someone in your network change jobs. They mostly want to come up with new ideas when they start. I have noticed that a new manager is most interested in the first fifty days in his new job. Then they stuck in internal affairs. Then it may take a year before they are ready to talk to a vendor again. When you receive an update via LinkedIn, there are special programs for the iPhone and Android phone, that one of your contacts have changed jobs, send a message to her or him. “Congratulations on your new job, should we meet and discuss any ideas?”. Do you have a reference story to share, you will be even more interesting. I’ve been working hard on my LinkedIn network and have over a thousand contacts. By those I can reach over six million people, more then half the population of Sweden. Dur-ing 2010 was approximately twenty percent of my business via LinkedIn connections. All were old contacts who had changed jobs.
To go one step further, create a discussion group where you invite your closest business relationships. This forum can be open to everyone or just those you choose to accept. There you can share your reference stories, discuss challenges and get your clients to discuss their issues. We started our LinkedIn group with thirty ardent fans / supporters and after a year we had 1374 members in the group. They have also contributed to our sales. But perhaps more important is the feedback we received on all ideas and thoughts we have tested on them.
Find new customers with
Social Media
57
Your personal profile determines how well you succeed. Be sure to have a nice pho-to, relevant description of your experience, your awards and personal ambition. Perhaps the most important thing is that you have others to recommend you. Give someone you really like doing a good job as a recommendation, you often have a service in return. A turbo effect can you get by adding links to your website, video clips or reference sto-ries. This will increase traffic and you can track clicks and the number of leads generated. Simply a way to track your effectiveness. You will be perceived as a serious and knowl-edgeable person.
I would also like to give some advice on what NOT to do: • Send out sales messages all the time or invite to the webinar that demonstrates
your product. You will be perceived as a selling vampire. • Email updates with personal greetings or personal information. This you should use
Facebook for. Let LinkedIn be a professional communication channel. • Post every day. You may get comments as. “I see you are very active, but I do not
have time to read your posts.” See rather that you make posts a particular day and concentrate on subjects you want to go deep in. Follow up every new comment with a personal response.
Combine social media with traditional exploration. The difference is that your net-work will update itself. It is something that your CRM system will never do. Then you will know faster than anyone else what happened to your valuable con-tacts.
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The new generation of buyers:
click, try and buy
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The new genera-tion of buyers
Click, try and buy
How do you sell to a new generation of buyers: click, try and buy gen-eration? They buy when they thing the product is workingand build their buying decision on facts, not believe. Traditional sales methodol-ogy creates lower hitrate than any sales methodology at all.
In traditional solution sales, the customer buys when he has a picture of the solution and what it provides. That’s why the sales methodology works with to find the pain, creating a strong and buy-vision and prove the value for the customer. The same basic principles apply to “click, try and buy generation “of buyers. But the differences are so great in customer buying behaviour that I want to introduce a completely new meth-odology to sell solutions to them. One of the big differences is that they are very active seekers of solutions.
They scan the internet for various suppliers and their offerings. They do not have problems to get interested in an offer, an interesting approach captures their inter-est. But they do not want to be contacted by (or talk to a salesperson). They avoid web sites where you have to send your contact details to get more information. They want to test themselves and read the information without interference. They may provide incor-rect email addresses to avoid sellers. Clicks, which we may call these buyers for, will be interested when it seems easy to try the product or service. You catch them by internet advertising, links and a clear offer. But the most important thing is that they can quickly download the product, get going and get immediate results. Even from advanced prod-ucts “clicks” require these properties.
The biggest sales problem is to quickly get them to try, then more purchase will come as a natural next step. Therefore, please contact the Clicks within twenty-four hours after they set up a test account and help them get started. Do not ask questions about their pain, power, vision or value. Do not ask about the next step. Forget every-thing you learned about solution-driven sales methodology!. Concentrate on helping them get started. When half of the trial period has passed, you can take a new contact to get Clicks an image of how the product works. Are they positive, you start asking about how they perceive the value of the product. Are they positive, than you can move on to explore the pain, power, vision and value. Now you can go to completion. Follow Clicks assignment closely. If they stop use your product, you can then come back for a follow-up. Are they satisfied after a month, you can drive the sales process forward and try to expand business and meet them. CRM vendors Salesforce.com noted often that a test account got into five accounts, fifty accounts, and finally 500 accounts or more. Everything within six months. Competitors to SalesForce.com noticed often that the customer’s buying process suddenly stopped and never started again. The traditional solution vendor had lost.
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Some good advices about how to sell to the Clicks. Move focus from traditional outreach sales to Internet-based marketing. Instead, see that Clicks easily can find you through Internet and support them quickly (within twenty-four hours) when they want to test your products. Use support individuals instead for sellers to do so. Sellers can be-gin his job when the customer is happy! Some key figures you can use to measure your efficiency are: Number of clicks on the “test” button, the number of new demo accounts, number of accounts that are actually used, number of demo accounts that results in purchase. Then you’ll be able to find where in your sales process you are good and where you can develop.
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The introduction of a solution driven
sales culture
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The introduction of a solution driven
sales culture
Do you want to quickly switch to selling answers to problems? Or how to succeed where most others have failed?
After more than twenty years of experience I have learned the following: 1. It’s not enough with a sales training to get an amended sales behaviour, new
knowledge does not replace old habits. 2. Old customers’ buying behaviour can slow solution sales, they are accustomed
to buying products. 3. To change the first step is fun but to change their whole way of working is
extremely painful.
If you want to develop yourself or your entire sales team, a good motivation is required: so you can succeed in achieving sales targets that are otherwise unattainable. It also requires courage and self-awareness to take in the experience that will always be with failures.
There are five things to do so you will be successful in implementing a solution-driven sales methodology. For the first you must find customers who are ready to move its focus from product and price to how they can solve their business problems. This type of people are in the management, where their business goals are important, not what vendors they use. If you can interest them, then it is a prerequisite for success. The easiest way is to collect references (pain, causes, buy-vision, offer and the outcome) from other successful projects. They you can use to schedule appointments with the right people. Secondly, you must have a sales process based on the customer’s buying process. Then you can follow the development of your business and find reasons for why your business opportunities are lost or won.
Thirdly, there must be managers who coach you. Everyone needs a good coach who does not do the work for you, but helps you see what is going well and what you can develop.
Fourth, the need for training in solution-driven sales methodology. How to get the customer to talk about their problems, how to ask questions to find causes of problems, how to build vision and identify the value for the customer and thus come to power, decision-makers.
Last and most important is to set clear points. Measuring points that show that sellers are working properly, for example, with summary letter and joint plans for evaluation. They can be measured in a sales support system. Number of solution busi-ness, hitrate and the number of deals that go on to the next sales step, change frequen-cy, may be measuring points. You can also identify a new type of business that is solution driven. One example was when I worked with a construction company that wanted to increase their hitrate in quotes.
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They had only two percent when we started the project. They identified a new type of business they called the early projects. The customers had not started their planning process yet. To achieve these customers the sellers came out with a few ideas under my arm (they had principle outlines in A1 size). They got the customers to think and start a project. After two years they reached the sixty-eight percent hitrate on these deals, but the marginal increased with seven percent, which was more than double the margin! But despite the good results, a follow-up of the new sales process was required every week for two years to be adapted.
Bjorn Helgestad, an experienced sales manager, emphasized that the product-ori-ented sales teams often are controlled of a number of deals, number of customer visits and hitrate rather than on the points that drive solution business. He said that one must find other means of control as “pain, power, vision, value and control “as well as with a new sales process based on the customer sales process. I agree absolutely with him. By measuring and following up two sales processes, a product business and a solution for business, you can both keep the old deals but also steer towards a more solution-orient-ed way of selling.
My rule of thumb is that it takes three sales cycles before solution sales is like a “rock”. A sales cycle where almost everything goes to hell, one where you succeed in any business and get valuable experience, and the third the sales cycle where you use the experience of mistakes in an intelligent and situational ways.
One can compare the actual change process to stretching a rubber band. In the beginning it’s easy. But the closer you get to the point where the rubber band is a maxi-mum of protracted it is increasingly sluggish. After the rubber band eventually broke down, everything is very easy!
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Jens Edgrens tenstainless tips
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Jens Edgrens ten stainless tips
My top 10 stainless tips to increase sales - These tips will always give results!
1. Prospect all the time! Call five customers when you go to work and when you go home *. Replace the people you get in with new.
2. Select an industry and get to know it, the problems, the people and build your customer base there. If a person ends, they will most likely begin with a competi-tor. It could be the start of a new business opportunity.
3. Focus on the customer’s pain. If the customer talk about their problems and you together can find causes that you can help to solve, you have the prerequisites for a good deal on the spot.
4. Treat everyone you meet as Power. All have a bearing on the deal, more or less.Therefore, it pays to be polite, even if you do not get the deal.
5. Summarize any discussions you have with your new and old customers. Then they will know that you always make an effort to understand their needs.
6. Negotiate access to power early in the sales process. Only power can buy, the other are a part of the road to power.
7. Help the customer to buy from you. Make a plan for how to evaluate if the deal with you solves their problems and creates value.
8. Get to know your competitors. The more you know about them the easier you can find weaknesses in their offer and work around their strengths.
9. Do not go to end prematurely. The customer will buy when they are ready. 10. Find a good coach. The best sellers go to the most sales training and take usually
help. They know the importance of working in teams.
* When calling from the car, always use a hands-free feature allowing you to drive safely. If you feel that these talks will affect your driving negatively, stop the car for a while and call.
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List of literature and referencesDickie, Jim, Trailer, Barry, (2007) CSO Insights Eades, Keith, (2003) The New Solution Selling® Edgren, Jens, (2010) Sales Makeover Moore, Geoffrey, (1984) Crossing the chasm Interviews with Mats Brandt, 2006 Interviews with Johan Hellström, datametrix 2007 Interviews with Jim Palmqvist, 2008
About the authorJens Edgren founded Lindgren & Partners in 1994 with an ambition to help every sales person increase their sales figures and create customer satisfaction. He holds a bachelors degree in economics, specializing in marketing and organization. Jens started out as a consultant in 1989 and has since worked as a salesman, sales ma-nager, product manager, and is currently the company’s CEO. He lives in Stockholm with his wife and four children. His interests include fishing, running, and paragli-ding.
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