| Tragic Sales Comedy
Of Errors It begins with the most common
practice, reactive selling. The sales cycle looks like this:
1st week Prospect requests info.
2nd week Joe’s reaction… Send product &
company information.
3rd week Prospect reaction… Request a demo.
4th week Joe’s reaction… Schedule a demo.
5th week Prospect reaction… Request a quote.
6th week Joe’s reaction… Create and submit a
quote.
7th week Prospect reaction… Question the price.
8th week Joe’s reaction… Give a discount.
So far the process has been completely focused on Joe, Joe’s
product and Joe’s company.
Joe’s knowledge of his prospect is surface deep, but this
prospect has probably been on Joe’s forecast with ever-increasing probability for the
past quarter.
Eight weeks have gone by, but of course no
business. Joe reacts by calling his prospect to ask again for the business. Asking such
insightful questions as:
- Which way are you leaning?
- Are you budgeted?
- When would you like to get started?
- Is there anything we can do to help you?
- Would you like another demo?
- Would you like to introduce me to you your boss?
- Would you like an additional discount? Oops!
- Would you like an evaluation copy of our software to try for free? Oops!
Meanwhile the prospect’s interest and his perception of
Joe’s value have faded significantly. After all, Joe has given him all the
information he needed to evaluate Joe’s product.
The evaluation of Joe’s product was just the prospect’s
reaction to his Vice President’s request to find a solution to a key business
problem. The prospect can now report back to his Vice President all the facts he has
collected about Joe’s product. But, the facts collected don't really sound like a
solution to the VP’ s business problem, so the evaluation of Joe’s company…
- Is shelved until some date in the future.
Dropped indefinitely.
Results in an expanded investigation resulting in an order to
Joe’s competitor.
The competitor discovered and
demonstrated his value not his product.
The final comedy in this tragedy unfolds with Joe’s final
reaction; the ever-decreasing probability and date slipping forecast of the prospect until
final withdrawal from the forecast. If Joe is forced to write a lost business report, what
can he say? He can’t possibly know why he lost the business! In Joe’s
frustration all he can say is "The prospect just didn’t get it!"
The entire responsibility for success with this approach rests with
the prospect. You force the prospect to do all the work. If he gets it you might
just be lucky enough to get his business.
Where does reactive
selling incur risk?
- The prospect is only interested in technical features having no
understanding of the business problem his Vice President is trying to solve.
- The prospect understands the business problem, but not the value of
solving it.
- The problem affects areas outside his domain or vision.
- He drops his search for a solution or buys the cheapest product that
solves only the part of the problem that he understands.
- The prospect gets it, but he doesn’t know how to convey it
to management.
What if Joe wins?
Let’s say that in one out of ten attempts Joe wins business.
What happens to Joe when the prospect asks for a discount? Or free services? Who knows
Joe’s value? The future client is the only one who really knows what Joe’s
product is worth because he is the only one that understands the value of the solving his
company’s business problem. Since Joe doesn’t know this he feels compelled to
grant generous discounts while hoping to win.
What happens to Joe’s new client? The sale is made. The client
has envisioned a solution to his problem, but Joe and his company don’t have a clue
about it. Training and implementation of the new system begin. Joe’s support people
continue with his legacy of product focus missing the opportunity to enable the client to
solve his critical business problem.
If the new client is very adept, he might pull this system together
targeting and solving his business problem single-handedly. Joe is a hero and gets repeat
business from the client in the future. Joe doesn’t know when or why this client
buys. Every order is a surprise bluebird.
More often than not, Joe’s new client just got in over his
head. He had a vision of a solution, but no one in Joe’s organization understands the
client’s vision. Without a common understanding of expectations, success is elusive.
Joe is between a rock and a hard place.
The client complains demanding additional software and services to
meet expectations. Joe’s frustrated support team complains about moving targets.
Joe’s boss refuses further concessions to an account that required significant
pre-sales resources + huge discounts. After all the hard work the sale is in jeopardy.
New clients, reference accounts and client satisfaction are
accidental if they occur at all.
It doesn’t have to be this
way.
You will improve your
results using a selling process that maps the following.
Who you should call.
Where to find your value in and
outside of IT.
How to get their attention.
What to ask.
Which points to focus on.
How to frame each decision to
your advantage.
When to do these steps.
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