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
Should you wish to learn more about this, go to www.buyingfacilitation.com and purchase my ebook Buying Facilitation: the new way to sell that expands and influences decisions