Selling the Way Your Customer Buys

Ever heard the expression, “It’s not WHAT you say…it’s HOW you say it”?

Well, it’s probably safe to assume we all agree with the concept here, at least on the most basic level.  Reality is, WHAT we say Is still important. But I’m sure if you took a moment you could think of several instances when it was HOW a person said something that made all the difference.

The same applies in sales.

To win the business, you have to speak the customers “language”.

Striking Gold

You have to figure out how each prospective buyer prefers to be approached…Do they want to skip the small-talk and get right into the details? Or do they want to “shoot the breeze” a while first? Are they assertive or passive? Creative or analytical?

The answers to these questions will define your customers “buying style”. Once you master the art of adjusting your selling style to match your customers buying styles, you’ve struck gold!

DISCLAIMER: Whooooa…Ok – let’s pause a minute…I know there are at least 5.2 bazillion articles, books, training programs, and so on out there on the market, all attempting to convince you that their sales processes, platforms, strategies, models, techniques etc…are hands-down THE BEST. There’s  “Strategic Selling”, “Solution Selling”, “CustomerCentric Selling”, “How to Master the Art of Selling Anything”, “SPIN Selling”, to name a few.

I’m not attempting to compete with those guys; quite the contrary, actually. While they focus on WHAT you do, this article focuses on HOW you do it.

The goal is to:

Improve your success/close rate by up to 40%  Avoid costly mistakes Recognize each buying style when you encounter them Connect with prospects/customers immediately Know what to do/not to do when selling to customers with different styles

In short, the “buying styles” philosophy will complement any sales methodology you currently use.

What are “Buying Styles”?

The “Buying Styles” philosophy is based on the D-I-S-C behavioral model.  There are four basic buying styles. Granted, people use a combination of buying styles; but, in general, one of these four styles will dominate each of your customers’ buying patterns.

High-D: The High-D (Drive) buying style is direct and decisive. They want you to cut to the chase, tell them what you want them to do and let them know what’s in it for them. They will tune out if you take too long to get to the point. High-I: The High-I (Influence) style enjoys engaging in conversation and discussing the big picture. They want the stage: they want you to get them talking about their needs and experiences and to engage them in how they will use your product. They will lose interest if you go into details or don’t keep the conversation interactive. High-S: People with a High-S (Steadiness) style want you to get to know them. For a High-S, it is all about the relationship. They will buy from you because they like you and trust you. They will shut down if you become pushy or demanding. High-C: Firstly, this group of individuals has nothing to do with the popular, juice-box drink. High-Cs (Compliance) want to be sure they are making the right decision. They want you to present information in a logical, linear fashion. They want the details and time to go through them. They will tune out if you make claims you can’t back up with hard data or try to force a decision before they are ready.

Here’s the wringer: most sales people sell the way they want to be sold to, instead of changing their style to align with their customer’s buying style.

So what happens when a High-D (get to the point) sales person tries to sell to a High-S (get to know me) customer or when a High-I storyteller tries to sell to a High-C (give me the facts) customer? Usually nothing…nada…zip…zero…sale lost!

If you’re not adapting to your customer’s buying styles, you’re losing sales – not because the product doesn’t meet the customer’s need or because the prices is too high – simply because you’re selling using the wrong style.

Recognizing Buying Styles

Truth – More people than you think can use, can afford and genuinely do want to buy what you have to offer, but they are secretly desperate for you to sell to them using their buying style.

So, how exactly do you recognize a person’s buying style? It’s actually fairly easy once you train yourself to look for “the clues”.  And people leave clues about their buying styles everywhere – in the things they say and do, the way they decorate their office, even in their voice mail messages.

For example:

If you call and get someone’s voice mail and you hear, “You know what to do ,” then you know right away, this person’s buying style is a High-D: you should be brief and direct. Get to the point; don’t waste time with idle chatter. And you know this from just four words! Or, suppose you hear, “I am sorry that I am not here to answer, but your call is very important to me. Please leave a message and I’ll be sure to get back with you. Have a nice day.” You can tell from the language that this person is screaming “Relate to me” – a very High-S message. This person wants you to get to know them. They want you to take your time, understand their needs, and build trust. The point is people are telling you how to sell to them, if you are paying attention and know what to look for.

Harvesting the Gold

You’ve probably had some success selling using your own, personal style. Imagine how much more successful you could be if you recognized and adjusted to the way each of your customers buys. But, the message here is simple: adapt or continue to be much less successful than you could be.

Interested in learning more about Buying Styles?

Get a copy of Buying Styles the book (http://www.leadstrat.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=65) Register to attend a public or private (at your organization) Buying Styles Workshop (http://www.leadstrat.com/training-lead-buying-style.html)

More Solution Selling Articles

How to Write White Papers that Drive Sales

White papers that effectively support the sales process could be called “sales white papers.” While they do not contain sales copywriting that would be included in marketing documents such as brochures and flyers, these sales white papers are written with an understanding of the sales process, support a sales-driven strategy, and address the defined value of identified key customer types. However, too often, white papers are written in a corporate marketing vacuum—disconnected from real-world sales contexts—and inadvertently, they address topics that neither sales people nor prospective buyers find useful.

Understand the Sales Process Before Writing a Sales White Paper

To ensure that your next white paper is a powerful, targeted sales tool—what we call an effective sales white paper—gaining an understanding of the complexities of the sales process for your particular offering is a key first step. Complicated, solution-oriented IT sales usually demand that sales people “sell” to various stakeholders within a company—not just one person. Some stakeholders, such as CIOs and line-of-business VPs, have budgetary power, while others champion the solution internally in order to be associated with a successful or high profile project. Still others influence key decision makers, including IT managers who evaluate technology options and make recommendations, and purchasing agents who compare prices and recommend the “vendor of choice.”

To close deals, sales people must establish value in the minds of all stakeholders at just the right points in the sales process. White papers can play a critical role in communicating this value—particularly during intermediate sales stages, when customers are considering their options and evaluating technologies. However, different stakeholders measure value in different ways—and business or technical white paper topics, approaches, and information can be tailored accordingly.

While mapping messages to audiences is usually a straightforward process, the technical and business white paper challenge is communicating with each of these purchasers and influencers in a unique way, with tailored value propositions and information appropriate to their responsibilities, concerns, and wants.

Develop a Sales-Driven Strategy for Your Sales White Paper

Given the complexities of the sales process, start by talking with your sales force to better understand which types of stakeholders would value a sales white paper, why, and what must be communicated in order to accelerate the sales process. In many cases, you may need to write more than one white paper to adequately equip your sales force. Key questions to ask include the following:

Is this a key stakeholder during the sales process, and if so, what role does this stakeholder play during a typical sales process? (Purchaser/decision-maker? Influencer?) What is a white paper going to do to advance the sales process? Why is a white paper the best sales tool in this case? At what point in the sales process do you anticipate using this white paper, and what level or type of information is appropriate at this point? Ideally, what do you want the stakeholder to think, feel, and do after reading this white paper? Define Value and Narrow Your Focus

You also may need to narrow the focus of your sales white paper to address the stakeholder’s most important hot buttons or wants. The key to narrowing your focus is to understand how your particular audience defines and measures value. Together with product development and sales, consider questions such as the following:

What is this stakeholder’s definition of value—their greatest concern or want? What does the stakeholder seek in a solution? How would the proposed solution address the stakeholder’s greatest concern?

Some of the most common wants or hot buttons of key stakeholders include the following:

Scalability, availability, and reliability Resistance to obsolescence (i.e., future proof) Security Performance Cost effectiveness Rapid (and long-term) ROI Ease of use, implementation and administration Interoperability Choose the Right Content Strategy

After narrowing the focus of your sales white paper, carefully consider the best type of paper to accomplish your goals and appeal to the stakeholder. Each type of white paper educates your reader in a specific way, so the choice is important.

Some of the most common technical white paper types include the following:

Technology briefings, which explain new or underlying technologies, or detail an architecture Buyer’s guides, which may include a criteria list or a worksheet to assist customers during the evaluation process Planning and implementation guides, which help customers plan for future industry or technology trends, or prepare for an implementation Application guides, which explain how customers can apply a technology to solve different technical problems Case studies or example applications, which examine the success or failure of particular approaches, options, or technologies

Some of the most common business white paper (http://www.hoffmanmarcom.com/writing-white-papers.php)  types include the following:

Business implication discussions, which describe how technology decisions affect financial, operational, or other business issues Strategy discussions, which explain how technology investments should be viewed as part of a business-IT strategy Industry trend overviews, which analyze market, operational, or technical trends Issues analyses, which discuss key industry issues and offer recommendations on ways to respond in terms of strategy, technology investments, etc. Application guides, which explain how customers can apply a technology to solve general or industry-specific business problems.

In some cases, selecting a single white paper type is most suitable. In other cases, combining white paper types into a single document may be appropriate.

Execute Well

Writing a white paper is not easy. Even with a sales-driven plan, a white paper is doomed to failure if your writer lacks the exceptional writing skills, technical savvy, and marketing experience that these documents require, as well as the ability to select and synthesize meaningful information from a variety of sources. For example, many white paper writers use an excessive amount of sales copywriting language in the papers. The white paper is not the appropriate location for sales copywriting such as subjective product or service claims, unsubstantiated assertions about solution popularity or acceptance, or bias statements about solution capabilities. Such sales copywriting is best included in other documents (e.g., marketing brochures and flyers) that support a different portion of the sales cycle. While supporting the sales cycle, what we here call sales white papers include objective, informative information, rather than biased, subjective sales language.

To help ensure development of effective sales white papers, many companies often hire short-term contractors who specialize in white paper writing that drives sales. A dedicated writer—particularly one who understands complex solution selling processes—can devote full-time resources to your project so that it’s completed quickly and efficiently, as well as offer fresh insights and experience to ensure the success of your white paper.

Gary Chinn leads a panel consisting of James Howell, Scott McDonald, Karen Keifer-Boyd, and Cole Camplese to discuss adoption of emergent and disruptive technologies. • What is disruptive technology? • Why use them? • Student use of technology to create/contribute. • How does this affect promotion and tenure? • How does administration feel about this?

The Business Model Must Be Innovative and Flexible

What does the following list of companies have in common?

A&P

Hudson Motor Car Co.

Montgomery Ward

TWA

Horn and Hardart

Studebaker

Indian Motorcycle

Bonwit Teller

Woolworth

Bethlehem Steel

Polaroid

LTV

These Companies were successful, recognizable brands in their respective categories. They were publicly traded and a number were in the Nifty Fifty in the 1970’s and/or the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The element they all have in common (and with hundreds of other equally recognizable names) is that they did not innovate. They created a static business model and did not anticipate that there were newer, better ways to implement new technology and strategies.

Let’s look at two old, established retail categories and how the ability to innovate has determined contemporary success or failure.

Music Stores

Recorded music retail has always been a competitive market. Tower Records followed the national chain concept, offering a broad range of music styles and competitive pricing. Mass marketers such as Target and Best Buy offer music as well, typically only the more popular artists, narrow and deep. Every city had a local shop, sometimes specializing in a specific area of musical taste. The underlying similarity was that a customer came into the store, made a selection and then purchased the CD or album.

Then along came the internet. The ability to protect trademarks and copyrights was believed to trump this technology. Artists and record companies believed that legal protections would enable them to continue as always: selling an album, with one or two hits, for to . Software was written enabling the music consumer to cheaply, or for free, download specific hit songs while avoiding the filler cuts. The Napster effect has revolutionized the music industry.

Napster is a disruptive technology. The world of music retail was stood on its head. Legal fights and challenges are still being fought. However, chains like Tower Records are gone. The marketplace did not allow for a rigid system to thrive in the face of innovation. Tower did not stay flexible, anticipating technology advances and changing tastes. Trying to sell albums with 15 cuts, when the consumer only wants to hear and pay for two hit songs, is an obvious loser.

Airlines

Until the late 1970’s the airline industry was protected by Federal Government regulation. This enabled the airlines to artificially inflate fare pricing. Hub and spoke systems were created. Each major carrier had a geographic area of strength (Delta the southeast, USAir the middle Atlantic, American the mid-west and Latin America, etc.) that they dominated. Unions were aggressive and the carriers were profitable so the need to squeeze costs was not urgent.

When de-regulation occurred in 1978 the major carriers did not anticipate the radical disruptive innovation that was just around the corner. An aviation pioneer in San Antonio named Herb Kelleher did. He watched as fares plummeted without government regulation protection. Competition for gates, destinations and expansion resulted in many regional carriers (Republic, Piedmont, etc.) being gobbled up by the majors. Out of the changing landscape for air travel Mr. Kelleher saw opportunity.

Mr. Kelleher created and launched Southwest Airlines to address a gaping need. Southwest utilized a business model that reflected the changing landscape in providing air service. The major carriers utilize complex pricing models that try to maximize seat yield revenues per mile flown. Southwest posted one low price for every seat on a flight. The major airlines were totally union shops. Southwest was non-union. The major carriers flew a mix of plane models. Southwest flew only the Boeing 737 (this streamlined service and parts expense).

Very quickly the flying public recognized that a Dallas to Phoenix flight that was 9 on American, and 9 on Southwest, was a no-brainer. Southwest remains ahead of the curve with standardized policies, simple restrictions, a feel good fun loving staff, hedging contracts for jet fuel purchases and the promise of value for money on each flight.

Southwest capitalized on the changes it recognized was coming in the air travel universe. Today, there are a number of airlines utilizing some or/all of the Southwest model and virtually all are successful. Easy Jet, Jet Blue and Ryan Air in Europe are booming while the old-line giants all over the world are in desperate straits.

Proctor and Gamble is a wonderful example of an old alpha enterprise that is constantly re-inventing itself to reflect changing market conditions. Dell Computer, MicroSoft, Intel, Research in Motion, Nokia and many more are examples of businesses (all little more than 20 years old) that innovate, change, anticipate and succeed. They were all small startups only a few years ago.

For entrepreneurs, the ability to innovate and keep ahead of the field is crucial. When analyzing the potential for a successful market placement the ability to create a cutting edge business model is so important. If your goal is to open a male clothing shop and one already exists in the area you have chosen, you have a problem, unless you can differentiate your unique selling proposition. Maybe this can be accomplished by offering a tailoring operation for hand cut suits, or specializing in formal wear.

Whatever your product or service, define a business model that separates you from your head to head competition. Do not play the price game. Lowest price is almost always a temporary benefit, someone will come along that can produce cheaper, faster, better. Your goal should be the offer of a benefit that the customer will value, desire and not find immediately available. Then back up the benefit with superior service and the promise of continued new cutting edge innovation. Innovate or die!

Related Disruptive Technology Articles

Whipping up a storm with disruptive communications

I’ve been reading Leandro Herrero’s latest book, Disruptive Ideas, and he’s got me thinking about the potential we communicators have to transform our organisations from the inside-out. It proposes a menu of simple ideas which could, if implemented in the right organisation and the right way, fundamentally change the fabric of organisational life – by changing the behaviour of individual employees.

Like Viral Change, Disruptive Ideas is built on the premise that at the heart of every organisation is a small group of highly networked people (change agents if you like) who hold the key to spreading change virally – like an infection. He sees organisations as non-linear and argues that small interventions (disruptions) can have a massive impact. Butterflies and hurricanes.  Leandro also believes that the only way to change an organisation is to focus on changing individual behaviours; there is no culture, only behaviours.  It’s fresh and extremely compelling stuff.

The book itself proposes 30 such small interventions – 10 relating to structures, 10 to processes and 10 to behaviours. They are all extremely powerful yet exceedingly simply ideas. Here are a few of them that relate directly to our own area of focus:

Team 365: the team that (almost) doesn’t meet – create teams that are ‘always on’; that get things done without waiting for the monthly team meeting; that collaborate, share and take action in real time. Use meetings instead to create social glue – to talk strategy, to talk behaviour, to celebrate success. Face it, don’t email it – encourage face-to-face interaction; reduce email clutter; use emerging channels like blogs and wikis to encourage collaboration and reduce email traffic. Stop emailing people who sit a few desks away. Less Power point, more stories – switch from presentation to conversation mode; kill the slide deck; identify, capture and share real stories about real people doing real things Go to source (and turn the volume down) – stamp out rumours quickly and decisively by going to the source; decrease the noise coming from the negative, vocal minority; listen to the grapevine; use facts to tackle half-truths.

These four suggestions will give you a flavour of Leandro’s thinking and approach, which I’m right behind. So what else can we as communicators do to ‘disrupt’ our organisations? If we are the butterflies of the corporate world (excuse the metaphor), how can we start the flapping that will trigger an internal hurricane?

The four ideas above are a good start – hinting at the massive potential we have to revolutionize the workplace. And there are many more of these communication-related interventions that we can drive and influence and that could, collectively, turn our organisations upside down.

We got talking about social media as a disruptive technology. I hadn’t given the subject much thought at the time, but I have done since.  I have no doubt that social media channels – blogs, wikis, social networking sites, etc – can be used to trigger deep and fundamental change inside organisations. They can bypass the hierarchy, boost transparency, stimulate grassroots conversations, identify issues, give the silent a voice, reduce email traffic, and trigger action. What’s more, if adopted and championed by those all-important change agents, these tools could help spread the virus of change at lightning speed.

Building on Leandro’s point about storytelling, I would also argue that injecting more emotion into internal communication has hurricane potential. Much of what gets communicated inside organisations (at least formally) is hard, rational and emotionally hollow. But that’s not what how we operate as humans. We think, feel and do – and our communications should reflect this by ensuring wherever possible that it has a rational and emotional component – and, where appropriate, prompts action and behaviour change.  Hearts heads and hands.

Likewise, visual communication is hugely powerful and under-utilized in internal comms. The use of colours, icons, photographic images, charts, visual metaphors and learning maps can get messages through quickly and clearly, cutting through the jargon, gobbledygook, clutter and spin that too often dominates communication at work. Yet all too often we fall naturally into the habit of churning out more words, more bullet points.

Based on The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen, this discusses the potential for a disruptive technology in the LMS market that serves, at least initially, the middle and high school level.
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Does Your Team Sell Transactionally or Are They Trusted Advisors?

What I find very interesting is that both selling tactics exist in the market and are successful…to a certain extent.

From the perspective of the buyer, competitive pressures among vendors and the rise of the internet positions many products and services as commodities.

What does this mean and why is it important to sellers?

1. The amount of vendor and product information on the internet allows for in depth comparative analysis of features, benefits, and vendors before a meeting with a salesperson is necessary
2. Features, benefits and vendors are starting to look the same to buyers, so that leaves price as the only real differentiator in the buyer’s mind
3. This places downward pressure on profit margins as buyers beat up the salesperson on price or the transactional salesperson believes the only competitive advantage is price

Now here is where things get interesting.

I ask Sales Mangers and Sales Professionals “When you’re in a competitive situation and it’s down to you and two other vendors, what percentage of deals do you win?” The answer is usually somewhere around 33 percent or one in three. That means the Sales Representatives of the competing vendors are taking turns winning in competitive situations.

These numbers hold up when the vendors in the geographic market are all selling using transactional selling tactics. I need to point out here that when price is the only real differentiator the buyers are not loyal to any one vendor.

Consultative, strategic, and collaborative selling gained popularity through a few key landmark books that studied how elite high-performance Sales Professionals sell.

These sales tactics promoted the idea that vendors could differentiate themselves from competitors by transitioning their Sales Professionals away from transactional selling to value or solution selling. Meaning the Sales Professional repositioned themselves as a trusted or strategic advisor.

From a skill perspective Sales Professionals don’t discuss their products or services (solutions) before having a discussion about the prospects business objectives, obstacles, solution performance requirements, and success metrics no matter how much experience they have in the industry.

Due to increased competition, these selling tactics became sales strategies that the vendors’ Executives and Sales Mangers implemented to address several high priority business issues:

1. How do we increase our win rates in competitive situations?
2. How do we preserve margins?
3. How do we reduce customer/client churn?
4. How do we increase customer/client loyalty?
5. How do we increase deal size?
6. What does our market value?
7. How do we increase market share?
8. How do we reduce the cost of sales

Lets go back to the situation I described above where all the competing vendor’s sales tactics are transactional. Once one of the vendors starts repositioning themselves as a trusted advisor their:

1. Win rates in competitive situations dramatically increase
2. They charge a premium for their products and services – profit margins go up
3. Clients and prospects view the vendor as a valuable resource/partner – customer loyalty goes up and churn goes down
4. Deal size increase due to selling full solutions
5. Market share increase
6. Cost of sales go down

This is a very long way of getting to the point that the era of selling products using tactics that assume an understanding of the prospects business without going through a questioning process that focuses on the prospect’s business first, is rapidly coming to an end.

For the Salesperson who’s sales tactics are transactional, that find themselves competing against high-performance Sales Professionals who’s sales tactics focus is on asking questions and becoming a trusted advisor, the competitive future is not bright.

It won’t matter how many times the transactional Sales Representatives calls, leaves voice mail messages, sends letters, faxes, emails or meets with the prospect in an attempt to keep their name in front of them.

In a head-to-head competition a well trained Trusted Advisor will win almost every time. In fact, transactional behaviors will only magnify the differentiation and value of the trusted advisor and the vendor they represent. This is about competing and winning.

Inside look via video into what exactly happens when you engage Michael Harris at CustomerCentric Selling
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Presented by Sales Performance International, the owners of the Solution Selling methodololgy. Salespeople have a number of opportunities to deliver a presentation during a sales cycle, and the type of presentation that is delivered SHOULD depend on one very important factorwhere the buyer is in their buying process. In this video brief, Helen Talmadge, Creator of SolutionSpeak™ and Principal Consultant at SPI, explores three critical questions that every sales professional should consider before giving a presentation to their prospect or customer. For more information, browse www.solutionselling.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Multimedia Studies 102 UP Open University BA Multimedia Studies Group Assignment #1

Our speaker for April is Steve Blank, founder of E.piphany, author of Four Steps to the Epiphany, and creator of Customer Development methodology (slides). Steve will speak about Speed & Tempo for Startups, a discussion about decision-making. Steven Gary Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur with over thirty years of experience in high technology companies and management. He teaches entrepreneurship at both Stanford and UC Berkeley, and his Google Tech talk The Secret History of Silicon Valley (video) is one of the definitive views on early Silicon Valley innovation (updated clip from Computer History Museum).
Video Rating: 5 / 5

Our speaker for April is Steve Blank, founder of E.piphany, author of Four Steps to the Epiphany, and creator of Customer Development methodology (slides). Steve will speak about Speed & Tempo for Startups, a discussion about decision-making. Steven Gary Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur with over thirty years of experience in high technology companies and management. He teaches entrepreneurship at both Stanford and UC Berkeley, and his Google Tech talk The Secret History of Silicon Valley (video) is one of the definitive views on early Silicon Valley innovation (updated clip from Computer History Museum).
Video Rating: 5 / 5

Geoffrey Moore, author of Dealing with Darwin and business strategy expert, is available for speaking through Keppler Speakers bureau. www.kepplerspeakers.com
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Geoffrey Moore, author of Dealing with Darwin and business strategy expert, is available for speaking through Keppler Speakers bureau. www.kepplerspeakers.com
Video Rating: 0 / 5

The Best Solution When You Can?T Pay Mortgage

Deep inside you, you would really wish to complete your mortgage payments and have a clear ownership of your house. You would want to sleep in peace and not have to worry about someone probably your lender getting to your house demanding to repossess it.

However, times can come when you are not able to have such peace and you’re your payments. You can be sure that such things happen and you can also be wise to find the best solution that you can take so that you are able to complete the payments and even retain your stay in the home.

Let us consider some of the reasons why it would be nice for you to take the best solution.

Sell and rent back house would prevent repossession

Usually, when you are not able to pay your mortgage and you are in enormous arrears, you would receive notification from your lender about the intentions to repossess the house. Instead of letting this happen, you can make a swift move to stop it. You can sell the house and is possible rent it back.

Sell and rent back house leaves you at the house

You would not have to worry about having to find a house that would be as ideal as the house you are about to lose. This is one of the reasons that would really work you down and you can instead choose to stay in the house as a tenant and sell it to offset the debts.

Children not affected when you sell and rent back house

Even when times are so tough, your children must never know about your failings. They should feel the security that you promised them. So, you can actually cover up issues like repossession from them and choose to have the process of selling the house done in a discrete manner where they would not know.

Save marriage by sell and rent back house scheme

Even your marriage can be jeopardized when you are facing serious financial issues. Serious financial issues are those that have gone to an extent where you cannot even afford to pay your mortgage. Your spouse can feel insecure and problems would start. But, you can choose to be smart and sell the idea of selling the ownership of the house so that you have some time to sort out yourself.

Save your self esteem and sell and rent back house

When you certainly come back home and find that you have a different lock on your house, you would be frustrated and your self esteem could also be destroyed. There is no great asset that you can have than your self esteem. You can save it by swiftly selling your house to offset debts and remain a tenant in the same house. No one would know.

The convenience of sell and rent back house

Because when you decide to sell your own house due to unavoidable circumstances you would always want to have your privacy, this is a very good arrangement and it can even save you from the inconveniences that would come when people have to come to view the house. You would take your time to find the right buyer and request to remain a tenant.

Flexible yet reasonable sell and rent back house terms

You can discuss and negotiate your rent when you choose to sell your ownership rights in your house and become a tenant. You have to find an agency that would be willing to offer you flexible terms.

In deed, sell and rent back house is the best solution that you can ever take on your financial crisis that is spreading even to touch on your capabilities to repay back your mortgage.

Consider Retooling Your Sales Team

Customers are more sophisticated and better informed than ever. Competition has increased; even the venerable “old” names (like Microsoft) have upstarts nipping successfully at their heels. Deals are larger, more complex, increasing buyer’s concerns about making a bad decision. This extends sales cycles and brings more decision makers into the equation. Trust between the seller and the customer becomes more important than ever.

Unfortunately, salespeople haven’t kept pace with the changes. Their perception by customers is still negative. Never ones to inspire a great deal of trust due to the pressure-filled, manipulative tactics used by the stereotypical salesman, even today salespeople are treated with suspicion by customers, yet for different reasons.

The research by The Sales Board substantiates this:

- 82% of salespeople can’t differentiate themselves from their competition, according to the buyers surveyed.
- 95% of salespeople talk too much, the buyers say.
- 86% of salespeople ask the wrong questions.
- Only 18% of salespeople can close without needing to offer discounts or incentives of some kind.

How Selling Has Evolved

A recent article by Jeff Thul, of the Prime Resource Group, summarizes the evolution in selling as well as anyone has.

Features & Benefit (Transactional) Selling (1950’s to early 1970’s) was very much sales pitch oriented. “Here’s what we offer. Let me tell you about everything we’ve got and you can tell me what interests you.” It was the classic product pusher approach. The role of salesman (I use the masculine purposefully) was to be a persuader; closing techniques, overcoming objections, and presentation skills were highly valued. Training was entirely product knowledge based. Salespeople were almost universally disliked because of the pressure tactics they used.

Solution Selling

Solution Selling was the successor to the features & benefit approach. In the vogue from the mid 1970’s through the end of the 20th century, solution selling positioned the salesperson as a problem solver, although the customer usually had to diagnose the problem himself, and often did a poor job of it. The solution offered by the salesperson was typically little more than some off the shelf feature & benefit canned presentation. Product knowledge was still king, while the emphasis on closing and pressure had diminished only slightly. Salespeople were still seen with some suspicion because they continued to give canned presentations, and brought little value to the customer.

Consultative Selling

In the last few years things have gotten so complex that often prospects have difficulty understanding the real causes and impacts of their problems, let alone be able to distinguish between you and your competitors. This presents a wonderful opportunity for the salesperson that has a process that can help the prospect diagnose the problem, and then prescribe a unique solution. It’s no longer about psychological games and forceful personalities. It’s about trust; about helping, not selling. Both parties are (metaphorically) on the same side of the table, working together, and the buyer wants freedom of choice.

Product Pushers v. Problem Solvers

The sad fact is that most salespeople, even the young ones that should know better, are still back in the 1950’s selling features and benefits…despite and training they may have had in consultative selling methodologies. They’ve become a new generation of dinosaurs. They have not made the transition for transactional selling to consultative, relationship selling. Maybe that’s why sales leaders like you are so frustrated. You know that your team should be performing at a higher level, yet for most companies the selling chaos continues.

How to Spot a Dinosaur on Your Team

- They think making great presentations is more important than asking insightful questions.
- They don’t follow a sales process.
- They talk too much.
- Their prospects shop their proposals.
- They can’t effectively differentiate themselves from their competition.
- They rely on discounting to close business.
- Their sales forecasts are more fiction than reality.

Yet often management exacerbates the problem by focusing on the wrong selling skills for their people. Are you emphasizing….

- Product knowledge at the expense of selling skills?
- Presentation skills versus asking insightful questions and listening well?
- Closing & overcoming objections or building trust?

Doctors and Pharmacists

Doctors make more than pharmacists because they are able to diagnose problems and prescribe a solution. Pharmacists, not to demean their profession, simply fill orders. Today, you customers don’t want order takers. They want the kind of help from your salespeople that doctors provide to their patients, and, yes, they’re willing to pay for it.

More Solution Selling Articles

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You don?t have to make Negotiation a part of every sale

I often get requests by sales mangers for negotiation skills training for their sales people when in fact upon further investigation their people usually need consultative selling skills training first.  You cannot negotiate effectively if you cannot sell effectively first.  Both are processes which need to be learned and applied in the correct order.  However over 90% of sales people follow no logical process when selling or negotiating leaving their sales at risk.

So to clear up the confusion between selling and negotiation I thought it might help to examine when you sell and when you negotiate.

It’s important to note that when you are selling, negotiation is not mandatory.  You do not have to negotiate at all if the customer’s issue is very serious and outweighs the cost of your solution and they to buy outright

Everybody negotiates all the time, at work, at home, and as a consumer and as a sales person. For some people it seems easy, but others view the process of negotiation as a source of conflict to be resisted and avoided if possible.

Negotiation is a process and a skill that can be developed.  Negotiation can be described as a process that involves two or more people dealing with each other with the intention of forming an agreement and a commitment to a course of action. In a sales environment, negotiation often involves a series of communications between two parties to form an agreement about the details of a sales solution.
In many cases, it is possible for a proposal to be generated that satisfies the needs of both parties. However, sometimes one or more parties may have to accept less than they had hoped for when they entered the negotiation process. And finally, in other situations, the fulfillment of one party’s wishes may come entirely at the expense of the other party’s.

Therefore, negotiation is the process of navigating your way through each of these alternatives, ideally aiming to come to an agreement that is complimentary to both parties’ needs.

Possible outcomes
There are five possible outcomes of negotiation:

Compete = Win:Lose Avoid  = Lose:Lose Accommodate = Lose:Win Compromise  = neutral Collaborate = Win:Win

In my experience when I negotiate I aim for #5 and get either #5 or #4.  I know that I do not want #’s 1-3 to happen.  However too often I see sales people end up with #’s 2 or 3.  This is no good for anyone and can train clients to expect things they do not deserve like unnecessary discounts.

Rule of thumb for negotiation in sales:

Unless you have the power or authority to change or modify terms, create new product solutions, you cannot negotiate. Negotiation should never be a substitute for selling. You need to be able to sell well first and foremost. Negotiation is an effective strategic tool that you use ONLY when you need it. The earlier you give away concessions in the sales process the less impact they will have. Be aware of giving sales people the authority to discount.  All too often this is a licence to give away your margins too soon and too often.  We see this when people ‘cave in’ on price too soon for fear having to deal with potential conflict which usually doesn’t eventuate if the sale is done effectively.  However they never let the sale run its course to find out. Discounting is a negotiation tool that should only be applied as a last resort and should have a trade off in it for your business so can you benefit from the deal as well.  This is different from volume pricing which rewards people for buying bulk from you. If you postpone tough negotiations whenever possible you will miss learning about new things, getting new ideas, new ways of pulling your offer together as well as creating potential conflict down the track.

You sell when you:

Identify clients’ real needs and priorities, create viable solutions that are of value to the client and outweigh the cost of purchase and gain agreement to move forward to close the deal and do the work. Can’t vary the terms.  If you can’t vary terms and negotiate and the client won’t agree to move forward with you on the current plan then it is a ‘no sale’.  Move on rather than give it away.  Giving it away is not negotiating it is just giving something of value away which costs you.

You negotiate when you:

Both parties can vary the terms Resources are scarce Agreement and conflict exit simultaneously

Value versus Cost

To help you avoid unnecessary negotiations when selling first of all find out what people really value and what is most important to them.

If you and your sales people are having trouble doing this then you need to improve your and your sales teams’ ability to have quality business discussions with clients and prospects, in particular, their ability to thoroughly understand their customers priorities and business needs and how your products and service can be crafted into relevant solutions that will address specific requirements and create value for the client.

This would include developing their questioning, creative problem solving, up selling/cross selling and solution selling skills.

Effective negotiation in a sales situation requires people being able to:

Be Assertive Challenge every assertion Get the real facts before offering up anything Uncover real needs and issues Negotiate late and negotiate little Manage conflict and not take it personally Analyse the situation and the demands and weigh them up appropriately Keep the customers’ needs in mind at all times as well as your own Aim high Respond to demands for concession Develop a proposal with guide-lines and trade-offs (if necessary) Prevent the customer from ‘fragmenting’ your proposal Present a total proposal that ‘adds up’ to a win/win solution Focus on achieving satisfaction for both parties Don’t make the 1st move Don’t’ accept the 1st offer Are willing to walk away Use all their most effective communication skills (listening, paraphrasing, questioning, problem solving, etc.) Apply a process Don’t avoid negotiations Have a ‘negotiation consciousness’

When do you need to negotiate instead of sell?

When a client demands an arrangement which is different from what you are able to offer When you are dealing with a tough client who wants to ‘win’ When a client and you disagree on some aspect of the proposal When the client will not agree to your initial offer (find out why because some people just like to win and want to bargain as part of the process.  This is quite common is some cultures as part of the ritual of the sale) When we are unable to reach agreement, even after many discussions When you can’t move forward unless you change your approach some way When you can’t deliver from you current suite of resources or you need to step outside of what you normally do to win the business (take care as this can be very costly)

I hope this helps put some perspective to selling and negotiation. I have found Neil Rackman’s Major Account Sales Strategy book is a good resource on this topic.
Happy selling and success to your sales negotiations.

Amy Brasser of Sales Performance International delivers a portion of the Solution Selling® content now available at ExecuTrain of Kentucky. Why are you losing sales opportunities? Uncover some of the most common reasons, and how to use the successful Solution Selling® formula to exceed your sales goals.

More Solution Selling Articles

Geoffrey Moore provides business and marketing strategy services to prominent companies worldwide. His expertise is in the areas of business strategy, marketing, partnering, strategy for technology firms, change and technology investing. A business celebrity, Geoffrey is the author of four best-selling books, including his latest: Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution. He is a frequent keynote speaker at industry conferences and his books are required reading at Harvard, Stanford and other leading business schools. www.speakers.ca This video is brought to you by Speaker’s Spotlight – www.speakers.ca – North America’s leading speakers’ bureau. Book Geoffrey Moore as a keynote speaker for your next event by contacting info@speakers.ca
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Geoffrey Moore, author of Dealing with Darwin and business strategy expert, is available for speaking through Keppler Speakers bureau. www.kepplerspeakers.com
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Geoffrey Moore is a VC with Mohr Davidow Ventures, consultant and, most famously, the bestselling author of Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado and Dealing with Darwin. Check out his interview with iinnovate. For more of this interview check out www.iinnovatecast.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5

The Future Of Online Business

Emerging technologies have helped us to do more, communicate more quickly, extend our outreach, and save time. The strength of a home-based business is in its flexibility. Successful small business owners will be committed to listening to the needs of the market place and responding in a timely manner. What other trends are occurring in the marketplace?

1) Security – Just as the Internet has created a world of opportunities, it has created equal opportunities for fraudulent activities. Any business that can provide security in the marketplace (such as secure ordering), or trust in the eyes of the customer (such as proving your product does what you say it will do) will win.

2) Delegation – While technology has given us tools to do everything more efficiently and accomplish more, we still only have eight hours in a day. Smart business people will choose their opportunities wisely, focus on what they do best, and outsource the rest. Those who provide that “outsourced” timesaving help are destined to profit. Paul R. Gudonis was quoted in Fast Company magazine as saying, “I would borrow a suggestion from a friend, Geoffrey Moore, who wrote Crossing the Chasm. He said, ‘Figure out what you want to do better than anybody else in the world, and then outsource everything else – whether it’s the payroll system, technology operations, or design work. Then, focus on creating your competitive advantage.’ Because of the huge costs in IT, ask, How can you leverage the investment that others have made in order to direct your investment to the areas where you want to create competitive advantage?”

3) The human element – In a day when many large businesses are moving to automated phone systems, people crave to speak with a live person. Carefully preserve the “personal” elements of your business. Answer your phone. Listen to your customers. Go the extra mile. Offer top-notch customer service. Those who find solutions to providing better, more personalized customer service will win the war for customers.

4) Monitoring and management tools – Efficiency is the key to doing more with less, surviving, and thriving. Anyone who can provide software, tools, and help for relieving overburdened business people will be successful. Special areas of interest include time management, organization, and life/business strategy.

5) Humanitarian Efforts – The U.S. tragedy of the bombing of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11 has moved the world toward a greater enlightenment and yearning to step up humanitarian efforts. People yearn to live fuller, richer lives. We are hungry for spirituality and answers to life’s most pressing questions. There is a definite future for any tool, service, or book that can bring assistance to those who need it and help us to lead lives of peace, power, and prosperity.

6) Learning – Life is too short and technology moving too fast to try to discover answers by ourselves. Learning is the key to growing and prospering. There is a strong need for any programs, tools, books that can help people to jump the learning curve and achieve and experience more in life and business

7) Flexibility – Technology is leading us to be nomads. We can literally pack our business up into our business satchel and head out into the world. Not only will flexible businesses survive, but also there will be an ever-growing market for technologies or services that enable businesses to be more portable and flexible. By the same token, personal growth programs will empower business to breed a new type of executive leadership that thinks out-of-the-box and quickly embraces new opportunities.

Best-selling innovation author Geoffrey Moore talks about finding and reaching target markets. Visit Cisco I-Prize online at www.cisco.com
Video Rating: 5 / 5

Handling Core and Context
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Do Your Company’s Sales Match The Excellence Of Your Product Or Service?

For many entrepreneurs, technology based companies or healthcare companies, the answer to that question is a resounding, NO! There is an exception to this with the rapid rise of the new economy, new media, highly scaleable companies like Google, U-Tube, Ebay, PayPal, and MySpace.

In their case, their prospective customers highly value their newness, their breaking the mold, their non-establishment approach. They are viewed as doing what they do far better than the technology establishment stalwarts. The notable exception to this is Apple who has been able to transcend old establishment and be accepted as both old and new economy.

But I digress. Back to topic. Most companies that sell to other companies, or B2B companies are evaluated by their potential customers in a traditional risk reward analysis. Or using computer terminology, their buying decisions are made using a legacy system. It was once said that no one ever got fired for making an IBM decision.

Let’s look at this legacy buying model and see exactly why your company’s sales do not match the elegance of your solution.

One of our healthcare clients insisted that we read CROSSING THE CHASM by Geoffrey Moore to give us greater perspective on his company’s situation. By the way, if you are a smaller technology based or healthcare company selling in the B2B space, this should be required reading.

Our client was a two year old company selling a cutting edge, on-line nurse shift bidding and self scheduling system to hospitals. This is a great product. The ROI’s were easily quantifiable. The handful of installed accounts loved it. Most importantly, it had a positive effect on the nursing staff’s morale. This alone could justify the cost of the system.

Our client had some very encouraging early success selling his solution to some of the more progressive hospitals. They received some outstanding early PR. After that initial success, however, our little edgy technology based company hit the wall.

The sales cycle went from six months to beyond twelve months. Cash flow became an issue and, to top it off, a generously funded venture backed competitor with well known industry executives was aggressively developing this new market.

What was happening? Our clients were very smart people and figured out what was happening. They knew that they would have to make some difficult and dramatic decisions in short order. Turns out the majority of hospitals are legacy buyers and make buying decisions based on a risk avoidance paradigm.

Our client’s early success was realized as a result of selling to the small minority of early adapters in their industry. These are the pioneers that don’t mind the arrows in their backs from heading out West with new products or new vendors.

Legacy buyers, however, do not value references that are early adapters. They are known to have a much higher risk tolerance than the traditional majority. Below are some buying criteria from these legacy buyers:

1.Big is good. Bigger is better. Buying inferior technology solutions from a blue chip publicly traded company wins most of the time.

2.Old is good. There is no replacement for experience and the grey haired company beats the gelled hair Tech Wizard company more often than not.

3.Industry Cred means everything. If you are a company that adapted your product from success in another vertical market and you are entering our space, the old familiar face carries the most weight.

4.Will the little guy be in business next year? The failure rate for the sub $ million company is a thousand times greater than for the $ billion company. This change in technology is painful enough. Do I want to risk having to do it over again in a year?

5.If I have problems, the big guy can fill the skies with blue suits until my problem is solved. The little guys cannot appropriately respond to my problem.

This is a punishing gauntlet for the small companies and it is amazing that any new companies survive in this environment. Let’s look at a few of the “crossing the chasm” strategies that have been effective in swaying legacy buyers decision making in favor of the smaller provider with superior technology.

A.A well-known executive from an established healthcare company is put at the helm of the new company. The thinking from the buyer is that if he did it once, he can do it again.

B.Get an industry-recognized authority to endorse your solution or, better yet, have them join your board or advisory council.

C.Close a deal with a conservative, well respected customer and make them your marquee account with all the trimmings – i.e. a contract with a favored nations clause, the technology or computer code held in escrow with specific instructions if you go out of business, case studies and Public Relations glorifying the progressive decision maker, and providing an equity stake in your company are some examples.

D.Forging a strategic alliance, joint marketing agreement or resellers agreement with an industry giant. All of a sudden your small company risk factors have been eliminated and it has only cost you 30%-50% of revenue on each sale they make.

E.Sell your company to the best strategic buyer. Sometimes the best solution is to sell your company to the best strategic buyer for your greatest economic value. This is the most difficult decision for an entrepreneur to make. Below are some of the market dynamics that would point to that decision. Note: several of these factors influenced our entrepreneurial clients to ultimately sell their business to an industry giant.

You see your window of opportunity closing rapidly. You may have great technology and the market is starting to recognize the value of the solution. However, you have a small competitor that was just acquired by a big industry player. The bad news is you probably have to sell to remain competitive. The good news is that the market will likely bid up the value of your company to offset the competitive move of the big buyer.

The strategic alliance is with the right company, but the sales force has no sense of urgency or no focus on selling your product. The large company lacks the commitment to drive your sales. An amazing thing happens with an acquisition. The CEO is out to prove that his decision was the right one. He will make his decision right. All of a sudden there is laser focus on integrating this new product and driving sales.

You have created a strategic alliance and poured your company’s resources into educating, supporting, and evangelizing your product. Whoops, you have counted on this golden goose and it has not met your expectations. Also you have neglected your other business development and sales efforts while focusing on this partner.

Many large healthcare companies now employ a try it before you buy it approach to M&A. They find a good technology, formalize a strategic alliance, dangle the carrot of massive distribution and expect the small company to educate and integrate with his sales force. Often this relationship drains the financial performance of the smaller company. If you decide to sell at this point your value to another potential buyer has been diminished.

Do not despair. If you have demonstrated a cultural fit and have helped your products work in conjunction with the big company’s product suite, you have largely eliminated post acquisition integration risk. This can often more than offset any short-term profit erosion you may have suffered.

It is not easy for the smaller healthcare company to reach critical mass in this very competitive and conservative environment. Working harder will not necessarily get you where you need to be. Step back and look at your environment through the eyes of your buyers. Implement some of these strategies to remove the risk barriers to doing business with your company. Now you have created an opportunity for your sales to match the elegance of your technology solution.