A prospect's needs may not be found at the surface

Salesman Nicola d'Amato sent the following excerpt from www.industrialEGO.com to me and I thought it was appropriate to share with you:

" It's a wonderful feeling when you ask a prospect a question,
and he tells you about a problem he has that you can fix.

It's like having a woman you love tell you that she needs
someone like you.

It's a great feeling cause your prospect does need you when
he tells you that. And when a prospect tells you that he needs something like
what you got, he's exposed himself and made himself a bit
vulnerable.
Which is why the average sales person doesn't hear such
needs so easily. Instead prospects tell you either that they don't need
anything, or they tell you exactly what they think they need
to solve their problem.

Either way they are protecting themselves.
If they say they don't need anything that may be true. Or it
may be that they don't know that they have a problem,
because they don't know that there is a better way to do
things than what they are doing now.

Think about it. Every innovation creates a gap that new
things can be sold into. But before such sales can happen,
prospects have to become aware that there is a new and
better way, that there is a gap.
And once there is a new and better way, many people will
want that, and hence will have a "problem" that can be
solved.

Other times prospects protect themselves by telling you
exactly what they want (or think they need) to solve their
problem. This usually causes us difficulty as sellers though
cause the prospect typically figures out his solution by
looking at other products to determine what the
possibilities are. And if your product is not the main one
he looks at, then you are in for an uphill battle.

Most prospects, men in particular, would rather speak
to you the seller as if they are in control and you are not.
You see most people's experience with sales people is not
good. Yours and mine included.
Most people think of sales people as poorly educated, not
that bright, and aggressive. So people put up their defenses
to protect against the idea that you are going to attack
them and try to get you to do something you don't want to
do.

This is not to your benefit however.
No. You need to be in control of the sale.
There is good news however.
Control over the sale does not have to be a battle between
you and the prospect.
You can respectfully take control of the sale by telling
your prospect what you are going to do.
You simply tell your prospect at the beginning of every
sales call what's going to happen, and 99% of the time he
will agree to it.

Tell him that you are going to start out by asking him
questions, and that after you get through asking enough
questions to understand his situation that you will answer
his questions for example. Your prospect will be relieved
that you are smart and respectful and that he doesn't have
to be in control.

When you run your sales calls this way, you will then have
the chance to probe and hear about the real true nature of
the prospect's problem, instead of his already thought
through and biased-against-you solution.
And you will experience that wonderful feeling of hearing
prospects tell you they need something just like what you
are selling. "

Recession-proof sales

The papers are doom and gloom.
But is that really what we are facing?

Aren't we also seeing a shake-out at the competition?
An opportunity to show solidity with our clients, and a golden chance to proof that we are of great value to them?

Decision-making is often budget related. Many of today's decisions around a certain mark, are higher up the 'food chain' then they were a year ago.
In other words: if the IT manager was making $ 50,000 budget decisions, perhaps the same decision now lies at the CTO's desk.

We have an opportunity in front of us to make an entry at the C-level. Decision making with a capital 'D'.

Sure, some budgets are frozen, and projects delayed.
But what if we get in the door with the C-level officer, and that finally allows us to present ourselves company-wide?
If ever there was a chance to speak with large enterprises throughout, while using the momentum to be accessing at all levels and areas of that enterprise, it would be now.

If we proof ourselves in these times and that C-level officer learns that we are a reliable supplier, a partner really, that adds value, brings creativity and ideas to the table, shows no letting down - then we may have just banked on an opportunity for years to come.

There are some requirements here - not rocket science by any means, but important nonetheless:

1) Be prepared.
If you take some time to think where you could in fact add significant value to your prospect, you should use those arguments as your entry.

2) Ask the right questions.
Don't assume you know everything going in. Ask how your prospect is doing, and what 'pain' they are feeling. Discuss how there could be a fit - but it must be genuine.

3) Adjust your language, positioning and approach to the person you speak with. If a C-level officer is your connecting person then make sure to talk his/her talk. Do not simply rely on your previous pitch. It may just not apply today.

4) Go out and conquer the world.
With a market declining, chances are that you will also be facing a decline in your sales revenues if you sit still. Remember how you built a book of business when you just entered the trade? Well, as senior as you may be today, you will have to re-build your account base and pick up the phone again. Imagine how much more effective and efficient you are today, knowing what you know about your market and products, with all the experience you have.
You should be excited that this time prompts you to actually be selling again!

5) Be open and look for opportunities.
Read the papers, use newsfeeds as your entry. The market is changing. Those dynamics may mean that your thought about a certain prospect should be seen in new light. It may mean that the tough purchaser that you could not get around is no longer there, and the new guy is a great socializer. It may mean that existing vendor relationships have changed southward, and allows for new openings.

It may mean that a new policy is in place, where the new directive says that every quote must be compared to quotes from two other vendors. That other vendor could be you - your shot at getting in!

Changing times - trading places - this is your shot at (re) building your book of business to astronomical heights.


Good luck everyone - happy selling!

The customer decision process

We may know a lot about selling, but what do we know about buying?

Some insight into the customer's mind when facing a buying decision, in three phases:

1) Recognition of Needs
If you are completely satisfied with your present network, there is no decision to be made. The decision process begins when you are no longer satisfied with the status quo. Perhaps it is because certain products are getting old and you are fearful of them becoming unreliable, or perhaps they are no longer advanced enough to keep up with the demands of the business, etc.
a) Someone in the organization has a problem that needs to be solved, and it can't be done with the existing product/equipment
b) There is dissatisfaction with existing equipment (in the present, or future expected dissatisfaction due to functionality or performance-related issues)
When dissatisfaction reaches a sufficient amount of intensity or urgency, a decision will be made. So make sure the dissatisfaction reaches critical mass.

2) Evaluation of Options
a) What are my options?
b) What criteria should I use to evaluate my options?
c) How do I choose between competing models?
d) How do I choose between different vendors?
e) Who should I involve internally to help me make the decision?

3) Resolution of concerns
a) How do I make sure I'm not making a bad decision?
b) How do I justify the purchase this equipment to my boss?
c) What is the consequence if this does not work out?
d) Is the service really as good as they say?
e) Are the products really all as good as they say?
f) How does maintenance/support work
g) Is it worth my time to dig into the offering, rather than simply purchasing from the established vendor?

[Negotiation]

4) Implementation
Often forgotten once the sale is closed, but the implementation part may either prove your service level or uncover additional needs (for more products, accessories etc, most of which is often quoted in the process, but sometimes a customer finds out they need something more or different to make it whole).

---
At a glance:
When you are cold calling, you are stepping in at a 'random' moment in the professional life of your prospect.

Your prospects may find themselves in different stages of the decision making process, and it is your job to find out where they are in the process or to start the process.

I understand that this is no news to most of you in the grand scheme of things, but what may be helpful for you is to consider that the phases should typically be addressed in sequence. Going over concerns while you're still uncovering needs may confuse your prospect more than you'd want.

If you come in at the second stage (evaluation of options) because you've received a lead from marketing, and you find out there are two competitors, you would want to distinguish yourself from the competition, by going over the decision criteria and possibly noting some or adding some that make you look more favorable. (Try to find out which criteria weigh more heavily than others. They are not all equal in the mind of the buyer. The same is true for concerns.)

In the next phase, addressing the concerns, you can set yourself further apart from the competition, and ease the mind of the buyer to go with you and defend his decision internally.

On a similar note, many people try to start a meeting with a presentation.
However, in the Recognition of Needs phase, it is better to hold back on product discussions and presentations, and to ask questions to uncover the needs.
(This is the part where you ask open-ended questions, and 'find the pain')

In fact, some questions do not only articulate dissatisfaction, they may actually intensify the dissatisfaction.
Example of question sequence:
Have you ever had an order delayed from your current vendor, with only 3 days notice prior to expected date while having to deal with a 10 week lead time to begin with? [yes]
- Did that cause additional problems for your project planning? [yes]
- How did you solve this? [...]

Need-uncovering question sequences will help you move to the next phase (in which a presentation could be very appropriate), while funneling the needs into categories (quality, reliability, price, delivery, service, warranty etc) where you can address them one by one.

Last, but not least, use your intuition to discover potential issues.
If your customer seems hesitant to you, but isn't raising a concern, it doesn't mean there is none. He may just be reluctant to share them.
He may not want to hurt your feelings, or dismiss your professional qualifications, either personal or for your company as a whole.

Building trust earlier in the conversation, therefore, is an important factor to make sure you're not overlooking uncovered concerns that may withhold the prospect from doing business with us.

Ask your customer to be honest and open about his concerns, and tell him you genuinely want to know - to make sure that he has the appropriate info to make the right buying decision.
You should also realize that we can not always have a perfect score on every aspect. Others may have more imperfections than you, so it doesn't always mean that when a concern is raised you will not get the deal.

Better to openly discuss the concerns than to leave them under the surface.

Happy selling!

Stephan
P.S. The above is a short insight (my interpretation of it at least) after reading Neil Rackham's book Major Account Sales Strategy.

http://www.amazon.com/Major-Account-Sales-Strategy-Rackham/dp/0070511144