Sharon Drew Morgen

Wait until the Buying Decision Team is in place to visit or pitch

If you attempt to get meetings just to ‘get in front of’ a prospect (assuming that your solution will rule the day); if you present to whichever prospects will agree to see you; if you pitch when the buyer doesn’t have all of their ducks in a row, you're not only wasting your breath, but potentially losing a sale.

Wait until the Buying Decision Team is in place to visit or pitch is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Winning the RFP business: a case study

Years ago I did a Buying Facilitation Method® program for a now-defunct group at KPMG. Before working with this team, they were using 2-4 people, spending between $500,000 and $1,000,000, and spending weeks creating large, glorious presentations to woo and wow the prospects as part of their proposal responses. They won 20% of the business.

Winning the RFP business: a case study is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Buying Decisions: The Implicit Vs. The Explicit

When I began talking about ‘helping buyers buy’, or ‘decision facilitation’ in 1988, people thought I was a bit eccentric, to say the least. “I help buyers buy too,” I used to hear. “I find out what they need, position my solution in a way they understand that it will resolve their pain, and give [...]

Buying Decisions: The Implicit Vs. The Explicit is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Sales and Marketing CAN support each other

The sales and marketing communities have a historic enmity: marketing people think sellers don’t effectively use the data they gather, and sales folks think marketers give them bad leads. Marketing people are annoyed that sellers get paid so much when such a high percentage of sales don’t close and sales people think marketers are sending the [...]

Sales and Marketing CAN support each other is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Sharon Drew’s ‘retirement’ & the Future of Buying Facilitation®

By any objective standard, I've been successful: It's been a blessing that an out-of-the-box idea...

Sharon Drew’s ‘retirement’ & the Future of Buying Facilitation® is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Where does selling begin? Activate the buying journey immediately

Where does selling begin? Why do we begin a buyer conversation by focusing on finding needs?

Where does selling begin? Activate the buying journey immediately is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

The buyer’s buying process vs. the sales model: two divergent roads

The sales process is woefully inadequate. It merely focuses on the last 10% of the buying decision: the solution and vendor choice. To understand and influence the buyer’s buying decision process and all of the people, politics and relationships that buyers must manage internally to be ready to make a purchase, it’s necessary for sellers to learn a new language. Not [...]

The buyer’s buying process vs. the sales model: two divergent roads is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Selling with Integrity

What, exactly, is selling with integrity? Is it about creating great solutions that make a difference in companies and lives?

Selling with Integrity is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Sales As A Spiritual Practice

The sales profession focuses on placing product. While some would disagree and claim it’s based on ‘meeting a buyer’s needs’, it comes down to the same thing: how to get a product placed. And, after being in every aspect of the field since the 70s, it seems to me that placing product, or understanding needs, [...]

Sales As A Spiritual Practice is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Does the sales model do what we need it to do?

Sales has been around since the Serpent convinced Eve to eat the apple. And, unfortunately, the goals have remained pretty much the same ever since. The sales model was designed for a different time in history, when there were fewer decision makers and products could be easily described in a magazine ad. With the advent of [...]

Does the sales model do what we need it to do? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

When do buyers buy?

Your prospects need your solution. Desperately. But they are stalling. And it makes no sense. But are they stalling? Are they really ignoring their needs, working with sub-optimal functionality, for a reason? No. No. No. Yes. Not stalling, not ignoring their needs. Not working with sub-optimal functionality. Yes, there is a powerful reason. Buyers can’t buy until all [...]

When do buyers buy? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

12 Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers don’t buy

Do you sit and wait for your buyer's to close? They need your solution. They like you...

12 Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers don’t buy is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Solution Selection: do we know how buyers choose one solution over another?

Your solution matches the buyer’s need perfectly. You like them, they like you, you’ve had coffee/a meal/a powerful meeting or two. They talk about implementation and how they need to add your other product next year. And then they buy from someone else. Or not at all. What happened? Are they stupid? Did they lie to [...]

Solution Selection: do we know how buyers choose one solution over another? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

The 5 selling mistakes that lose business

1. Starting the sales process by attempting to get an appointment. I know that Dale Carnegie told you to meet face-to-face. But what else are you doing that was initiated in 1937? Oh. That’s right. The typical sales model of focusing on solution placement. Buyers only buy when their entire Buying Decision Team is on board and [...]

The 5 selling mistakes that lose business is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

The Heart of Business

For decades, I have been a proponent of, and keynoter in the field of, Spirituality in the Workplace. There seem to be different names for it these days: the heart of business, corporate social responsibility, conscious capitalism, patient capitalism, bringing the heart to work. What it means, underneath all of the words, is that we [...]

The Heart of Business is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com