RSSA buying decision is based on more than need.
Mar 12, 2010 Sales Related
Because the ultimate goal of sales is product placement, technology, presentations, pitches, and information gathering are based on discovering prospects with appropriate needs to fit the solution.
That means your questions are biased, the answers are biased, and the data you get is such a small subset of the necessary data that precludes buying decisions that sellers end up making costly assumptions: they’ll close ’soon,’ the buyer is a ‘hot prospect,’ for example. It makes it so difficult for sales managers to predict the real pipeline, and for sellers to know who to spend time with.
Think about it: when your baseline assumption is that just because you’ve ‘uncovered a need’ that you have a prospect, you have no idea who is really going to buy, or you would have closed a lot more business.
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Tags: buying decision, sales, status quo
The Basis of Sales Has Remained Stagnant
Feb 15, 2010 Sales Related, Top Posts
Did I get your attention? Good. Because I’m serious.
Most of you would laugh, tell me I’m wrong, that the sales model has been shifting and that the Internet has ‘changed everything.’ But what, exactly, has it changed?
I believe that basically, sales has not changed since the beginning. Sure, the bells and whistles have changed: it’s far, far easier to get leads and interest; it’s much simpler to get your message out; it’s much quicker to find out whatever you need to find out about prospects. It seems to appear as if buyer’s buying decisions are different (they aren’t, we just know more). But all of this leads to… leads to what?
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Tags: buyer, buying decision, Buying Facilitation®, sales
Why can’t a buyer make quicker buying decisions?
Nov 23, 2009 Sales Related
Think about the last purchase you made. What criteria did you use to make the purchase? Choose the product and/or vendor? Choose the time of purchase?
I just bought my first Mac. I thought about buying one for years before I actually bought it. Lots of reasons, and they all made sense at the time. 1. I love love love (and still do) my IBM ThinkPad; 2. my ThinkPad works well, is very comfortable, and it travels well; 3. I don’t make largish business purchases until the end of the year when my accountant tells me I need to spend money – or not; 4. I don’t like to change what I’m used to if there doesn’t seem to be a need to.
I like cool technology as much as the next person. I bought the first writing-pad/computer pen (logitec – and it didn’t work). I bought Simon (remember Simon)? I actually have a drawer full of cool technology that has gone the way of the LP. But because I started with a PC, I had been scared that I couldn’t transfer my bazillion files over.
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Tags: buying decision, change, mac
Go To Market Partners Helps Consultative Sellers Sell
Sep 15, 2009 Favorite URLs
I met Neil Rackham at a think tank we were both members of. When first introduced, we smiled at each other, but were both somewhat reticient to speak. After all, I had written about him in one of my books, and was wracking my brain to try to remember what it was a said about him. From the look on his face, it probably wasn’t terrific.
As fate would have it, we ended up being on a panel together called something like “Meet the Gurus.” Before the session the moderator had us all introduce ourselves to each other, and asked if any of us knew each other beforehand. Neil genially spoke up: “I know Sharon Drew. She wrote a book that referenced me in a very unkind way.” Oops.
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Tags: buying decision, Buying Facilitation®, channel strategy, consultative sales, Go to Market Partners, Jason Jordan, Key Account Strategies, metrics, Neil Rackham, new markets, new products, strategy
