RSSHelping Buyers Decide To Spend Money
Jul 10, 2009 Sales Related
Because of the feared, or actual, financial crunch, companies are stepping back from their normal decision making behaviors. The problem is not that there is no money; they are just not spending it.
If that weren’t enough, they are so scared of making bad decisions that they’ve added additional stakeholders to each decision team to spread the risk. What does that mean? It means that “no” becomes the truly operative word.
Folks are scared to take a stand because they don’t understand the corporate risk AND the personal risk to their egos and reputations.
Folks are now working with strangers, with unknown repercussions for their future careers.
The possibility of agreeing on mutual criteria gets diluted in a larger team so there is no longer a set of assumed criteria to decide with.
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Tags: buying decisions, decision criteria, decision issues, decision making process., down economy, financial crunch, manuever internal dynamics, risk averse, stakeholders, White Paper
Why Are Questions Important?
Jun 24, 2009 Sales Related
Since 1989, I’ve been writing about, teaching, and extolling the virtues of questions. Although I’ve developed a new form of question (the Facilitative Question) that uses Decision Facilitation and brain sequencing to help folks recognize all layers of criteria that need to be met to make a new decision
(Facilitative Questions don’t gather data: they help the brain think and are used in sequence to how brains decide. Example: How would you know when it was time to reconsider your hairstyle? teaches the brain how to think about When, If, Why, How, Who needs to be in the consideration process.)
and use conventional questions just to gather/share data, I recognize how important even conventional questions are in the sales process. So many sales people use questions manipulatively, as a way to open up the conversation so their solution will be an obvious answer.
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Tags: action selling, assessment tool, contentional questions, decision criteria, Decision Facilitation, Duane Sparks, Facilitative Questions, online training, questions
Selling In A Gloomy Economy
Oct 31, 2008 Sales Related, Top Posts
What is the difference between selling in a robust economy and selling in a failing economy? A lot. But not what you think.
- Your product is the same
- Your pitch/presentation is the same
- The buyer’s need is the same
What’s different is the decision making process the buyers need to go through. Do they have a problem that needs to be resolved now, and the economy has mitigated the types of solutions they seek? Do they have a problem that can be fixed with a partial, cheaper solution, or with internal resources that can be modified to create a solution? Do they wait until…. until they have some belief that their business won’t be at risk?
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Tags: buying decisions, decision criteria, decision making, economy
Presentations: How To Compete When In Front Of A Prospect
Jan 3, 2008 Decisioning & Change Management, Top Posts
Your last presentation was great and seemingly well-received. You addressed the prospect’s needs, positioned yourself and your product just right, used the right language and visuals to assure that you were a caring, smart, professional, and had a product that would obviously be the right solution. The price was right, and you clearly had a leg up on the competition in terms of fit. And, the prospect liked you a lot.
But you didn’t close the deal.
Later you heard lots of conflicting stories: they already had a preferred vendor, the CXO had a friend in one of the competing companies, their inside folks were going to handle it, they decided to do nothing, you were too expensive, the competition came in lower than cost just to get the deal….
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Tags: closing, decision criteria, decision making, information, presentations, prospects, questions, teach
