RSSFacilitating Buying Decisions: a definition
Mar 8, 2010 Sales Related, Top Posts
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Recently, I’ve noticed many folks using the term ‘facilitating buying decisions.’ First, let me state that we have a program by that title, that can be licensed to train in companies. It’s a very fun program, teaching sellers how to sit in a buyer’s seat and learn every aspect of how they choose vendors and solutions. Learners not only learn how their buyer’s buy, but I teach them the 6 most powerful Facilitative Questions to help buyers make a decision in their favor. Here’s a preview of one of the questions: How would you and your Buying Decision Team know when it was time to bring in an additional resource that will fit with the ones you’re currently using?
Tags: Decision Facilitation, Dirty Little Secrets, Facilitating Buying Decisions, Facilitative Question, GPS system, neutral navigator, sales
Why Do We Blame Buyers?
Feb 19, 2010 Sales Related
I once told a group that I was going to title a book I’d Close More Sales if it Weren’t for the Buyer. I got a standing ovation! And I assumed I’d get a laugh. That’s like saying ‘I would have had a better birth experience if it weren’t for my mother.’
Why do we assume buyers are, um, stupid? Because it’s obvious to us they should buy. From where we stand, it seems we have THE perfect fit – the right solution at the right price, filling the right need, and the right relationship.
But we consistently forget that a buyer’s problem is not an isolated event, and it sits within the buyer’s environment – their system, if you will – all mashed up with a bunch of unknown and unknowable other elements that not only hold it in place, but maintain it daily.
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Tags: buyers, Dirty Little Secrets, managers, needs, pitching, prospects, sales, solutions, systems
Facilitative Questions are NOT open questions
Feb 2, 2010 Sales Related
Sitting and listening to NPR Saturday afternoon, I heard someone say, “You need to ask OPEN/FACILITATIVE QUESTIONS.” For the 20,000 people who have studied with me and spent weeks learning how to formulate Facilitative Questions, and for the thousands who have purchased my latest book Dirty Little Secrets that has part of a chapter on this new form of question, you will be surprised that anyone would assume open questions and Facilitative Questions were remotely similar.
I suppose the good news is that, like the other terms (‘decision facilitation’ and Buying Facilitation®) I coined over the past 20 years, my thinking is being accepted into the mainstream. But the bad news, what I was warned about but didn’t think would happen to me, is that folks are interpreting the terms in any way they want, regardless of the real definitions.
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Purchasing a solution is the last thing a buyer does
Dec 4, 2009 Sales Related
Someone who has read one of my early books told me she thought that Buying Facilitation® was a type of consultative sales model. It’s far from it. Here is why.
Traditional Sales, spearheaded by Dale Carnegie in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People, published in 1937, is about the product sale. How to position it, how to make its features, functions, and benefits relevant, and how to discuss it so buyers will recognize a need.
Consultative Sales, spearheaded by Linda Richardson in the 80s, added the customer to the mix. What are their needs? What sort of a solution will be relevant? How can we gather the right data so we can ensure that our product/solution can fit with the needs and be positioned in a way to ensure the prospect understands the fit?
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Tags: behind-the-scenes, Buying Facilitation®, closing, consultative sales, Dale Carnegie, decision making, Dirty Little Secrets, Linda Richardson, prospect, sales models, traditional sales
How to Choose a Vendor – a personal decision
Oct 28, 2009 Random Thoughts
I self-published my latest book Dirty Little Secrets because I wanted to get the book out quickly. It was like a deamon in my heart – needing to come out and almost virulent in it’s ability to take over my soul.
Needless to say, when it came time to choose a way to put the book into print, I was committed to finding the best. The problem was, there is no way to get a book published world-wide through available POD printers here in the States. One POD house gave me great capability in the U.S. and in the technosphere. One POD house gave me capability in bookstores and in the U.K. but not in any other country.
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Tags: Dirty Little Secrets, POD, publishing house
eCompetitors Gives Sales Folks What They Need. Exactly.
Oct 27, 2009 Sales Related
When you prepare to meet a prospect, how do you know who or what your competition is? How do you know how to position yourself strategically against them? Do you ‘wing it?’ Do you do research? Where do you get your research from? How do you know your research is adequate or accurate?
I’ve got the answers for you. eCompetitors is this amazing site that has me gobsmacked (did i spell that right?). It does all of the research you could ever wish for, on 11,445 global industries and companies at the line-of-business level. That means that it checks out everything – e v e r y t h i n g – about a company that you could ever, ever need to know, and then some.
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Tags: Alan Michaels, competition, Dirty Little Secrets, eCompetitors, Industry, product segments, target decision makers
