What has finally become obvious (and I’d like to think that I had something to do with it being so obvious) is the yawning gap between the Implicit buying decisions buyers must make on their own, and the Explicit ones that sellers play such a large part in helping them make.

The Explicit decisions include everything to do with fixing the need (I call it an Identified Problem – certainly not ‘pain’ cuz they would have fixed it already if it were ‘pain’): making sure the issues are resolved and work far more efficient, possibly even Excellently; that the decision makers are happy and make sure the solution fits well and is affordable with minimum risk; that the sellers are available before, during, and after to manage the implementation, the fit, and making the buyers comfortable with their choices. Once the Explicit decisions are made, the solution is purchased.

But if that were all it took,  we’d be closing a helluva lot more sales than we’re closing. The problem is the Implicit decisions.

What happens when the guy in the next department doesn’t want to collaborate – and you share one tech team and budget? What happens when there is no precedent for bringing in an external vendor? How does it get managed when the Senior Manager wants a solution and has the budget for it, but the team doesn’t want anyone to come in. What about when the current vendor has been around for a decade, works in every department with great professionalism, and everyone wants this vendor to just design something new rather than bring in a new vendor? And what about the work-around that’s been managing the Problem Space until they choose a better solution – does Fred in Accounting get fired because the boss is bringing in a new accounting package?

Buyers have managed these decisions on their own while we wait. There is really no way that an outsider – even a smart one – can understand all of the unconscious, historic, hidden, mysterious, and highly personal decisions that need to get handled before buy-in can occur. Sales has had no model to help buyers manage these implicit decisions. One of the ‘dirty little secrets’ that I talk about in my upcoming book (The Dirty Little Secret: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what to do about it) is that the buyers have no idea how they are going to handle these decision issues either, if for no other reason than they don’t know what they are going to find when the start picking up the rocks. In other words, sales enters the buying decision cycle far too early.

One of the problems is that because the buyers don’t know the exact route they need to take, and sellers can’t know these personal and idiosyncratic systems issues, no one really knows how to manage the Implicit decisions. I’ve coded the system behind how decisions get made in systems (cultures, environments) and can lead folks down their decision cycle generically so they can pick up the pieces they need to address along the way and bring in the right people. Very often, they can figure this out immediately with me, rather than taking one month or one year, and deciding to bring together their buying decision team for a phone meeting (or whatever) within a week of our first conversation. And we do this consistently, time after time, in every industry or size of sale.

Buyers have to go down this route anyway, and goodness knows we sit and wait for them while they figure it out. This fact alone is the cause of the huge delay in the sales cycle.

I’m  not competing with sales; I’m adding a new piece – a front end, if you will – to the typical sales model. It’s not about gathering data. It’s not about understanding the buyer’s needs. It’s not about ‘being there’ when they are ready (Buying Facilitation teaches them how to be ready). It’s  not about becoming a trusted advisor or a relationship manager.

It’s about being a decision facilitator and taking a leadership role to help buyers walk through the Implicit stages of their buying decision process BEFORE they are ready to answer questions about their Explicit needs.

Let’s start using a two pronged approach to sales: first help buyers walk through their unconscious Implicit decisions; then they can walk with us through their conscious Explicit decisions. Because by not doing this we’re losing a lot of sales, spending too long in the sales cycle, causing objections (yes, we cause our own objections) and NOT serving our buyers.

So, do me a favor: start thinking of sales as a two-phased process, and the sales models we’ve been using for decades handle the Explicit decisions. And Buying Facilitation(R) – which is NOT SALES but a decision facilitation model that handles buy-in – can handle the Implicit. After all, would you rather sell? or have someone buy? They are two different activities.

I’ve been teaching this stuff for over 20 years, and we have had quite extraordinary results (remember that it’s NOT SALES) with many global corporations in every industry.

For more, go to www.newsalesparadigm.com

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

The sales process discovers need, gathers data to determine a solution fit, and places the solution. Buyers need that data and the sales function is vital. But first they absolutely must make sure that a new solution fits comfortably, and causes no major disruption on a human or a strategic level.

BEHIND-THE-SCENES, BACK-END, OFF-LINE

The modern sales model came into full flower (although it’s been around since the Serpent convinced Eve to eat the apple) in 1937 with Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People.  At that time, gathering needs and discussing solution was simple: there were very few competitive solutions, and very little capability for buyers to get the information they needed.

Times have changed, but the sales model hasn’t changed its goals and thrust toward solution placement, even as astonishing technology is available to help.

The buyer’s entire behind-the-scenes pre-purchase buy-in process remains unaddressed and these back-end issues are far more confounding now than they were in 1937. And nothing about the sales model – even when marketing automation and sales enablement is applied – addresses these off-line issues.

Unfortunately, sales treats a ‘need’ as if it were an isolated event, and separate from the day-to-day activities and rules inherent in the buyer’s environment. But until everyone (EVERYONE) is on board with the level and specifics of the change that would be required if they were to make a purchase, buyers can’t buy (see my latest book Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it): the disruption to their system would be well beyond the positives of solving one of their problems.

It’s estimated that 80% of buyers will purchase a solution (yours or your competitor’s) at some point within 2 years of their first contact with a sales professional. That leaves behind a trail of dead sales people – most of whom probably had a great solution, but were either too early in the buyer’s decision cycle, or their Buying Decision Team just didn’t know how to adopt the change a new solution would bring.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Why is the personal, political, human side of the buying journey ignored during a seller’s outreach? Why is it assumed that the seller ‘knows’ what the buyer needs, or ‘knows’ what’s going on behind the scenes, and assumes that that ‘knowing’ is sufficient to sell a solution?

Why do sellers prefer to wait for buyers to ‘show up’ after they’ve traversed their perilous back-end, political journey rather than adding a new skill set to help them manage the change and buy-in issues (and close sales in 1/8 the time)?

Why is the focus on making an appointment, assuming that once the buyer sees your bright, shiny (and professional, naturally) face the buyer will just ignore the policy problems, and internal politics, they need to manage before they buy? Sales people lose over 90% of their prospects by focusing on an appointment, when it’s so simple to help buyers recognize their buying steps on the first call. And when they invite you to meet, they will have the entire Buying Decision Team.

What needs to happen for sellers to recognize that a buying journey is far, far more complex than fixing a need? Or that the need is sitting and waiting for the seller to show up? Or that the need is just sitting on a shelf, by itself, and can be plucked out and fixed and then put back where it was with no ramifications to the rest of the buyer’s system?

Why is it so difficult for sellers to want to add a capability to support the 90%+ of what buyers are doing off-line, without them, and prefer instead to contain their skills to solution focus and lose a very high percentage of prospective sales?

What would you need to know or believe differently in order to add a decision facilitation skill – Buying Facilitation Method® – to your current sales skills to help buyers achieve this buy in?

Buyers need to resolve a (business) problem – they don’t necessarily need your solution. But until or unless they manage their own off-line, back-end change management issues, they cannot buy.

Your job should be to help them manage the buying journey – and THEN you can sell.

sd

There are many ways to learn Buying Facilitation®:

• 3-Day Public Training in Austin in early June (contact Sharon Drew to discuss)
• Buying Facilitation® corporate training
• Guided Study program for individuals or teams
• Learning Accelerators

Sharon Drew is a featured speaker at the Search Insider Summit – May 4 – 7 , 2011

Buyers don’t sit and wait for sellers is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

For the past 23 years (but who is counting) I have been offering sales folks the means to enter the buying path at the start of the buying decision journey – beginning with one person’s idea, and well before the entire Buying Decision Team is formed. I know every single step that a buyer and the team go through, and when my clients use Buying Facilitation®, they help them efficiently navigate through their own behind-the-scenes processes. But the marketing automation field is entering too late in the buying decision to make a difference, and is gathering insufficient data to help the buyer buy.

Once I realized how the marketing automation field was directing their marketing promises, I called all of the marketing automation firms and suggested that if they really wanted to enter the path earlier, we could partner. But I was met with controlled derision: they were right and I was wrong. So simple in their eyes: Gather data on contact sheets, and then figure out who is a buyer. Right.

Now, with clients running around screaming about their paucity of success: they are not delivering on their promises. They are not closing business effectively, not lead scoring accurately, not qualifying properly, and are not following the buy cycle at the right place with the right data. Of course they’re not.  They are entering far too late.

But now they’ve got a problem. How can they fulfill their (false) promises? They have spent 3+ years, bazillions of bucks, and political capitol with clients, and how can they admit defeat and add something new?

For me, it’s so frustrating watching the mess going on. Folks complaining. Other companies growing up quickly attempting to fill in the gaps – but all still focusing on the last 10% of the buying path.

It’s technology, for goodness sakes!!! They can add whatever they want, start wherever they want, collect whatever they program in! Why are all of the egos showing up – especially in the face of  proven failure! And I LOVE the way they reconfigure the numbers so it appears they are being successful.

But when you ask them: where, precisely, is the Lead in the buying decision path? What part of the Buying Decision Team do they make up – and how many of the full Buying Decision Team is on board? Of all of the folks who will touch the solution and need to add input to the final solution, who is involved? Who needs to be but isn’t? How will all of the change management issues be addressed pre purchase?

And my favorite: how are you scoring your leads? The answer to that one: it’s subjective, and, um, well, um, we really don’t think we’ve got it right.

I know what buyers need to do before they buy.  It’s so painful watching the mess they are making. I’ve got the golden egg, I’m open to finding new ways to partner and collaborate, I’m trying to make a difference – but the field is truly committed to failure and has been for decades.

Makes me want to get out of the field and find folks who truly seek success. Makes me question why I’ve spent so much of my life trying to make a difference in a field that just wants to fail.

sd

Sharon Drew is a featured speaker at the Search Insider Summit – May 4 – 7 , 2011

Trying to make a difference in a field that enjoys failure is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

BUYING DECISIONS ARE BASED ON SYSTEMS AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT

We live in systems (My book Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it explains a systems and how change and decisions take place.).

A system is a bunch of things that have agreed to operate together, using rules they all agree to. And systems don’t recognize one thing as ‘bad/needs help’ and one thing ‘good/leave alone.’ It’s all just stuff that keeps recreating itself daily – like our weight, or our relationships, or the way our teams/families function.

When a problem occurs within a system the system quickly creates a work-around so it can continue on it’s normal route. It doesn’t say, “OH. We need to make a purchase and get rid of the thing that’s problematic!’ It just does a fix and keeps going. It’s not until several parts of a system are ready to create a change and manage any resistance, that a change (or purchase) will take place).

One of the problems with the sales model is that it assumes when sellers ’understand need’ and move to introduce a ‘fix’, that the buying journey can be influenced. This is far, far from true (or we’d close a lot more sales). Until the system is ready to change without resistance, it will do nothing.

Here are the major systems issues that must be resolved before a purchase will be made, regardless of the type of size of the solution or the costs of the underlying need.

1. The Buying Decision Team must be formed – an interesting process in an of itself and takes quite a while.
2. The political infighting must be minimized. But oh, what a painful, personal process!
3. The familiar vendor must be checked out.
4. The recommended vendors must be checked out.
5. Everyone who will touch the solution must agree to change. This is a long, hard process.
6. The implementation/change management issues must be in place.
7. The management must be bought-in and know how to manage the change.
8. People have to be hired/fired/outsourced, or calendars scheduled to take care of the appropriate staffing.

Because we are not part of the system that buyers make decisions in – their relationships and their policies are idiosyncratic and not open to outsiders – using the sales model merely  manages the last stage of the buying decision, but offers little to manage the back-end systems piece and decision paths.

A NEED IS NOT AN ISOLATED EVENT CASE STUDY

When sellers notice a problem – and let’s face it: we’re hypervigilant around problems we can solve with our solution - we hone in on it as if it were an isolated event. And try to prove to the system that it’s wrong, and can only be ‘righted’ if it purchases OUR solution.

But that’s lunacy. Many years ago I was working with IBM. They were running Betas on a new system – AS 400 to replace the slower System 36 – and needed one particular small company to take the Beta as it fit the criteria for testing perfectly. They had 3 sales people attempt to offer the company the new hardware for free, and it was declined each time. They asked me to see if I could have better results. Here is how the conversation went:

SDM: Hi. I’m Sharon Drew Morgen with IBM. This is a sales call. Is this a good time to speak?

Owner: Sure. What are you selling?

SDM: Actually, I’m trying to give you a free computer cuz we’re doing a Beta test and want to include you. How is your computer working for you?

Owner: Um. It’s OK. Fine, I guess.

SDM: What’s stopping you from getting a computer that’s better than OK??

Owner: Dad.

SDM: DAD? What does that mean?

Owner: This is a Mom & Pop shop. Dad is the owner. He’s been around over 40 years, and he’s retiring in 2 years. He’s in charge of all technology, and I don’t want him to stress over trying to learn something new that will probably be beyond him.

And there you have it. The problem was not a problem at all, as a very slow computer was worth the systemic issues that held it in place. I must admit that I figured out a way to move ahead, though. But not by discussing the merits of the new computer or focusing on the need. I helped him decide how to take care of Dad.

SDM: I hear that until or unless Dad would be able to learn a new technology easily, and would be able to maintain it comfortably, you’d rather continue with your slow computer. What would you need to see from me to know if we could create a way to help Dad decide if he could handle it?

Owner: Are there any other Beta sites around here that you could take Dad to and he could see for himself?

He did, and it was fine, and they took the Beta.

Stop selling a solution. Until ‘Dad’ is aboard, the rest of the system will fight to maintain the status quo. Focus your efforts on helping the prospect figure out how and when and if and with whom to change and help them manage their decision paths. And then you can sell.

sd

Read 2 sample chapters of Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it, and Buying Facilitation®: the new way to sell that expands and influences decisions.

Hear Sharon Drew make live prospecting calls.

How do systems determine buying decisions? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

As we continue to seek better ways to do the same things that failed before ( look at the numbers below, all industry numbers or from averages of my global clients) I think our industry might be facing extinction.

We continue to ‘understand’ more and ‘push’ harder, follow footprints and nuture. But our close rates remain well below 10% because we are focusing on the wrong end of the buying decision journey.  Can you imagine any other industry where a lower-than-10% success rate is deemed ‘success’? Would you go on a plane with that success rate? Or visit a doc?

THE HARD REALITY

• We close .6758% of our leads if we begin the dialogue by seeking an appointment.
• We close 17% of the prospects we get appointments with – but we lose over 90% of the full spectrum of prospects by seeking appointments as our first outcome.
• When using conventional (i.e. non marketing automation) sales, we close 7% and have closed this number consistently for decades, regardless of the sales model.
• We spend 90% of our time scoring/nurturing leads/names – 93% of whom won’t buy using conventional sales approaches; 25% of  the total would buy if they were facilitated earlier in their buying journey.
• We close 10% of our proposals, wasting 90% of our time.
• We waste 85% of our time attempting to present to prospects who have claimed ‘interest’ but are nowhere near ready to buy.
• 80% of our prospects will buy a solution similar to ours within 2 years of speaking with us – but not from us because they haven’t figured out how to buy/change and get the appropriate buy-in.

The problems causing all of the above statistics are all based on where, how, and why, we enter the buyer’s world. We are

1. entering at the back end of the buying journey,
2. treating ’needs’ as if they were isolated events rather than part of a functioning system,
3. ignoring the behind-the-scenes, political and relationship issues buyers must address before they can buy,
4. acting as if they have already completed their change management piece and are merely choosing the best solution,
5. entering too early with a solution when it takes time for the entire Buying Decision Team to form is the length of the sales cycle; no purchase will happen until all of their input is included in a solution choice.

With a focus on needs assessment and solution placement, we sit helplessly while our buyers are facing confusion along the route of their ever-more-complex buying journeys. With marketing automation keeping us out of the loop until late in the buy cycle, we don’t have the personal ability to influence buying behavior as we once did.

And we have little capability to qualify – regardless of the selling model used. We’re kinda assuming that because it LOOKS like it might be a lead, that it IS a lead. But it’s merely a name. In fact, sales is becoming transactional.

FOCUS ON INFLUENCING THE BUYING JOURNEY, NOT MAKING THE SALE

Buying Facilitation™ can dramatically shift these numbers because we enter differently and at a far earlier place, use different skills, have different goals and outcomes, and get very very different responses and results.

Someone recently asked me why the sales community fights with me, when all that’s necessary is adding a front end to what is already being done. My answer: I have no idea.

Stop fighting me. Unless you love the results your getting and aren’t wasting more than, oh, 15% of your time on deals that won’t close, or don’t mind losing prospects that could become buyers if you managed the entire buying decision journey from the start.

If you were 100 pounds overweight, would you fight a doc that tells you you need to lose weight? You can see that problem and at least believe that losing weight would be a great idea. But when I give you the numbers in the selling industry, you fight and tell me that you want to continue failing. You tell me that those numbers don’t apply to you. Or YOU do it so much better, but your teammates don’t. Or you start counting from your presentation.

WHY CARE ABOUT THE BUYING DECISION JOURNEY?

Why does helping the buying decision journey give you different numbers?

• Because the time it takes the buyer to recognize and manage all of the internal people/policy issues that will shift as a result of a purchase is the length of the buy cycle.
• Because until all of the Buying Decision Team members are on board they don’t even know the full fact pattern of their need.
• Because they will say ‘no’ to an appointment until they have a handle on the internal change management issues and the folks who need to be involved.
• Because unless you are able to use your first call to help prospects set up their Buying Decision Team, you will continue to have 3 or 4 meetings over 6 months rather than get an appointment with the full Buying Decision Team on the first – and possibly only – meeting.
• Because you are pitching, presenting, and proposing the wrong information – or information they do not know they need yet, or information that has not-enough people to understand at an early place in the decision cycle.

So you’ll close much, much quicker if you enter as a decision facilitator. You will find buyers who didn’t think they were ready and help them get ready quickly (and no, it’s not solution-focused). You will find prospects who didn’t know they were prospects, and get rid of those who really aren’t ever going to be buyers… on the first call. You will make the right appointment with the right people and the right folks will show up.

No more time wasting. No more sequenced appointments as the whole team gets on board. No more following bad leads. No more waiting for sales to close, with an inability to forecast.

That’s why you should care about the buying decision journey. That’s why you should add Buying Facilitation™ to the front end of what you are doing now. Otherwise, marketing automation is going to take over your job. And maybe then you’ll end up on the buy side with  your new job, and understand what I’ve been talking about all these years.

Just saying.

sd

Want to learn Buying Facilitation™? check out these learning products.

• MP3 – audios in which I prospect, cold call, etc.
• Learning Accelerators – learn specific bits of Buying Facilitation™
• Guided Study – learn the entire Buying Facilitation Method®

Learn Buying Facilitation™ | Implement Buying Facilitation™ | License Buying Facilitation™

Fighting for Failure: why modern sales practices are illogical is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

The glaring issue is the concentration on the top of the funnel vs. the bottom of the funnel. The sales industry has been running around screaming “But how do I close these leads?” And the marketing automation industry does not seem to be listening. They just keep giving us more and more technology to capture and push better and better data – and then we spend bazillions of dollars to implement the technology, go through internal turmoil as we re-organize teams to use the technology  and find ways to close sales, and then only close 1-6% of the names we elicit!

We are wasting over 90% of the leads we capture from technology!!

WHAT IS MARKETING AUTOMATION FOR

Don’t get me wrong. Marketing automation is great – fabulous, brilliant – at the top of the funnel. We get a bunch of email addresses and some names.

But these are Names. That’s it. Names. They may or may not be leads. They may or may not be prospects. Names.

In the old days, we used to buy lists, or make cold calls. And we closed 7% of our sales –  abysmal, but certainly more than we’re closing with marketing automation (companies claim to be closing 20%, but they track from an appointment or connect… which assumes the 90%+ folks who don’t respond never needed your solution).

Where is the technology to help us follow and influence the behind-the-scenes, private, idiosyncratic decisions and considerations buyers must address before they can buy?

I failed to find tech partners to add decision facilitation technology to marketing automation.  Every company I called –  Marketo, Eloqua, Manticore, Leadformix, Pardot - agree they have no way to manage the names they collect, other than do lead scoring, lead nurturing, or handing them over to a telemarketing group.

One industry leader - Carlos Hidalgo – won’t even entertain the notion that there is something trackable and supportable at the internal behind-the-scenes, pre-sale portion of the buying journey. In an email to me he wrote: ”I do not see buyer following an approach where they get all of the internal items checked-off before engaging a vendor or a sales process.” He knows neither the full set of systems issues prospects must address before considering a new solution (which are codifiable and can be influenced to bring in prospects who didn’t think they were ready), nor the full set of private internal issues they must manage after a potential vendor is engaged (where we lose our sales) and before they actually buy.

POSSIBILITIES NOT BEING OFFERED

It’s possible to actually support and influence every activity that buyers must go through off-line as they work through the necessary internal buy-in, relationships, and change management issues necessary for them to make a purchase.

In my latest book – Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it – I lay out a systems thinking list of non-need related  ’to-dos’ that buyers must address – like putting together a Buying Decision Team, or addressing potential change management issues, or getting agreement, needs, and ideas from everyone who will touch the solution.

• Imagine if your technology could enter the buying decision earlier.
• Imagine if while you were collecting names, you were turning them into leads.
• Imagine if you began offering your prospects service before you contacted them.
• Imagine if when you made contact, they already had their full Buying Decision Team on board and a whole team were ready to meet you.
• Imagine if you closed 30% of YOUR ENTIRE POPULATION OF LEADS rather than just the 1% that end up falling out the bottom.

Marketing automation is capable of far more. Its vision - mirroring the short-sighted, solution-focused sales model – is just too limited. And you and  your prospects are suffering the consequences.

By thinking beyond the sales model into the change management model that occurs prior to buyers being able to buy, your digital selling vendors can develop a way to enter and manage the behind-the-scenes buying journey earlier so the leads you get are already qualifed. Call them and yell. Or call me and we’ll discuss it.

SD

Read some of my articles in my ‘digital selling‘ group. See what’s possible. I bet between us we can enhance the industry to ensure that you close a lot more sales.

Great Leads, No Business: the problem with marketing automation is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

That said, ‘Facilitating Buying Decisions’ is a term I’ve been using for decades, and it does my heart good to see that finally others are recognizing the validity of the activity. I’m so pleased that I was able to make a difference (See? One cranky person CAN make a difference with enough tenacity!). Sadly, I’m noticing that the term is being used as a ‘sales’ ploy, being thrown into the set of needs assessment/solution placement skills that exemplify sales, and ignoring the intent behind my coined term.

Here is the definition of the term as I intended it. Of course, I’ll have no authority to correct folks getting it wrong. The problem with the mis-use is that the intent of the phrase – the essence of what ‘facilitating buying decisions’ means – is being co-opted into the ‘sales’ field, and the new skill of helping buyers manage their behind-the-scenes buying decisions is getting lost in translation.

Definition: Facilitating Buying Decisions involves helping buyers recognize and manage all of the internal, off-line, behind-the-scenes decision issues they must manage so they can align all of the people, policies, partners, and rules, and enable them to buy-in to making a purchase.

It has absolutely nothing to do with a solution or vendor choice, and everything to do with a new set of skills which give the seller the ability to be a GPS system for your buyer – a neutral navigator and change management consultant, and systems thinker. As I say in Dirty Little Secrets this is not a sales tool, but a skill to be used as a precursor to sales.

Unfortunately for both buyers and sellers, sellers meet buyers far too early in their decision cycle, well before they even know the route they’ll have to take to agree on a solution or provider.

And, unfortunately for both buyers and sellers, sales merely handles the needs assessment/information-gathering and the solution placement aspects of the purchasing decision. It does not have the capacity to actually go behind-the-scenes and be at the meetings, or parts of the personal conversations that invariably take place as insiders figure out how to change. After all, bringing in a new solution becomes a change management issue with just about any size or type of sale. And, sales doesn’t handle this.

Because buying decisions are made off-line, and the time it takes buyers to come up with their own answers is the length of the sales cycle, sellers are helpless; the sales model is no help at all. Sure, sellers understand what buyers need, and their solution is absolutely appropriate. But if that’s all that’s needed, we would be closing a heckuva lot more sales. As I say in Dirty Little Secrets, the buyer just doesn’t know what they’ll need to be addressing at the start – or even in the middle – of their buying decision process.

Enter Buying Facilitation™. Buying Facilitation™ is a decision facilitation model. It’s not sales – sales comes after buyers figure out what needs to happen for all of their people and rules and relationship issues are in agreement that bringing in a new solution is necessary, now.

So when you think of the term ‘facilitating buying decisions,’ think helping systems manage change. I recently noticed that a training company is announcing a ‘revolutionary training program that facilitates buying decisions,’ and goes on to show how to push product better. It would be a shame if that thinking is replicated, and folks don’t take away the true meaning of the term. I understand that as an innovator, I’m supposed to be pleased that my ideas are being misused as they enter mainstream, but I’m not. I’m still fighting the good fight: Please use the term as intended. It will change your results, change your relationships, shorten your sales cycles, and differentiate you.

And if you want to learn more about it, let me know.

sd

How to facilitate buying decisions.

Facilitating Buying Decisions: a definition is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

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.

And we walk in as Super Saviours, assuming we are, as Dr. Seuss says in The Sneetches The Fixxit Up Chappie.

But it’s so much more complex – even for a very simple sale. Because every single purchase is a Change Management issue. Every single one. And, so different from what we perceive, buyers are doing perfectly well as they are – or they would have fixed their problem already.

So, no, it’s not a money problem, or a competition problem, or a differentiation problem. And where prospects go is not to find a better price or visit your competition. They go to the next department, or an old vendor, or the tech group, to see if they can get buy-in for change.

Because until or unless buyers get agreement from everyone and everything that touches the Identified Problem, and would be in some way stressed if something different entered the system, they will do nothing. Regardless of their need, or your stellar, and (of course) perfect solution.

It’s  not about you, your solution, your relationship, your price, your care, your presentation, your appointment, your charisma, or having the perfect fit.

Until or unless buyers recognize and manage all of the internal issues that not only created their Identified Problem but keep it in place daily, and until they all buy-in to whatever change will happen when something new enters, they will do absolutely nothing.

Check out my new book Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what to do about it. It will explain what’s going on and what you can do about it. Then you can stop telling your manager that you’ve got prospects in the pipeline, and you’ll have a much better understanding of where and how you and your solution will fit in.

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Why Do We Blame Buyers? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

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.

I’d like to take this opportunity to define the term/concept/skill.

In Dirty Little Secrets I define Facilitative Questions as: “a unique type of question that…help people recognize all of the internal criteria they’ll need to include and address before making a decision. They are unlike conventional questions in that they do not gather information and are not focused on understanding need or placing a solution. Instead they are unbiased, systems based….Each Facilitative Question demands some action. The gleaned data is for the decision maker’s edification.” The content from these questions actually teach the questionee how to make a new decision based on their own internal values.

In addition:

1. Facilitative Questions are NOT open questions. Open questions gather data – pull information out from someone who has already made a decision on this topic and is sharing their choices with the questioner. Open questions are very biased as per the needs of the questioner. In sales, sellers typically ask open questions so they can determine ‘need’ or understand where the ‘pain’ is so they can better position their product.

2. Facilitative Questions are systems based, and not reliant on content. They follow the sequence of how decisions are made (generically) and lead the questionee through their systemic (and usually unconscious)  decision issues that need to be managed before any change can happen.

3. Facilitative Questions do not pull data and are not based on any curiousity of the questioner. Their intent is to lead the questionee through their unconscious decision issues that need to be addressed and recognized  in order to not disrupt the status quo.

4. Facilitative Questions yield very different responses than conventional questions which pull data from decisions already made. Facilitative Questions lead the listener through decision making channels toward a new resolution or a reweighting of values.

5. Posing/formulating Facilitative Questions takes some thinking in that they must help the questioner figure out all of the elements included in their status quo and to notice what’s missing so they can discover excellence. Facilitative Questions actually teach the questioner how to think and recognize how and why they need to change.

An open question would be: “Why do you wear your hair like that?” The question is gathering data about a decision the questionee has already made and understands.

A Facilitative Question would be: “How would you know if it were time to reconsider your hairstyle?” The question leads the quesionee through past haircuts, current lifestyle choices, time, obligations, current hairdressers/stylists, and any biases the questionee might have about his/her appearance. It actually uses brain function to pull various decision points out of the unconscious brain so they become conscious and the  questionee can get a good look at choices s/he may not have recognized.

These questions can be used in:

• marketing, to make an ad interactive; example: How would you know when it was time to buy a luxury car?
• coaching, to help the coachee decide how to change within their unique value structure; example: what would you need to know or believe differently in order to be willing to add a new habit to your daily tooth care?
• change management/implementation, to help folks buy-in to proposed change and become part of the solution; example: What would you all need to shift in order to be willing to bring in this new initiative in a way that would maintain your agreed-upon work-life values?
• sales, to help buyers figure out the internal decision issues they must address so that all people, relationships, policies, rules, etc. get addressed and bought-in to any proposed solution prior to deciding on a solution or vendor. example: How would you and your decision team know when it was time to add another resource to what you are currently doing?

I hope this helps. In my new book Dirty Little Secrets you can read more about them.

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Facilitative Questions are NOT open questions is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

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?

But both Tradtional Sales and Consultative Sales (and Permission Marketing, and Values-based Sales, and Relationship Sales, and Trusted Advisor Sales, and Question-based Sales, etc.) are based on placing a solution. By using questions, relationship management, being trustworthy because we care, etc. we work hard at being the chosen vendor. And yet, looking at the numbers, we still close the same number of sales we’ve always closed: plus/minus 7% from first prospecting call to close. And we waste far too much time with customers who won’t buy, and don’t know the difference before we expend all of that time.

Why aren’t we more successful? Because the sales model only manages the solution placement end of the buying decision. And this is the last thing the buyer does as s/he seeks to find a solution.

Think of a time when you wanted to buy something. Say, a new watch. Did you go into a store to buy one as soon as yours broke or became old? Probably not. First, before you went looking or gathering data, you had to decide what sort of watch you wanted. Do you want the same type of watch? Do you want a watch merely to tell time - or be a status symbol? Do you want a watch to hand down to your son or daughter? Do you want to buy several watches to match your work and play outfits? Do you want a watch made in this country, or one imported from Switzerland? Or do you want to merely fix your watch? And do you need to have your spouse buy-in to your decision (if it’s going to be a large purchase)?

This is a very simple siuation. Not a lot of people need to buy-in to your choice, or work together with you to implement it. But until you figure out the above, it doesn’t matter how wonderful a watch’s marketing is, or its features and functions and benefits. Until you make sure that you’ve met your internal criteria for choice, the information about any particular watch is potentially moot.

BUYERS MUST MANAGE THEIR BEHIND-THE-SCENES DECISION ISSUES

Your buyers have personal, professional, company, and team issues to take into account. They have relationship problems and budget challenges. They must get buy-in from above AND below. Until they do all of these things, not only will they not be ready to choose a solution, they won’t even have the full set of their criteria for choice ready.

I recently heard a story that might have taken place  in any company, anywhere around the world. A client of mine in Australia wanted to start up a manufacturing group. He wrote up a very complete proposal and budget for his boss – located in a different country – and sent it off with a request for a decision within three months. He then found a company in Germany that could develop and supply the set-up materials. The sales rep from the German company flew to Australia three times with product prototypes, sales pitches, team intros. These conversations went on for months.

My client had not heard from his boss. Eventually, he flew to visit the boss to discuss the idea with all of the costs and photos of the prototypes in hand. But he and his boss did not get along. And the boss had no interest in a discussion. End of story. Really. End of story.

The cost? Oh, about $50,000 in materials, travel and time. Finally,the German company was just told “No. Sorry. The boss won’t approve.” But it didn’t have to happen.

If the German sales rep had used Buying Facilitation™ on the very first call, my client would have known how to manage his boss and potentially be given the go-ahead BEFORE the manufacturing company sales guy made his first trip to Australia. Or would have known right away that it wasn’t going to fly.

German Seller: What would you have that you haven’t had until now?

Australian Buyer: A new manufacturing division.

GS: What has stopped you from starting up this division unti now?

AS: I have wanted it for some time, but have not approached my boss about it, as he’s not much of a visionary. Besides, we don’t get along so well. He’s out of the country and he pretty much leaves me alone. I suspect we both like it that way and have developed lots of work-arounds to make sure we work together well at arms length. But it makes it difficult to come to agreements.

GS: I hear that until you and your boss figure out a way to decide if a manufacturing group would make sense for your company, it doesn’t make too much sense to have us move forward with a prototype. What would need to happen for you and your boss to be willing to sit down together and figure out what Excellence would look like for the company?

In this way, the seller could actually help the prospect figure out how to possibly heal his relationship with his boss, and possibly move forward. Because until or unless this happens, no sale can take place anyway.

This is the first  job of the buyer: figure out how to recognize, align, and manage all of the internal issues that need to take place so that a problem can be resolved in a way that maintains the congruence of the system. Because until or unless the internal system maintains congruence and integrity, it cannot go forth and choose a solution. And sales – consultative or otherwise – does not manage this.

All sales models manage the solution end of a buying decision. Buying Facilitation™ offers new skills to help buyers figure out how to manage their internal, private, off-line stuff that is keeping them from success, and that sales does not address. Read my new book, Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it. It will give you a new skill set to help the buyer do their first job: manage their internal system. And THEN you can do Consultative Sales.

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Purchasing a solution is the last thing a buyer does is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

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.

OK. So I compromised. For those folks who were able to find my www.dirtylittlesecretbook.com site, I hired someone to do non-U.S. fulfillment and get the books out.

But then I got a bit of a shock. One of the publishers – the one I like the most and who have given me fabulous, incomparable customer care – has a less-than-adequate product and the print job and paper are sub standard to my personal specifications. They are trying to fix it, and are in caring contact, but it’s like trying to fix the Titannic once it’s afloat. The other publisher has a higher standard of print, but give absolutely horrific customer service, and every time I deal with them I get a stomach ache.

What is a client to do? Unfortunately, in this case, I am choosing the publisher I dislike because I owe my clients, and my book, the best possible quality. But I am annoyed about it, and resent having to use them. They communicate badly, don’t make it easy for us to order – or order correctly – and we have to keep calling them to find out if we got it right, and then discover we didn’t and the order is still sitting in their in-box because their technology was unintelligible.

I sure wish I had an alternative to them both. Can’t I combine them and get the publisher of my dreams? Good product AND good service? Anyone have any other ideas?

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Remember: Thursday is the last day you can purchase Dirty Little Secrets and get the freebies from: Tony Parinello, Jill Konrath, Anne Miller, Lee Glickstein, Lee Colan, Mitch Gooze, Jim Altfeld. And stay tuned: I’ll be announcing a call-in coaching program soon for folks who want to learn Buying Facilitation™.

How to Choose a Vendor – a personal decision is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

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.

Here is some of what I gleaned from playing with the site with co-owner Alan Michaels – and please forgive me here for going on and on. I was truly amazed.

When you look up an industry, you get to choose whichever company names you want to include – Microsoft, Oracle, HP, Dell, etc. and even some you didn’t know about - and compare them in categories such as: product segments (many you didn’t even know about), competitors, customer segments, demographics, technology trends. There are reports on competitors, industry profiles and trends, channels. Interesting to me is the factors that go into the decisions buyers make to choose them over competitors, and even who the target decision makers are - in a phrase, all of the competitive intelligence you need to do research and analysis that explains industry analysis at the line-of-business level.

And the technology is simple to use, easy to read, laid out logically. It’s mind-boggling. It’s exciting. It will make every public company – and some not public yet – an open book and easily accessible for sales folks to get what they need to position their solution in the right way for the right people for the right time in the market.

So before you go into a company to do a pitch, you can know everything – which job titles will be involved in purchasing decisions (once eCompetitors factors in Buying Facilitation™ they will know who makes which decisions and the system that underlies the decision making process), who your competition will most likely be. There is so much data there that you’ll be able to figure out how much up-line business you might expect in the future once you make them your client.

They are a brand new company. But I’d use them as soon as possible, because once your competition uses them, you’ll be at a disadvantage.

When you call Alan, call him Michael – he’ll know who sent you. www.ecompetitors.com

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And don’t forget: just a few more days to get your freebies with your purchases of my new book Dirty Little Secrets. I’m getting quite amazing reviews on my new book, and sales folks from all over the world, in every industry imaginable, are thanking me for opening their eyes to how to help influence buying decisions. I’m going to be starting learning groups shortly for those interested in learning some of the ‘hows.’ Stay tuned.

eCompetitors Gives Sales Folks What They Need. Exactly. is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

I’m proud to announce the launch of my seminal work, my most prized issue (after my wonderful son, of course), and the gift I am here to offer. In this book, I think I’ve finally found the voice to do that – to write about change, and decisions and serving. It’s taken a few books to get here, but I believe I’ve finally learned how to say what has been in my head for decades.

This book is good. I’ve said what I wanted to say. I am proud that I wrote it. And now it’s yours to enjoy.

Writing this book – like writing any book – is a journey. Along the way, I met some amazing people and made many, many new friends. I’ve made one or two enemies, had one or two arguments, learned to love a handful of interesting people of all ages, began collaborations with new people and companies and partners. I’ve cried and screamed, giggled and passed out from exhaustion. And it’s been a helluva ride, more than with any other book I’ve written.

I now pass it over to you. Please enjoy it, start conversations about it, write about it, and use what’s in it to serve others and create the collaborations that will help the world heal.

This book is seemingly a ‘sales’ book, but the systems/change material in the book is applicable in any relationship or change process. Please let me know what you think, or contact me with (simple) questions (I can’t answer the harder ones with brief emails. Sorry.). Together, we can bring in new skills into sales, and figure out, together, new ways to use the material – in technology that makes decision choices more available, or in recruitment to make sure both candidate and company know for certain, how to hire the exact right person, or questionnaires to gather the consumer’s criteria rather than just information, or… What fun is that!

Thank you all for your care and your respect over the past few months. You’ve read while I’ve played in the rain in Scotland, wanted to do bad things to my proof reader, introduced you to colleagues, and danced with my shoes off. And I’ve possibly offered a few cogent ideas occasionally. Now you get to read the results of my work during that time. And now it will be a great joy to stay in touch as I move to a personal ’implementation stage’ and go back again to training folks in how to DO Buying Facilitation™, give some keynotes…. or whatever!

Let’s not lose touch. Let’s keep the dialog going about this unchartered territory outside of the sales purvue. Let’s change our expectations of what’s necessary and possible. Let’s put the new material into the ‘typical’ set of sales skills and change the field. In fact, why don’t we just set about to change the world.

And then I can keep having fun! Enjoy!

Sample Chapters | www.dirtylittlesecretsbook.com
Testimonials | Table of Contents | Purchase Book

Consider purchasing the bundle: Dirty Little Secrets plus my last book Buying Facilitation™: the new way to sell that influences and expands decisions. These books were written to be read together, as they offer the full complement of concepts to help you learn and understand Buying Facilitation™ - the new skill set that gives you the ability to lead buyers through their buying decisions.

Currently Amazon.com is not selling books outside of the US, but we are fulfilling all non-US orders here.

“Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it” is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

An answers for those of you who have asked how this book differs from some of my other books, and then I’ll give you 3 more ‘secrets.’

This book is very very different from Sales on the Line, Selling with Integrity and Buying Facilitation™. While those books talk about the buying decision process as being separate from the sales process and introduce some new skills, none of my previous books delve into exactly, EXACTLY what happens behind the scenes. I have thoroughly explained

• how systems maintain dysfunction and don’t want to change – and what they need to do to unlock possibilities (and how you can help);
• how the behind-the-scenes political and relationship issues are a far bigger indicator of purchasing p0ssibilities than need;
• the 10 steps to a buying decision (any kind of decision for that matter), and how to help influence them as an Outsider;
• the three phases that all decisions go through.. proving that buying is NOT an emotional decision but very very rational (even if we don’t agree with their decision);
• the problems closing sales using Sales 2.0 and how to mitigate them;
• the new Buying Facilitation™ model (you might want to get the bundle from my site and buy this book as the companion to the new one - www.buyingfacilitation.com), how it differs from sales, and the new skills and tools to tack on to sales to help influence the buying decision;
• very details Case Study that shows the behind-the-scenes details of a purchasing decision, and how to move a buying decision from a 36 week close to a 12 week close – and be part of the Buying Decision Team.

Now: here are 3 more ‘dirty little secrets’ from my new book. Enjoy. And BUY IT TOMORROW!

11. Information doesn’t teach people how to make a buying decision. Learning details of our solution is the last thing buyers need.

Sales has focused on having the solution to meet the need. As a result, sellers spend time and effort honing the appropriate messages for their pitches, presentations, and marketing. But buyers don’t know what to do with the data that early on in their decision process because they haven’t managed their buying criteria yet.

Now we can help buyers discern all of their decision criteria and buying criteria. When it’s time to pitch or present, we can massage our message to fit with the buying criteria and values.

1. Sales focuses on solution placement and has no skill set to help buyers maneuver through their off-line, internal, behind-the-scenes planning and decision making that must take place before they can buy.

It is impossible for any change to happen (including a purchasing decision) unless a system has identified the elements that need to buy in to the change. Our current sales model has ignored this invisible challenge since its inception. Rather than realize that a piece was missing, it instead builds in assumptions that maintain its status quo, provides work-arounds to manage the fall-out of the onedimensional approach, and accepts low close ratios.

Now we know all of the elements involved in how buyers buy, and can help them manage both ends of their decision making and change management. We can close sales in half the time since we will be severely shortening the buying decision cycle.

6. Until buyers have managed their internal systems, they have limited ability to use the solution information you would like to give them.

We’ve never been taught all of the issues that need to be managed before a buying decision can happen. Our buyers haven’t known that either. As a result we have unwittingly focused on solving their problem, giving them vast amounts of data about our solution, and have not realized that buyers haven’t known what to do with that data until later on in their buying decision process.

Now we can help buyers discover their systems and change management issues, and help them figure out their buying criteria that will match the values of their system.

8. Helping buyers maneuver through their buy-in and systems issues require a different focus and a different skill set from the one sales offers.

The typical sales scenario overlooks the systems issues that must seek homeostasis. Focusing on our solutions, we’ve created the rejections, the objections, the long delays, and the ‘dumb’ decisions. Not to mention the abysmal closing ratio of under 10% (from first prospecting call).

Now we have the skills to enter the buying decision end of the equation without bias and as a decision facilitator. We can help the buyer focus first on finding all of the right people, discovering the historic precedents, changing the rules, and getting buy-in so they can all figure out what needs to happen to achieve excellence.

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Did the book provoke you? Excite you? Anger you! Cool beans! Let the discussion begin!

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Listen to Sharon Drew Morgen speak on MaestroConference on Oct. 14 at 12P.M. PST

Check out my new book coming out October 15: Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what to do about it. Read two free chapters. Pre-purchase the book or buy the bundle.

Or consider purchasing the bundle: Dirty Little Secrets plus my last book Buying Facilitation™: the new way to sell that influences and expands decisions. These books were written to be read together, as they offer the full complement of concepts to help you learn and understand Buying Facilitation™ - the new skill set that gives you the ability to lead buyers through their buying decisions.

“Dirty Little Secrets” launches tomorrow: 3 more secrets unveiled is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

2. Buyers will make no purchasing decisions until they get buy-in from the components (people, policies, initiatives, groups) that are in any way connected to, or adjacent to, their

Because we invariably meet our prospects before they have gone through their change activities and our sales cycle is longer than necessary, we enter at the wrong time, with the wrong focus, and get bad results.

Now we can be a support person at both ends of the buying decision: First, as a decision facilitator; next, as a solution provider.We will be able to help them recognize and manage their decision elements and be put on their Buying Decision Teams early on.

5. Until buyers understand, and know how to mitigate, the risks that a new solution will bring to their culture, they will do nothing.

Buyers begin solution discovery prematurely, without first understanding the route they will have to take to get buy-in for any systemic change or purchase.

Now we can help them understand and manage their risks, and get agreement for change and a purchase. If the outcome is not based on their need or our solution. Neither of us will initially understand the route buyers must take to get the systemic buy-in.

But our understanding of systems will help them get the right people and initiatives together quickly.

9. Buyers buy on unique, idiosyncratic criteria that are agreed to by their Buying Decision Team (people not necessarily directly involved with the Identified Problem but having some historic connection), not on the strength of their need, your product or service, or your relationship.

They buy for reasons that largely have nothing to do with us. And we sell for reasons that largely have nothing to do with them. This fact has kept buyers in their buying decision cycle longer than necessary.

Now we can help the Buying Decision Team discover their criteria so they can resolve their internal systems issues and move forward to a product purchase in approximately one-eighth the length of the sales cycle.

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Stay tuned. Tomorrow I’ll give you three more secrets! And, go to the book site, Dirty Little Secrets and look at the cool freebies you’ll get from really smart people if you buy the new book! Not to mention, the really cool book you’ll get to read.

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Listen to Sharon Drew Morgen speak on MaestroConference on Oct. 14 at 12P.M. PST

Check out my new book coming out October 15: Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what to do about it. Read two free chapters. Pre-purchase the book or buy the bundle.

Or consider purchasing the bundle: Dirty Little Secrets plus my last book Buying Facilitation™: the new way to sell that influences and expands decisions. These books were written to be read together, as they offer the full complement of concepts to help you learn and understand Buying Facilitation™ - the new skill set that gives you the ability to lead buyers through their buying decisions.

Two Days to Launch: a sneak preview of 3 of the Dirty Little Secrets is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com