Nothing.

At the end of the day, there is the buyer, the seller, and the solution. The influencer, the influenced, and the idea, or request. Regardless of the moving parts, one person wants another person to buy in to something that represents some sort of change.

Whenever we are responsible for having someone else buy in to an idea, change an opinion, help us on a project, we have a sales issue.

But it’s not the sort of sales issue we’re accustomed to. It’s a change management issue: after all, if the Other can’t figure out a way to add our request to their daily activities, their beliefs about their job, their feelings about what is being asked of them, they will do nothing. If we force them to do something they are not internally comfortable with, we’ll have to manage their sabatoge.

BUY IN IS A DECISION

In order for a colleague to buy in to an idea or help us in some way, they need to be willing to make a decision to do something different. Sure, we have a worthwhile project that we can spout about (all our projects are worthwhile, right?); we can offer details, and great reasons why it’s a worthy use of time or money.

But at the end of the day, the person has to agree – and not just agree, but lend a hand, be willing to support us over time, be available to influence someone else. We actually need them to get on board and become part of the team (even if in a small way). We actually have a leaderhip issue.

We are so accustomed to assuming that because our product/solution/idea is great, and we can see the benefits, that the other person will see the efficacy of it and work with us. But agreeing means they have to have risk: they risk their time, their political capital, their relationships, their ‘name’. Net net, they have a subjective, personal, internal decision to make that must meet their own criteria for who they are in the workplace.

It’s not just about the request or the need or the idea/solution. Help the Other walk through their decision issues.

Once they buy in to giving up some of their time, recognizing what they need to consider to maintain their company status, seeing if they can stand behind the request in a way that integrates with their personal issues, then they can make the personal decisions necessary to stand behind our request.

It’s not about the efficacy of the idea or the solution: it’s about the Other’s need to buy in to a collaboration. Stop selling. Teach the Other how to buy.

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If you’d like me to write a White Paper for you on understanding the decision issues your buyers face, please email me at sharondrew@newsalesparadigm.com.

Or have a look at my book Buying Facilitation:the new way to sell that inluences and expands decisions. Click here for two free chapters. It will teach you how to understand and manage the route through the internal decision process. Will it help you make a sale? Maybe. Maybe not. But it sure will help you make a client.

The Internal Customer: Is It A Sales Job? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

The only thing I found lacking was a Reading List that would have offered me recommendations on books to read to catch me up in the areas I wanted to persue more deeply. But maybe they will get to that. There is also a section for HR professionals, and one for Leaders. Clearly this group has a corner on the market for business tool kits, and they do it with great passion and professionalism.

If you have some new Managers, or want your folks to learn some new skills for Leadership, this is an easy-to-use guide to Mangement/Leadership With Integrity.

For more senior managers, I’d like to recommend two books that I use as ‘thought provokers’ when I sit down to write about decision making:
Organizational Culture and Leadership (second edition) by Edgar H. Schein (Jossey Bass) and On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You Are Not by Robert A. Burton MD (St Martin’s Press). Both of these books offer insight into human behavior and how groups and people work together to make the decisions necessary for excellence. More skills based, these books will help your managers learn how to understand and monitor their own behaviors first.

Here is a site to go to that will introduce you to definitions for ‘corporate culture’ and ‘systems’ – both major themes in my new book coming out soon (The Dirty Little Secret: why buyers don’t buy and sellers don’t sell and what to do about it), as without a buyer navigating the elements of their system in a way to make change a viable choice, no purchasing will happen. Having a good understanding of culture and systems is vital for any sales person as well as managers and leaders. Check it out. http://managementhelp.org/org_thry/culture/culture.htm

http://www.goodpractice.com

Business Practices for Managers is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com