This one starts, like DLS, with what a system is. Our buyers, our colleagues, our clients, all operate as part of a system, and the system is what resists change. Once we understand the makeup of a system, we can move forward with helping the system manage change.

Part 3, to come out in a couple of weeks, is about resistance and bias: why do people and systems resist change, and how do change agents bias the results, actually creating resistance.

For you sales folks reading this, the exact same issues apply with buyers: buyers work in a system of rules, relationships, politics, tech folks and engineers – and this system will fight to maintain itself rather than bring in a different solution. So in addition to listening to my Podcast series on Making Sellers Relevant, you may enjoy this series also.

For those of you who have missed Part 1, here it is.

To join a conversation about change, buy-in, and systems thinking, visit my new site: Facilitating Buy-In.

Part 2 of Making Change Work

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Making Change Work: Part 2 – What is a system, and how does change happen? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

1. getting internal buy-in from colleagues, bosses, and budgets to decide to make a change, figuring out how or what will be included in the change, and agreeing how to move forward;

2. choosing a solution and vendor.

In today’s buying decision journey, technology is beginning to ably handle the solution choice: Since sales focuses on the needs analysis and solution choice end of the buying decision, it’s easy-enough for the process of selection and information-gathering to be co-opted by the web.

That leaves the seller not meeting quotas, not involved until the very end after many of the decisions have been made, and not using their talents as purveyors of industry knowledge. Sellers are not entering the buying decision journey early enough, are too often reduced to order takers.

WHAT’S A SELLER TO DO?

The choices are:

• have many sellers leave the profession as there just isn’t going to be enough work;
• have sellers play musical chairs as they get fired/hired/fired/hired etc.;
• learn new skills to change the sales job to better accommodate the front-end of the buyer’s buying decision journey.

About 20 years ago, I wrote a column for Telemarketing Magazine. I had written a book called Sales on the Line in which I introduced Buying Facilitation® as a sales tool for the phone. In the book I told telemarketers that unless they used their brief phone time helping prospects navigate through their decision issues quickly (i.e. “Hi, Mrs. Jones. Is this a good time to speak? I’m selling magazines. I’m wondering how you are currently choosing to add new subscriptions to the ones you already have?”), they would be out of business.

The editor of Telemarketing loved my stuff. Of the 4 telemarketing magazines on the market in those days, he (Robert – forgot his last name) was the only one who thought my ideas were print-worthy. I yelled and cajoled and begged and offered and wrote and taught. I said, over and over and over: If you don’t change your ways, you won’t be in business in 10 years. Few listened.

OK. I was right. Now I’m going to say that again to the sales field: If you don’t shift your jobs to managing the entire buying decision journey – not just that end that is concerned with the solution purchase – you won’t have a job. As we speak, I know of 2 tech companies working very hard on creating a Q&A capability for a piece of software to replicate a buyer-seller conversation.

ENTER THE BUYING DECISION JOURNEY EARLIER

Now is the time. Get ahead of the curve. Learn Buying Facilitation®. Read Dirty Little Secrets and Buying Facilitation®. Take the Guided Study program or training with me, or get the Modules. But add this new skill to what you’re doing, and

• get onto the Buying Decision Team on the first call;
• become necessary for buyers as a consultant who can be a real asset during the early parts of the buying journey;
• use your skills and industry knowledge to truly become servant leaders to your buyers.

I’m not talking about choosing a solution or vendor - they can use the net for that. I’m talking about a change management skill set: to help them bring together the people, the decisions, the policies, the tech solutions, the partners, the buy-in/resistance issues, so they can quickly, effectively, make a solution choice – with you on their decision team and then, naturally, their provider.

Here is my 2nd podcast in the series: Making Sellers Relevant. This one explains the buyer’s journey. Enjoy. And please, take this to heart.

And if you missed the first podcast, listen to it here.

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Here are chapters from Dirty Little Secrets to better understand how Buying Facilitation® helps buyers decide.

The Buyer’s Buying Journey Podcast 2: Making Sellers Relevant is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

And, why am I recording a Change Management series? For those of you familiar with my decision facilitation model, you’ll recognize that it’s basically a change management model that helps buyers (or teams, or patients, or or) navigate through all of the unconscious, behind-the-scenes, private issues they have to decide on, en route to doing something different. After all, anything different means change. And any time we change, we have issues to manage within our status quo, so we don’t create chaos unduly.

ALL DECISIONS ARE CHANGE MANAGEMENT ISSUES

Whether you’re going to change your hairstyle, or buy a house, or adopt a new ERP system in your company, or bring in new staff, anything that will shift the status quo is a change management issue. Because the status quo is happy with whatever rules or relationships or technology already exists (or it would have been changed already), adding anything new upsets the apple-cart, so to speak.

Until now, the change management model has focused on designing the change and managing the resistance. But I believe that resistance isn’t necessary if the change agents first seek buy-in. Interesting, that when a search is done for the term ‘Buy-In’ in the change management field, only one instance came up! Yet every book on change management is about, in large part, managing resistance.

In this series, Nathan and I discuss change from a systems standpoint, and how to achieve buy-in by getting systems to agree to change – before even introducing the change initiative. Is it possible? Listen to the podcasts and let me know. We’ve got a new site dedicated to buy-in, discussions around buy-in, and creating community to help buy-in become a recognized aspect of change management.

The titles for the 6 part series are:

• What is change? And why is it so difficult?
• What are systems, and how do they influence change?
• The historic problems with change management models: bias, resistance, and push
• What is resistance, how do current change management models create it, and how can it be avoided?
• Why is buy-in necessary and how to achieve it.
• Putting it all together: a radical approach to change management and real leadership

STRATEGYDRIVEN

For those interested in change management, have a look at www.StrategyDriven.com. It’s a truly neat site. Here how it is described:

StrategyDriven represent tried and tested business world methods based on years of business planning and execution experience and founded on solid research and academic principles. We provide readers with the best practices needed to create the high level of organizational alignment and accountability characteristic of world-class organizations and introduce warning flag processes and behaviors that signal a retreat from world-class standards. Our framework not only addresses performance of discrete planning and execution functions but also the interrelationships between an organization’s mission and objectives to its executable programs, budgets, and procedures, and finally to its products and services and the market it serves.

At a more granular level, our framework and supporting practices enhance organizational alignment by reinforcing business process interrelationships from strategic planning and resource management to tactical execution and evaluation and control. We also discuss the management and leadership practices needed to bring employees and the system together; all running smoothly and seamlessly with one another. And all of these practices focus on achieving the organization’s vision, values, and mission goals.

Go to www.strategydriven.com. Have a look around. You’ll be filled with new thoughts, find all sorts of articles, and leave the site hungry for more. Enjoy. And, make sure you listen to our Making Change Work series. We’ve worked hard to provide some new thinking.

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Once you finish this podcast, check out part 2 of making change work.

Making Change Work: a change management podcast series with StrategyDriven is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

StrategyDriven Magazine is a really professional ezine that publishes articles about change, leadership, organizational performance, project management, and decision making. They have truly interesting white papers, expert opinions, and editorials.

Everyone on the editorial team works in a company and does some form of change management and strategizing daily, so they are not mere talking heads but smart folks. Take a look. The site is also quite professional, interesting, and timely.

The man who interviewed me for this podcast about Dirty Little Secrets and decision facilitation is Nathan Ives. He works in management at one of the Big Four firms: he understands strategy from the inside out. It’s his job. And he’s real smart.

What should have been a 20 minute interview turned into a very dynamic discussion now in 2 parts. Part 1 is below. It not only discusses Buying Facilitation® but talks about it in terms of change and how organizations change – to buy something, or to implement something, requires the same problems and change issues. A buying decision is a change management problem, after all.

Nathan was a very interesting interviewer. He asked smart questions and made me think. He got the best of me.

Enjoy this interview. I’ll give you Part 2 next week. In the meantime, please send your comments and questions to: sharondrew@newsalesparadigm.com. I’ll publish them and discuss then. And take a look at StrategyDriven magazine. You’ll like it.

Part 1:  http://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDSE039DirtyLittleSecretsPt1.mp3

And stay tuned for our 6 part series on change management called Making Change Work. We’ve worked hard to make them intriguing and idea-filled.

As you think about the decision facilitation material, try to remember that it can manage any sorts of change – not just getting Buying Decision Teams on board for a purchase, but helping implement technology changes, helping teams work together, helping M&As.

I hope you get excited by the possibilities now available for helping congruent, integrous, change happen. There hasn’t been a model that works with the unspoken, hidden, inside activities around change and buy-in before. Now that it’s possible, there is a whole world of possibilities now open to us.

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Want to learn Buying Facilitation®? Try out my new modules.

StrategyDriven Magazine Interview is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

It is with great pride that I offer our interview. And don’t forget to go to Bob’s site. You’ll have a wonderful time getting filled with new ideas and confirmation of your own journey toward greater and greater integrity. Good job, Bob.

Click here to listen to Bob Thompson interviewing Sharon Drew Morgen on Customer Think.

Podcast: How to Close More Sales Without More Selling is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

In the following interview, Jim and I had some fun with each other. He was obviously well versed in sales – the conventional model of sales – and provided a great counter-balance between my ideas on Buying Facilitation® and how he conceived of the job of a seller. It’s old-world/new-world. I wish we had had more time to fully explore how the two pieces could fit together. For now, enjoy. But stay tuned: the Brain Trust will be printing some of my articles regularly.

Listen to the interview.

And if you want to do an interview, podcast, or webinar with me for your colleagues, clients, or audience, let’s create some devastatingly provocative title to get folks curious about how to be a lot more successful in sales, coaching, negotiating, OD, change management, and marketing.  And thanks, everyone, for your continued interest. Contact me.

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If you enjoy listening to Sharon Drew discuss several topics in interviews and podcasts, click here to listen to an interesting array of topics.

Interview On The Small Business Advocate is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

I decided to give you all of the podcasts, videos, and audio files of the interviews I’ve done recently so you can kick back and enjoy some ‘easy listening’ if you find listening easier than reading. I believe that you’ll be able to upload many of these onto your MP3 player for when you’re working out at the gym and need to get your mind off of the pain.

• Maestro: With a few dozen attendees, we ran a training session in which I lectured and did a Q&A about Buying Facilitation® and sales. It was great fun.
• Meri Aaron Walker: Meri Aaron and I have a video conversation about change and decision making.
• Brian Carroll: Brian and I speak about how decision facilitation can help sellers become leaders for their clients/prospects.
• Lee Glickstein: Lee is the fabulous thought-leader who developed Relational Presence and Speaking Circles. He and I discuss some ‘dirty little secrets’ and how sales folks can truly serve clients.
• Clayton Shold: Clayton and I discussed how sales people can be better/better/best!
• Lee Colan: Lee really wanted to understand Buying Facilitation® and how it could be used with sales.
• Jeff Ogden: Jeff and I discussed some of the failures with sales and what to do about them.
• High Velocity Radio: This was a fun interview: Stone asked me about the development of Buying Facilitation® and why it’s important.
• Gravity Free Radio: Eric was the perfect foil: he made typical assumptions about selling, and we used our time to show how sales fails and what you can do about it.

Don’t forget: Dirty Little Secrets is still in its launch phase. When you purchase the book between now and Oct. 29, you’ll get a bunch of free stuff from such folks as Lee Colan, Tony Parinello, Jill Konrath, and Anne Miller.

Tony Parinello and I will be doing a radio show this Friday, Oct 22, at 10 PT, 1 ET. Put it on your calendars and I’ll be giving you a link for the show shortly. Tony and I always have SUCH fun together – two visionaries at opposite ends of the sales spectrum, who love and respect each other, and butt heads (but never hearts) and chat, question, argue, discuss… It’s always interesting and thought – provoking.

Enjoy the learning, and the fun. If you have purchased the book and have questions, email me at sharondrew@newsalesparadigm.com. And stay tuned: I’m creating monthly call-in coaching hours for those individuals interested in learning more and  joining a community.

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There is still time to get the freebies for: Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what to do about it. Check out the site for more details.

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. You still get the freebies with the bundle order.

Fun Stuff to Hear is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

He is one of those very committed, focused people, who gets in there with the human factor and teaches the route to excellence. I’m very impressed with Lee, and how he helps the whole corporate culture be an environment in which change and growth, creativity and commitment can take place. Not only that, he’s one of the few people I know who truly understands how change happens in systems, and how to manage change without the sort of chaos that stultifies growth.

Here is an interview Lee and I did recently. Enjoy it. And then go visit his site and see what he’s up to: www.thelgroup.com. If the time comes when you are ready to truly commit to your people, your company, and your business, call Lee. He’s the best.

Listen to the interview now.

Interview with Lee Colan is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Lee interviewed me about the sales model, and how “Dirty Little Secrets” moves the sales model forward. Enjoy.

Click here to listen to the interview.

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. Sign up for presales deals, and announcements.

Or have a look at my book Buying Facilitation: the new way to sell that influences 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.

Sharon Drew speaks with Lee Glickstein is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Begun about two years ago by Clayton Shold and Dave Maynard to be an encyclopedia/wikipedia for sales, Shold and Maynard have grown the site to be THE place for all-things-sales, with provocative articles and great podcasts. And they keep the site looking fresh, slightly edgy, and crisp. They are obviously doing everything they can to, as Dave says, “Get your attention so you can find those hidden gems.” 

They do a regular blog post, mention/showcase books, and overall, carry a message of integrity: they offer a site that is people-friendly, and obviously recognize that sales is about serving people. Given that my Decision Facilitation models are about serving our buyers by helping them maneuver through their subjective dynamics on their way to buy-in, Salesopedia matches my own criteria around integrity.

As an aside: Clayton writes thoughtful blogs. He steps outside the field of  ’sales’ to mention other ideas, books, etc. to help sales folks think. His blog posts are actually stimulating.

Enjoy the site. It will give you the people you like, the articles that will help, and the ideas that will get you to think. The field is lucky to have such thoughtful professionals serving us.

www.salesopedia.com

Salesopedia: The Sales Place is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com