Would you bring in a leadership training without getting the buy-in from the people who would be trained? Or know their criteria without their voices?

Would you choose a web designer without getting the buy-in from the current design team and the techies? Would you know what they would want included until they offered their opinions or knew what parts they wanted to do themselves?

Why not?

I recently had a coaching call with a SVP at a well-known CRM Management company. The man had a Harvard MBA, had been a partner at Accenture, and now was running the Texas sales operation for this CRM company. This is not a stupid man, obviously, but a man steeped in the ‘sales’ thinking modality.

During his session he wanted to put together a set of Facilitative Questions that would help his prospect (a hardware company with a sales force of 1500) buy his solution during his ‘big meeting’ that he finally got. Who was going to be in the meeting? I asked.

SS: There will be 10 people there: the head of sales and her team, and the head of marketing and her team.

SDM: So you’ve got 2 people.

SS: No! Ten! And it took me 2 months and 3 meetings with the head of sales to have her set up this meeting.

SDM: But there are only 2 members of the Buying Decision Team who will be present. Who else would need to be on the Buying Decision Team?

SS: Well, the head of technology, obviously, but he’s on board. He loves our solution. Besides, he’s only an influencer.

SDM:  So if he doesn’t want a CRM system, the company will ignore him?

SS: No. They wouldn’t buy. I guess that makes him a decision maker.

SDM:  And  there won’t be a problem with him working together with the heads of sales and marketing? They have no relationship issues?

SS: Oh. I guess I wouldn’t want to be there while they decided on stuff together. Hm. Who else do they have to get on their Buying Decision Team?

SDM: Not only do you not know, but they don’t know yet either. Let’s start with users. There must be user groups with 15oo sales people.

SS: There are 6 user groups. I guess we’d need their buy in.

SDM: I’m curious about the tech group. Your solution has a complicated implementation process and takes quite a bit of collaboration with the in-house folks. Does the tech team know they will need to free up folks for the implementation? Or are they going to outsource all of this? Or some combination?

SS: I have no way of knowing that.

SDM: That’s correct. And neither do they. And until they figure that out, they cannot buy your solution. In fact, until they have the entire Buying Decision Team on board, they can’t buy. There are too many people who need to have a voice, too many unknown decisions to make, too many buying and implementation criteria to take into account. And you can’t understand any of this – or be directly involved in doing it for the prospect. But you can lead them through their decisions so they have a path to follow. Otherwise you can wait until they figure it out themselves.

SS: So this meeting tomorrow is too early, with too few of the Buying Decision Team members, and giving them a big presentation right now is wasting my time and theirs because we don’t have all of the right people and they don’t have all of their buying criteria. This is why my sales take years to close. What do I do tomorrow? I bet you’re going to tell me not to make a presentation.

SDM: Let’s put together a list of Facilitative Questions that will help them figure out how to manage all of the issues we just discussed. And, at the end, if they still want a bit of your presentation, it’s fine. So long as you understand that their needs might change once all of the Buying Decision Team members have a say in the outcome. Obviously the tech folks will have different purchasing criteria than the sales folks, and the users won’t want anything new. And now, no one knows any of this.

Until or unless all of the members of the Buying Decision Team are on board, the buyer can not know their full set of buying criteria – or even the full definition of their need. When sellers go in and first attempt to ‘understand need’ or even ‘know who is on the Buying Decision Team [useless data as an outsider is not an influencer on the Team]‘ or offer solution data, they are wasting a lot of time and delaying the buying decision.

Facilitate buy-in, manage change, and help gather the correct Buying Decision Team members first. Then help them all figure out their buying, buy-in, and change criteria. And THEN you can focus on the need and your solution. And close a lot more sales a whole lot faster.

sd

Read sample chapters of Buying Facilitation®: the new way to sell that influences and expands decisions. This book is a very clear discussion of what Buying Facilitation® is and does. It’s tactical; my book Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it is strategic. You can get them both in a bundle with an additional illustrated booklet in a bundle at www.buyingfacilitation.com

Help Buyers Choose the Buying Decision Team: a case study is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Einstein was afraid that technology might outrun our humanity. Not sure he was talking about email and info overload, but his concern certainly applies in high stakes communication situations.

Technology has us all rushing around working faster and faster. Time to think has been lost.  In a business world of increasing complexity, commoditization of offerings, and limited attention spans, failure to push back and protect your time to think can be fatal to your bottom-line.

Here are two examples of how  failure to think strategically results in an inability to execute brilliantly.

In Presenting… I see people failing to think in these basic, but critical, areas:
1.     What is the clear, crisp, memorable message I want to leave with my listeners?
2.     What is the specific appropriate next step I want from my listeners?
3.     What are the best ways to visually support what I am saying?
Poor strategic thinking leads to confusion, longer sales cycles, and/or no sale.

In Negotiating… I see people failing to think in these, again, basic, but critical, areas:
1.      What will I ask for, what will I accept, what will I walk away from?
2.      What can I trade to prevent deadlock?
3.      What does the other side need to feel good about our agreement?

Poor strategic thinking here leads to weakened relationships, money left on the table, or no deal when one was possible.

Slow Down. You Move Too Fast… Years ago, before our current tech info deluge, I used to say, laughingly, to seminar attendees, “Engage mind before mouth.” Now, I say that in total seriousness. The stakes are too high to waste those precious face-to-face opportunities you have with clients. Think first. Execute second.

Anne Miller

P.S. Did you know that when you work and constantly interrupt yourself to answer a phone, respond to the ping of an email, or jump from proposal to proposal that it takes you about 17 seconds to re-focus yourself on your task? Multi-tasking is a myth. You can only concentrate with complete focus on one item at a time (Try talking on the phone and watching TV with EQUAL attention. You can’t do it.) If you want to be more productive, give yourself permission to finish one activity before jumping to the next.

Guest Blog: Think Strategically. Execute Brilliantly. is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

You are carefully prepared: great outfit, warm smile, solid slides, good knowledge of the needs and how to parallel them with your material. But wait: who, exactly, are you presenting to? And how do you know the members of the Buying Decision Team are present? or if what you are presenting will fit with the  non-need-related elements of their buying criteria? After all: resolving a need has many elements that don’t apply directly to the problem or solution, and without the full complement issues managed, buyers can’t buy regardless of the efficacy of your solution.

I believe sellers present their product data far too early in the buying decision cycle and buyers really can’t effectively use all of the data offered. Remember that before buyers can finally buy, they must go through a wide array of behind-the-scenes change issues and decisions that affect their people and policies, relationships and market issues. When you stand up to present your solution, you have no idea what is going on internally, nor where they are in relation to getting the buy-in they need to make a change or a purchase.

Sadly, not only do you not know exactly where your buyers are in their decision cycle or how your buyers will buy, they don’t either. And because they haven’t completed their internal journey yet, they don’t actually know all that they need from an external vendor, nor do they know what they don’t need. It’s far, far too early.

WHO IS IN THE ROOM? HOW ARE THEIR DECISIONS WEIGHTED?

Additionally you don’t always know who is in the room. Invariably, one or two extra people show up. Sure, we have their business cards and know their titles, but we have no idea how their political capital is weighted in the room. Do they have history with other vendors? Do they represent an in-house solution? Are they seeking to make points by picking apart your presentation later? You have no way of knowing.

What makes it even scarier, is that you may not know the underlying choice criteria of the folks you DO know in the room:

1. What criteria are they using to choose you over the competition?
2. What will they be evaluating your presentation on – your knowledge, your solution, your professionalism, or how your material fits with their buying decision criteria?
3. How will you know, as you prepare for your presentation, which points to stress, which to omit, which to have a group discussion around?

How can you show the prospect that you want to match your solution with their buying criteria if they haven’t yet figured it all out themselves? After all, their specific need that your solution can manage is only one aspect of all of the issues that must be resolved alongside of a new purchase. How can you design a presentation that will match their need and your solution in a way that ensures that your solution can enter their environment with little disruption?

MANAGE BUYING DECISION CRITERIA BEFORE YOU PRESENT

Here are a few recommendations I have to help you present in a way that manages a buying decision team’s Buying Decision Criteria.

1. Before presenting anything, ask the folks in the room what they hope to take away from your time together. Wait for several responses and begin a dialogue with the room. Help the people get into agreement, so they all are viewing your presentation from the same viewpoint. That proves that you are a leader and care about them as a team, rather than having them care about your solution.
2. Help them uncover their buying criteria, separate from resolving their need. Make sure they all know that they are ready, willing, and able to use an outside vendor rather than a familiar one they’ve used before, or an internal solution. Make certain they know how to bring in your solution in a way that will create buy-in. Until they know all this, they will only use your material to give to the other vendor.
3. Create presentation material that will address how your solution will manage each element of their buying criteria. It must be based on their buying patterns, not your selling patterns. The next vendor will be as professional, caring, and smart as you. But if they are focusing on their solution details rather than the buyer’s criteria, they will lose to you.

Make certain that you create the right audience, the right materials, and the right collaboration environment to help buyers choose you.

sd

Presentations – Tips to help you beat your competition is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

I’ve been here an hour, and already have met my goals: I’ve spoken with a few folks who follow my work and had questions (who knew?); one man taught me how to video myself at my local talks so I can get them on  line for you all (I never think that way, unfortunately); my own workshop (How to get strategic buy-in from the ground up, inside to outside) is going to be full.

The truly cool thing about ProductCamp (besides that it’s free) is that all 250 participants get to vote on which workshops they want to attend, with the top 30 being chosen. A truly democratic event where everyone have a voice.

I’ll let you know what I learn as I go through my day. 9:17 a.m.

ProductCamp Austin is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Whenever we stand in front of a room and pitch data, we have no idea how the folks are viewing us or our solution, what the politics in the room are and how the personalities are weighted, how we are being perceived in relation to our competitors, their old vendors or their on-site team mates who are currently providing a work-around until a new solution gets chosen.

We’ve made great pitches to buyers who have needed us, but haven’t gotten the work because we haven’t managed the off-line issues that we are blissfully unaware of until we lose the sale. That doesn’t need to happen.

Watch my brief video and begin thinking about how to use the presentation process differently. After all, you’re there, in front of the prospect anyway: consider adding a decision facilitation session to the front end of your conversation before you show them your solution details. They won’t make a buying decision until they do that anyway, and if you don’t help them, they’ll do it off-line, without you.

Do you want to be on the Buying Decision Team? or do you want to sit and wait while they make their decisions without you. Because they need to make them anyway. Might as well be with you.

sd

Today, Oct 29, is your last day to get your freebies for purchasing Dirty Little Secrets.  I hope you’re all enjoying the new book. I’m sure enjoying our emails and your questions. I’ll soon put together call-in coaching sessions so I can help you learn. Stay tuned. And thank you for your care.

A New Presentation Model: Facilitate the Decision is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

It’s amazing, in fact. Separate from the buying decision end of the sales process that my stuff  Buying Facilitation™ manages, and sitting squarely in the Sales Tools end of the sales spectrum, Nancy’s site is amazing.

Have a look: Smart Selling Tools.

You need a contract? She’s got it. You need to create an on-line presentation and want to capture the site visitors? She’s got it. You  want to analyze data from a prospect’s company to see if you should be selling to them? She’s got it.

It’s pretty awesome. All at the touch of a button, you can have just about anything you need to help you during the ‘sales’ end of your seller/buyer management.

Nancy also has links to other sales experts, categorized, so you can find who and what you need. I’m very impressed that Nancy has made everything so brainless – and professional.

In fact, Nancy is even opening up a dialogue – creating a community, if you will – to give sellers the opportunity to discuss, discover, and experience the best in the field. She has a very high criteria for having everything you need to help YOU be a professional.

Go to her site and play around. Everything is so seamless. I think you’ll like it.

sd

Nancy Nardin Has It is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com