I recently got a call from a prospect who said all of the above. Yes, they know everything – and do whatever they need to do, and do it well. Why aren’t they closing more? This is the perennial problem for a sales professional. It makes no sense: sellers can see the problem – seen it hundreds of times. You know your solution fits. Perfectly. The buyer knows they need you. The buyer is ok with the price. You two have a great relationship. And then they disappear, with about 90% of the other prospects you’ve been nurturing.

It’s an age old problem, one I’ve been talking about for 20 years. But after the conversations I’ve had this week, I thought it might be time to review.

THE SALES MODEL ONLY MANAGES 10% OF THE BUYING JOURNEY

It’s not the fault of your solution. The problem is with the sales process. It merely handles a tiny part of the buyer’s decision making. They actually have a rigorous set of change management activities they must complete, among colleagues and departments (or family members), before they can consider making a purchase. I’ve written a whole book about this (Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it). Let me share some insights (and then, if I’ve made some sense to you, go buy the book! or at least read the sample chapters).

1. you are acting as if the buyer’s need/problem were an isolated event. Stop it. It’s not. It’s part of something larger that you aren’t privy to and that has sat there, functioning ‘well-enough’, for some time.
2. if the buyer really believed they needed your solution they would have gotten it – or something like it - already.
3. buyers don’t want your solution. They want to resolve a problem in the most efficient, effective way that creates the least disruption.
4. understanding what the buyer needs is not going to help them make a buying decision, even if you’re right, and even if they need your solution.
5. sellers can only understand that part of the ‘need’ that they can see or surmise. There is much more going on that is unseen, endemic, and visible only to insiders.
6. whatever data you collect from technology does not give you what you need to help buyers navigate through their behind-the-scenes political issues.
7. just because someone looks like a prospect and acts like a prospect doesn’t mean she’s a prospect.
8. your problem is not a sales problem; it’s about what buyers need to go through with colleagues and business practices before they can decide to buy. You know how to sell. That’s not what is going on here. That’s not keeping the buyer from buying.
9. if you hear yourself saying “That buyer is stupid” please consider that it isn’t the buyer who’s stupid.
10. until or unless the buyer figures out how to manage all of the off-line, behind-the-scenes decisi0n issues they need to address amongst themselves and colleagues (and vendors and investors and and and) they will do nothing regardless of their need. They never need it as bad as you think they do. They have work-arounds.
11. to make any change or purchase, the buyer must go through some private stuff that you can’t be a part of so long as you continue operating out of a sales mind. They’re going to go through this with you or without you: might as well be with you. But the sales model doesn’t offer skills to help this part of the decision journey.
12. buyers buy using their buying patterns, not your selling patterns. Buying is a change management problem, not a solution choice activity. Choosing a solution is the very last thing that happens.
13. buyers don’t even know how to make sense of your solution data until they are far into the choice process.
14. with the capabilities of technology the sales job is doomed. Unless you add some new skills, what you are doing is not going to be needed for much longer.

Did I get your attention? Great. Because I can fix all of the above. Buy my book. Have me do a keynote for your company. Have me come and train. License my material. Get some of the Learning Accelerators. But whatever you do, do it while you still have a job.

sd

You have a buying process problem, not a selling problem is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

How do you decide whose advice to take when you have a sales problem? Do you go to the old tried-and-true masters? The new thinkers?

Do you want to know how technology is making a difference? Or just how to decrease the forEVER sales cycle?

Well, all of the answers should be found in this anthology of the best sales thinking in the world today (Full disclosure: I’m in the book.). Eric Taylor and David Riklan, the Creators of the “Mastering the World” book series, are releasing their newest masterpiece Mastering the World of Selling. They did some research, found the best of the best, and asked us all to submit our most provocative, forward-thinking, and representative articles.

From Dale Carnegie to Buying Facilitation™, from webinars to ebooks, this book is like the bible of selling. Not only is the book filled with usable ideas that you can immediately apply from whatever sales thinking floats your boat, but the book is actually well written.

Find more leads. Generate more business. Close more sales. B2B? B2C? Complex sale? Small product sale? Influencing? Presenting? It’s all there. And, if you act right away, most of us have given Eric and David free stuff you can get when you buy the book.

Run to Barnes and Noble. Get onto Amazon. Buy copies for your whole team. Any way you do it, get the book. And then write me a note and thank me.

sd

Mastering the World of Selling is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Here is a story from a client in Australia.

Jack was the MD of the Sydney office of his firm, with his supervisor living in the States. He was successful, and left to his own devices much of the time, but needed his superior for large out-of-budget decisions.

One day he decided that if the company manufactured a new tool, that there would be a huge savings and would address the lagging market share. He spent a month looking around, and found a tool manufacturer in Germany. The sales rep and engineer flew from Berlin down to Sydney (a loooong bus ride) and started designing this tool. Over the course of a year, they all met 3 times (Are you calculating the costs yet for these trips?). Once he had the tool in hand, my client flew to the States (Are you still calculating travel costs??) to talk to his boss. The conversation didn’t take long.

“A new tool? Looks great. We’ve been trying to figure out how to tackle the market-share problem, and we think we’ve come up with several ideas. We’re going to try these – roll them out and follow them. And if we don’t have the success we think we’ll have, I’ll give you a call and we can talk about this new tool. Give me about 2 years to roll out and trial everything we’re already thinking of.”

But there is another way this might have happened that would have been more successful – and cheaper.

First, from the German manufacturing folks:

BERLIN: You want a new tool? What would you want it to give you that you don’t already have now? And what has stopped you from creating one yourselves? How would you and your Buying Decision Team know that this tool would give you the results you seek?

NOTE: these few Facilitative Questions would have gotten everyone on track, and saved the guys a lotta money traveling down to Sydney — and gotten the MD on the phone to his boss before moving ahead on anything. Like other sales folks, they assumed they had a buyer. They merely had a prospect: the buyer did not know how to line up his ‘team’ around a buying decision. And it had nothing whatsoever to do with the solution, the price, the need, or the relationship.

Next, let’s look at it from the ‘client’s’ viewpoint and see how he could have mitigated the situation before spending an expensive year. Not only would he have known that it wouldn’t be possible, but he actually might have shifted the possibility.

MD: Hi Steven. I have a question: How are you and the Board currently thinking about increasing market share? I have an idea that includes a new piece of equipment and would differentiate us at very little cost. How would you all know that something like that is worth considering? What would you need to see from me? And how would you and the Board want to own the solution so it could ‘come from you’ seemlessly without the other MDs feeling I went over their heads?

There are always political problems between the ranks that are part of the system that keeps the status quo in place. Folks have to figure out how to manage these so that when they decide on solutions, the internal  political issues don’t get knocked out of shape. This exchange would have not only opened the possibility of a new solution, but managed the internal issues – and all before any trips or time or cost. And it could have taken place on the phone or on a video call.

For some reason, we always have our sales radar ON: is there a need? what is the problem that we can resolve? We listen and ask through biases, and only focus on how our solution can be used. We forget that it’s merely one part of what needs to get done. And it’s now possible to help buyers do the stuff they’ve always struggled with: get their entire buying decision team in place so they can figure out if they want to move forward to fix a problem that your solution can resolve. Until they figure out how to do this, they will do nothing. And your solution will never be bought. Would you rather sell? or have someone buy?

sd

It’s not about your solution, folks. That’s the last thing that happens. The system must first decide to do something different. And you can have a bit of control by using Buying Facilitation™ before sales.

The Decisions Before Selling is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

I hope you laughed at this cartoon. Indeed, the cartoon is all-too-accurate: what are we trying to sell our prospects?

We are so busy trying to get them to agree with us and close a sale, that we sometimes don’t know what we are selling.

Are we selling them a solution so they will solve a problem? A new gizmo so they can do a better job? An additional tool kit to add to what they already have? A solution to replace an old one that doesn’t work so well anymore? Something they didn’t know they needed? Something they know they need but don’t think they want?

Do you know who buys you and why? Do you know why some prospects close and some don’t? Do you know why it’s best to approach one prospect one way, and another a different way – or do you just be You all the time and don’t reposition yourself according to each situation? And if you do the latter, are you just selling You?

What’s the difference between selling and helping someone make a buying decision? And how do you expect buyers to understand you if you are presenting your data into their belief system without them determining how to buy in to a new solution?

Just asking :)

sd

If you are looking for help discovering the answers to some of these questions, I can coach you.

What are you trying to sell? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

What is the job of a sales person? Some think it’s about providing solutions. Certainly, serving customers is part of it. I’d like to offer a different definition. I believe the job of a seller is to help a buyer be Excellent.

Until now, we’ve thought that we could help buyers achieve Excellence through a product purchase. But since we actually close such a small percentage of our sales, and spend so much time with a prospect/buyer that is not in direct service to a solution placement, I’d like to think that we have a broader role.

As sellers, we know how to sell. But, as I’ve said so many, many times, buyers have a lotta work to do before they get to the point of being ready to buy: they have to manage their entire internal system of behind-the-scenes issues – the people, policies, rules, relationships, vendors, partners – and make sure that all of the appropriate buy-in is enlisted. Without this happening, there will be no purchase. As I write about in detail in my book Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it without going through a change management exercise internally, buyers can’t risk making a purchase that might upset the status quo. They would rather maintain what they’ve got rather than seek the Excellence that is possible, if the downside is a system that faces chaos or disruption.

Enter the new sales person. The new sales person recognizes that there are two disparate sets of activities that buyers must manage: 1. get interal buy-in from the appropriate systemic elements; 2. choose an acceptable solution/vendor. The new sales person will have the tools of  decision facilitation and enter the conversation as a neutral navigator – a Buying Facilitator, if you will - with a goal to facilitate the internal change and choice issues, and no bias around when, or how, to place a solution. Indeed this initial phase will entail different listening and questioning skills and different expectations.

With a seller supporting this part of their decision making, the buyer will learn to quickly discover and enlist the entire Buying Decision Team, discover people issues and old vendor problems, and create a route through systemic change. Buyers have to do change management anyway, and the time it takes them to do that is the length of the sales cycle. Because once they get buy-in and a route forward, then (and only then) they need to choose a supplier and a solution.

Imagine if we had a skill set that enabled us to actually help buyers navigate through their internal change management issues so they could figure out how to achieve Excellence. Then we’d be able to fulfill the real job of sales: to create excellence.

sd

The Job of Sales: creating excellence is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

These sales folks are long-term professionals, responsible for millions of dollars of business annually. Yet they are discovering wholly new responses and possibilities for starting client relationships.

What are they doing differently from what they used to do? They are directing their efforts to supporting the off-line issues prospects have to address before they are in a position to consider making a buying decision. They are not using sales techniques. They are not gathering data, or understanding needs, or pitching. But their results are far more successful than if they were selling.

My client sells JIT learning solutions to large numbers of users in corporations, universities, and government agencies. Usually, their sales cycles are long because of the different types of decision makers involved: L&D, HR, technology, Training. Now, using Buying Facilitation, with a single cold call, they are learning how to efficiently lead buyers through their normally confusing journey through internal buy-in for change.

Here is what my clients are noticing on these cold calls:

1. time: cold calls are going from an average of 4 minutes to 24 minutes.
2. acceptance: without asking for a meeting, they are being asked to come in for face-to-face meetings in order to meet the whole Buying Decision Team.
3. respect: within the first 15 minutes of the cold call, their opinion is being sought and prospects are asking how to best bring my client’s solution into their environment.
4. creativity: the prospects are opening to new possibilities that they hadn’t considered, with initial plans to use my client’s solution as part of their internal resources.
5. rapport: laughter, fun, teasing, collaboration. Within minutes they are in a “We Space.” It’s delightful to hear.
6. numbers: they are going from getting 10-15% agreement for a face  meeting, to being asked to come in and present about 40% of the time (with no numbers yet available as to how that will increase by the second call).

FACILITATING DECISIONS

Are we selling? Well, no. But the buyers are being given the tools to put together the right decision teams and make plans to design internal change initiatives that include my client’s product. On the first call.

By helping buyers manage their off-line decision-making and helping them understand and consider how to welcome and manage change, they are opening the door to a sale, entering the buyer’s environment far earlier than they could if they were selling, and becoming part of the Buying Decision Team on a cold call. They are indeed collapsing the sales cycle.

Most of all, they are truly serving their prospects and helping them discover their own excellence. If we can’t help our buyers achieve excellence, we’ve got nothing to sell anyway.

sd

p.s. If you want to contact my client Peter Casebow to find out how he is finding the change, and how it is affecting his business, email him.

A Case Study In Buying Facilitation® is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Sharon Drew Morgen here. As a kickoff to my new book that gives sellers tools to help buyers make business decisions in this uncertain economy – HOW MANY HANDS ON THE ELEPHANT – I’m planning a world tour. My hope is that between us, we could figure out a way to create a half-day workshop to *introduce ways to help clients or staff successfully manage this mysterious economy *help customers learn some new decision strategies *expand our business opportunities.

My book premise is this: Given the state of the economy,  buyers are having difficulty making any decisions at all:

1.  they have no benchmarks, in this sort of economy, to make decisions from;

2 .  they’ve never had to manage risk in an information vacuum;

3.  long term strategic decisions are moot now;

4.  decision teams are shifting, jobs are falling by the wayside, and neither political capital or brain capital are relevant.

My new book introduces the different types of decisions buyers now must make - not necessarily involving product or need - and gives sellers tools to shift their conversation from solution provider to be a true Decision Strategist and servant leader. See the article below as an intro to my new thinking.

My plan is to come to major cities around the world and give a ½ day workshop (Proposed title: The new seller/buyer relationship: using the economy as the instrument to help us serve our clients and engender trust.) to start the discussion around how the economy can be used as a reason to collaborate.

Hopefully, this would help you have new discussions with your clients as well , and bring in some income for us both. I’m also seeking international business partners who might have interest in running new programs  to use this material in Negotiating, Coaching, Risk Management, Decision Making, OD.

Is it worth a conversation? You’d have to help me find participants  and venue. I’m available to run a Webinar, make conference calls, and do the ‘heavy lifting’; I don’t need to get your client emails, etc.

Thanks for your consideration. My goal is to help ensure we all have business and income during this difficult time, and find ways to serve clients in a way that puts us on the client’s decision team.

I look forward to a conversation to see what’s possible. And thanks.

Read: Selling In A Gloomy Economy

Selling in a Bad Economy / 1/2 Day Global Tour is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com