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The Core Concept
The core principle driving the Strategic Selling approach is a commitment to a non-manipulative selling philosophy. The key to achieving sales success lies in treating every sales objective as a collaborative endeavor. Sales professionals should establish a framework that promotes a win-win scenario, where both the buyer and the seller can mutually benefit and achieve their goals.
The “New Strategic Selling” book is designed to assist you in navigating the intricate web of data and information surrounding complex sales. It provides a dependable method for analyzing data, enhancing your positioning with key accounts, and effectively closing business deals.
Strategic Selling
Successful Selling in a World of Constant Change
Complex Sales:
This book highlights Complex Sales, where multiple approvals are needed for buying decisions, often due to bureaucratic processes.
Change and Strategic Selling:
In the dynamic corporate landscape, adapting to changes in markets, technology, and more is essential for crafting effective selling strategies.
Three Strategic Selling Premises:
1. Past success won’t sustain your future.
2. In Complex Sales, strategy underpins tactical plans.
3. Success in sales requires a deep understanding of your actions and their purpose.
Three Strategic Selling Premises:
1. Past success won’t sustain your future.
2. In Complex Sales, strategy underpins tactical plans.
3. Success in sales requires a deep understanding of your actions and their purpose.
Strategy and Tactics Defined
A successful sales strategy aims to position you correctly, with the right individuals, at the opportune moment, enabling a well-tailored tactical presentation. Strategy encompasses the preparatory steps taken before a sales call, while tactics involve the execution process.
Setting the Account Strategy: Four Steps to Success
1. Assess your current standing in relation to the account and your sales goal.
2. Contemplate various alternate positions.
3. Identify the most effective Alternate Position to achieve your objective and create an Action Plan.
4. Put your Action Plan into action.
1. Assess your current standing in relation to the account and your sales goal.
2. Contemplate various alternate positions.
3. Identify the most effective Alternate Position to achieve your objective and create an Action Plan.
4. Put your Action Plan into action.
Your Starting Point: Position
Account Strategy and Positioning:
In the realm of account strategy, effective positioning is paramount. Thoroughly grasping your current position involves understanding your key players, their sentiments toward you and your proposal, and the array of options they have.
In the realm of account strategy, effective positioning is paramount. Thoroughly grasping your current position involves understanding your key players, their sentiments toward you and your proposal, and the array of options they have.
Personal Workshop 1: Position
This workshop is designed to address the challenges of your present sales situation. Its purpose is to identify the factors contributing to your current uncertainties, assess their impact on your sales objectives, and enhance the visibility of your account’s position.
Step 1: Identify Relevant Changes
List the changes affecting your business approach, categorizing them as sudden events, gradual shifts, or continuous growth.
Step 2: Rate the Changes as Threats or Opportunities
Label changes as opportunities (O) or threats (T) based on your perception of their impact.
Step 3: Define Your Current Single Sales Objective
Clearly articulate your short-term, measurable, and focused sales objective for the chosen account.
Step 4: Test your Current Position
Evaluate your confidence in achieving the objective and make necessary strategy adjustments.
Step 5: Examine Alternate Positions
Explore alternative positions to improve the likelihood of attaining your Single Sales Objective.
Step 1: Identify Relevant Changes
List the changes affecting your business approach, categorizing them as sudden events, gradual shifts, or continuous growth.
Step 2: Rate the Changes as Threats or Opportunities
Label changes as opportunities (O) or threats (T) based on your perception of their impact.
Step 3: Define Your Current Single Sales Objective
Clearly articulate your short-term, measurable, and focused sales objective for the chosen account.
Step 4: Test your Current Position
Evaluate your confidence in achieving the objective and make necessary strategy adjustments.
Step 5: Examine Alternate Positions
Explore alternative positions to improve the likelihood of attaining your Single Sales Objective.
Your Strategy Blueprint: The Six Key Elements of Strategic Selling
1.Buying Influences
2. Red Flags/Leverage from Strength
3. Response Modes
4. Win-Results
5. Ideal Customer Profile
6. Sales Funnel
2. Red Flags/Leverage from Strength
3. Response Modes
4. Win-Results
5. Ideal Customer Profile
6. Sales Funnel
Building on Bedrock: Laying the Foundation of Strategic Analysis
Key Element 1: Buying Influences
In every Complex Sale, the foundation of Strategic Selling lies in understanding and identifying the four critical Buying Influence roles, often referred to as Buyers. Each of these roles is pivotal to the sales process:
1. Economic Buying Influence: The individual responsible for granting final approval to the purchase.
2. User Buying Influence: Those who evaluate how your product or service will impact their job performance.
3. Technical Buying Influences: Individuals who screen potential suppliers.
4. Coach: The Coach plays a vital role in guiding you towards your sales objective. They provide insights and information to help you effectively engage with the other Buyers.
In Complex Sales, it’s essential to sell your proposal to all individuals in these four Buying Influence roles, rather than assuming that securing approval from a single key decision-maker will ensure success.
1. Economic Buying Influence: The individual responsible for granting final approval to the purchase.
2. User Buying Influence: Those who evaluate how your product or service will impact their job performance.
3. Technical Buying Influences: Individuals who screen potential suppliers.
4. Coach: The Coach plays a vital role in guiding you towards your sales objective. They provide insights and information to help you effectively engage with the other Buyers.
In Complex Sales, it’s essential to sell your proposal to all individuals in these four Buying Influence roles, rather than assuming that securing approval from a single key decision-maker will ensure success.
Key Element 2: Red Flags/Leverage from Strength
The second element of our strategy is geared towards pinpointing your positioning challenges with utmost precision. Our program has noticed that the sales commission leaders, those consistently exceeding their quotas by 200 or 300 percent, excel in identifying Red Flags in their accounts.
Here are the Five Automatic Red Flag Areas to watch out for:
1. Missing critical information.
2. Uncertainty regarding available information.
3. Any Buying Influence left uncontacted.
4. Buying Influences new to their roles.
5. Organizational reconfigurations.
Buyer Level of Receptivity
It’s crucial to assess the Buyer’s receptivity to your proposals because without this understanding, you might find yourself attempting to sell to someone who isn’t truly engaged.
A Buying Influence can exhibit four distinct reactions, referred to as Response Modes, in a sales scenario. Each mode stems from a unique perception of the immediate business reality, resulting in varying levels of receptivity to incoming sales proposals. As a strategic sales professional, it’s essential to tailor your sales approach to each of these four perceptions.
Here are the Five Automatic Red Flag Areas to watch out for:
1. Missing critical information.
2. Uncertainty regarding available information.
3. Any Buying Influence left uncontacted.
4. Buying Influences new to their roles.
5. Organizational reconfigurations.
Buyer Level of Receptivity
It’s crucial to assess the Buyer’s receptivity to your proposals because without this understanding, you might find yourself attempting to sell to someone who isn’t truly engaged.
A Buying Influence can exhibit four distinct reactions, referred to as Response Modes, in a sales scenario. Each mode stems from a unique perception of the immediate business reality, resulting in varying levels of receptivity to incoming sales proposals. As a strategic sales professional, it’s essential to tailor your sales approach to each of these four perceptions.
Key Element 3: The Four Response Modes
The First Response Mode: Growth
Buyers in the Growth mode are highly likely to take action. They’re acutely aware of the current business situation and the desired outcomes. If a salesperson can bridge the gap between acknowledged reality and desired results, it increases the chances of securing commitment from the Buyer. Trigger words like “more,” “better,” “faster,” and “improved” are often used, signaling receptivity to change. This mode is typically the easiest to sell to.
The Second Response Mode: Trouble
Buyers in Trouble mode also perceive a discrepancy, but it’s different from those in Growth mode. They seek immediate change to reverse or prevent impending defeat. Buyers in Trouble mode are ready to buy, but not necessarily from you. They will approve proposals that swiftly resolve their perceived problems.
The Third Response Mode: Even Keel
Selling to Buyers in Even Keel is challenging because they don’t see a significant gap between the current reality and desired results. Their mindset is “Don’t rock the boat,” and their willingness to take action is low. Making a sale to them becomes more likely if they foresee Growth or Trouble, are influenced by another Buyer in Growth or Trouble, or if you can reveal a discrepancy they hadn’t noticed.
The Fourth Response Mode: Overconfident
Buyers in Overconfident Mode are the most challenging to sell to. The probability of making a sale to them is virtually zero. They perceive reality as surpassing desired results, providing no incentive to change. In this case, the discrepancy works against the selling organization.
Buyers in the Growth mode are highly likely to take action. They’re acutely aware of the current business situation and the desired outcomes. If a salesperson can bridge the gap between acknowledged reality and desired results, it increases the chances of securing commitment from the Buyer. Trigger words like “more,” “better,” “faster,” and “improved” are often used, signaling receptivity to change. This mode is typically the easiest to sell to.
The Second Response Mode: Trouble
Buyers in Trouble mode also perceive a discrepancy, but it’s different from those in Growth mode. They seek immediate change to reverse or prevent impending defeat. Buyers in Trouble mode are ready to buy, but not necessarily from you. They will approve proposals that swiftly resolve their perceived problems.
The Third Response Mode: Even Keel
Selling to Buyers in Even Keel is challenging because they don’t see a significant gap between the current reality and desired results. Their mindset is “Don’t rock the boat,” and their willingness to take action is low. Making a sale to them becomes more likely if they foresee Growth or Trouble, are influenced by another Buyer in Growth or Trouble, or if you can reveal a discrepancy they hadn’t noticed.
The Fourth Response Mode: Overconfident
Buyers in Overconfident Mode are the most challenging to sell to. The probability of making a sale to them is virtually zero. They perceive reality as surpassing desired results, providing no incentive to change. In this case, the discrepancy works against the selling organization.
The Importance of Winning
The Four Quadrants of the Win-Win Matrix:
In sales encounters, both buyers and sellers hope for a win, but this isn’t always the outcome. The Win-Win Matrix outlines four possible results:
1. I Win-You Win: The Joint Venture Quadrant
– When your Buyers win, you win too, as you gain repeat business and new leads.
– Aligning with your Buying Influences’ self-interests is the most effective way to serve your own.
2. I Win-You Lose: Beating the Buyer
– This quadrant, where you win and the buyer loses, is to be avoided.
– It’s short-term and unstable, inevitably leading to a lose-lose situation over time.
3. I Lose-You Win: Doing the Buyer A “Favor”
– This approach relies on the expectation that the customer will reciprocate in the future.
– The problem is one of perception, as it creates a false sense of reality that is not sustainable.
– Like the Win-Lose quadrant, it eventually degenerates into a lose-lose situation.
4. I Lose-You Lose: The Default Quadrant
– Often referred to as the “catchall” quadrant, it captures sales that haven’t been actively managed into Win-Win outcomes.
– This quadrant represents unintended and unfavorable outcomes, leading to a lose-lose scenario.
In sales encounters, both buyers and sellers hope for a win, but this isn’t always the outcome. The Win-Win Matrix outlines four possible results:
1. I Win-You Win: The Joint Venture Quadrant
– When your Buyers win, you win too, as you gain repeat business and new leads.
– Aligning with your Buying Influences’ self-interests is the most effective way to serve your own.
2. I Win-You Lose: Beating the Buyer
– This quadrant, where you win and the buyer loses, is to be avoided.
– It’s short-term and unstable, inevitably leading to a lose-lose situation over time.
3. I Lose-You Win: Doing the Buyer A “Favor”
– This approach relies on the expectation that the customer will reciprocate in the future.
– The problem is one of perception, as it creates a false sense of reality that is not sustainable.
– Like the Win-Lose quadrant, it eventually degenerates into a lose-lose situation.
4. I Lose-You Lose: The Default Quadrant
– Often referred to as the “catchall” quadrant, it captures sales that haven’t been actively managed into Win-Win outcomes.
– This quadrant represents unintended and unfavorable outcomes, leading to a lose-lose scenario.
Key Element 4: Win-Results
The Win-Results concept is founded on the following key terms:
Selling:
Selling is a professional and interactive process aimed at demonstrating to all your Buying Influences how your product or service serves their individual self-interest.
Product:
A product is designed to enhance or address one or more of your customer’s business processes. In Strategic Selling, “product” encompasses both tangible products and services, depending on what you’re selling.
Process:
A process refers to an activity or a series of activities that transform the current state into something different. Examples include shipping, invoicing, production, research and development, and quality control.
Result:
A result is the measurable impact that a product delivers. Results are objective and corporate, focusing on the concrete benefits achieved.
Win:
A Win signifies the realization of a subjective, personal promise made to oneself to advance one’s self-interest in a unique manner. Wins vary from person to person, reflecting individual objectives and aspirations.
Win-Result:
A Win-Result is an objective business outcome that provides one or more of your Buying Influences with a subjective, personal Win, aligning business benefits with individual satisfaction.
Selling:
Selling is a professional and interactive process aimed at demonstrating to all your Buying Influences how your product or service serves their individual self-interest.
Product:
A product is designed to enhance or address one or more of your customer’s business processes. In Strategic Selling, “product” encompasses both tangible products and services, depending on what you’re selling.
Process:
A process refers to an activity or a series of activities that transform the current state into something different. Examples include shipping, invoicing, production, research and development, and quality control.
Result:
A result is the measurable impact that a product delivers. Results are objective and corporate, focusing on the concrete benefits achieved.
Win:
A Win signifies the realization of a subjective, personal promise made to oneself to advance one’s self-interest in a unique manner. Wins vary from person to person, reflecting individual objectives and aspirations.
Win-Result:
A Win-Result is an objective business outcome that provides one or more of your Buying Influences with a subjective, personal Win, aligning business benefits with individual satisfaction.
Common Problems, Uncommon Solutions
Getting to the Economic Buying Influence: Strategies and Tactics
When it comes to Economic Buying Influences, effectively engaging with them is crucial for achieving a Win-Win outcome in Strategic Selling. However, it can be more challenging with Economic Buyers due to two key differences:
1. Economic Buying Influences are harder to identify compared to other Buying Influences.
2. They are often more challenging to reach, both physically and psychologically, than those occupying User and Technical Buying roles.
1. Economic Buying Influences are harder to identify compared to other Buying Influences.
2. They are often more challenging to reach, both physically and psychologically, than those occupying User and Technical Buying roles.
To navigate these challenges and improve your interactions with Economic Buyers, consider these key questions:
1. What do I need to FIND OUT? – Understand the specific needs and concerns of the Economic Buyer.
2. What do I want the Economic Buyer to KNOW? – Communicate the value and benefits of your product or service clearly
3. What do I want the Economic Buyer to DO? – Encourage them to take actions that align with their business objectives.
4. What do I want the Economic Buyer to FEEL? – Strive to create a positive and confident impression, addressing their emotional aspects.
By addressing these questions, you can improve your approach and communication with Economic Buying Influences, ultimately increasing your chances of a Win-Win outcome.
1. What do I need to FIND OUT? – Understand the specific needs and concerns of the Economic Buyer.
2. What do I want the Economic Buyer to KNOW? – Communicate the value and benefits of your product or service clearly
3. What do I want the Economic Buyer to DO? – Encourage them to take actions that align with their business objectives.
4. What do I want the Economic Buyer to FEEL? – Strive to create a positive and confident impression, addressing their emotional aspects.
By addressing these questions, you can improve your approach and communication with Economic Buying Influences, ultimately increasing your chances of a Win-Win outcome.
The Coach: Developing Your Prime Information Resource
The authors emphasize the significance of cultivating Coaches to enhance your strategic position with other Buying Influences. Effective Coaching can make the difference between a sale that nearly closes and one that not only closes in your favor but also generates ongoing Win-Win sales opportunities.Coaches must be thoughtfully selected and then developed as valuable assets for your specific sales objectives.
A proficient Coach primarily functions as an information resource. They not only validate the accuracy of the information you receive but also provide insights that may be otherwise unavailable.
A proficient Coach primarily functions as an information resource. They not only validate the accuracy of the information you receive but also provide insights that may be otherwise unavailable.
The Three Coaching Criteria:
1. Your Credibility:
Your credibility as a salesperson is vital. A Coach will be more effective if they believe in your ability and trust your expertise.
2. The Coach’s Credibility:
The Coach’s own credibility is equally important. Their influence and standing within the organization can significantly impact your sales efforts.
3. Desiring Your Success:
A Coach’s genuine desire for your success is a critical factor. When they are invested in your achievements, they can provide valuable support and guidance to help you achieve your sales goals.
Your credibility as a salesperson is vital. A Coach will be more effective if they believe in your ability and trust your expertise.
2. The Coach’s Credibility:
The Coach’s own credibility is equally important. Their influence and standing within the organization can significantly impact your sales efforts.
3. Desiring Your Success:
A Coach’s genuine desire for your success is a critical factor. When they are invested in your achievements, they can provide valuable support and guidance to help you achieve your sales goals.
What about the Competition?
In the context of Strategic Selling, competition encompasses any alternative solution to the one you and your company are presenting.
There are several types of competition:
• Buy from someone else.
• Use internal resources.
• Use budget for something else.
• Do nothing
The Proactive Alternative: Restoring Differentiation
The proactive alternative is to shift the focus away from what the competition is doing, has done, or might do, and instead concentrate on the fundamental purpose of selling: providing customized solutions to individuals’ problems.
Strategy and Territory: Focusing on Your Win-Win Customers
Key Element 5: Ideal Customer
The purpose of the Ideal Customer concept is to assist you in pinpointing your most promising prospects while distinguishing them from potential liabilities. Indiscriminate selling to everyone can result in poor matches and unproductive orders. By assessing your actual customers against an Ideal Customer Profile, you can minimize unfavorable orders and ensure that the majority of your sales result in a Win-Win outcome.
Your Ideal Customer Profile: Demographics and Psychographics
Creating an Ideal Customer Profile involves analysing the characteristics common to your existing and past satisfied customers. This profile can serve several purposes:
1. Anticipating Problems:
It can help you identify potential issues within your current customer base.
2. Sorting Device:
Acting as a sorting mechanism, it allows you to focus your efforts on the prospects that are most likely to result in a Win-Win outcome, reducing wasted time on less promising leads.
3. Psychographics Matching:
You should aim to align your customers with the psychographics profile of your firm. The better this alignment, the higher the likelihood of achieving Win-Win Results.
Understanding that people don’t buy solely to fulfill objective business needs is crucial. They also make purchases to achieve personal Wins in addition to getting results.
1. Anticipating Problems:
It can help you identify potential issues within your current customer base.
2. Sorting Device:
Acting as a sorting mechanism, it allows you to focus your efforts on the prospects that are most likely to result in a Win-Win outcome, reducing wasted time on less promising leads.
3. Psychographics Matching:
You should aim to align your customers with the psychographics profile of your firm. The better this alignment, the higher the likelihood of achieving Win-Win Results.
Understanding that people don’t buy solely to fulfill objective business needs is crucial. They also make purchases to achieve personal Wins in addition to getting results.
Strategy and Territory: Managing Your Selling Time
Of Time, Territory, and Money
In the context of the authors’ definition, selling time is defined as any time spent engaging in conversations or asking questions to Buying Influences, with the primary aim of uncovering Growth or Trouble discrepancies. Regrettably, many salespeople are fortunate to have just five to ten hours per week for this vital activity. In practice, even top salespeople typically dedicate only about 5 to 15 percent of their total workweeks actively engaging with customers face-to-face.
Key Element 6: The Sales Funnel
The Sales Funnel empowers you to make the most effective use of your most valuable asset, which is your selling time. It assists in discerning the specific tasks you should be focusing on at any given moment for each sales objective, ultimately helping you strike a balance among the four essential types of work.
Four Parts of Refined Funnels
1.Universe:
• The Universe offers limitless selling opportunities, but for successful selling, you must judiciously narrow your focus to those opportunities with potential for Win-Win outcomes.
• At this level, your primary task is prospecting, which involves searching for a fit. You assess prospects against your Ideal Customer Profile and identify those that align with your criteria.
2. Above the Funnel:
• At this level, you perform a more focused task based on data that suggests compatibility between your companies and the prospect’s immediate needs.
• The work here involves qualifying or verifying the suggestive data, often by contacting Buying Influences, including your Coaches.
3. In the Funnel:
• Sales objectives enter the Funnel when there is verified potential for an order. This verification typically requires contacting at least one Buying Influence and discussing Growth or Trouble.
• The work within the Funnel involves comprehensive strategy implementation, utilizing all Key Elements of strategy.
4. Best Few:
• Sales objectives fall into the Best Few category when luck and uncertainty have been largely eliminated as factors in the final buying decision.
• In this stage, there is at least a 90 percent probability of closing the order in half or less of the normal selling cycle duration.
Priorities and Allocation: Working the Funnel
The primary objective in applying the Sales Funnel concept is to facilitate the steady and predictable progression of your various sales objectives down the funnel. By achieving this, you can ensure that your income remains stable and predictable.
This can be accomplished by:
– Establishing suitable priorities for the four types of selling work that must be undertaken.
– Efficiently allocating your limited selling time to ensure that all four types of work are consistently accomplished.
This can be accomplished by:
– Establishing suitable priorities for the four types of selling work that must be undertaken.
– Efficiently allocating your limited selling time to ensure that all four types of work are consistently accomplished.
Roller Coaster Effect: Cause
– Consistently postponing your prospecting and qualification work can result in these tasks never getting completed.
– When you finish closing all your Best Few and In the Funnel sales objectives, you may find that the top of the Funnel has run dry. This scenario is often referred to as “Dry Funnel Syndrome,” and it contributes to the Roller Coaster Effect in sales.
– When you finish closing all your Best Few and In the Funnel sales objectives, you may find that the top of the Funnel has run dry. This scenario is often referred to as “Dry Funnel Syndrome,” and it contributes to the Roller Coaster Effect in sales.
Roller Coaster Effect: Solution
To counteract the Roller Coaster Effect, arrange your work priorities to prevent dry quarters or dry Funnels.
– Prioritize your tasks in the following sequence:
1. Focus on closing work for your Best Few objectives.
2. Begin prospecting by narrowing down your Universe.
3. Qualify your Above the Funnel objectives.
4. Address the objectives within the Funnel.
By adhering to this priority sequence, you can maintain a steadier and more predictable sales cycle, reducing the impact of the Roller Coaster Effect.
From Analysis to Action
Your Action Plan
In creating a list of practical actions to enhance your position, the emphasis should be on practicality. Every action should bring you closer to achieving your objective.
Putting the Theory into Action
With your Alternate Positions at your disposal, assess your current position in relation to various Strategic Selling concepts. Concentrate on these aspects and aim to identify Red Flags, then contemplate the actions that can transform them into opportunities:
• Your Single Sales Objective
• The Buying Influences engaged in that objective
• The Response Mode of each Buying Influence
• The Win-Results expected by each Buying Influence
• The level and nature of your competition
• Your Single Sales Objective
• The Buying Influences engaged in that objective
• The Response Mode of each Buying Influence
• The Win-Results expected by each Buying Influence
• The level and nature of your competition
Strategy When You Have No Time
Here is a two-part solution that will guide you in determining the appropriate level of advance planning for each sales call:
1. Identify the accounts and sales objectives that genuinely require a comprehensive “long-form” Action Plan and allocate the time they deserve for thorough planning
2. Embrace a more concise “short-form” action analysis for those sales objectives and upcoming sales calls where circumstances do not permit an extended planning process
1. Identify the accounts and sales objectives that genuinely require a comprehensive “long-form” Action Plan and allocate the time they deserve for thorough planning
2. Embrace a more concise “short-form” action analysis for those sales objectives and upcoming sales calls where circumstances do not permit an extended planning process
Strategy Selling: A Lifetime Approach
The success of Strategic Selling can be attributed to its ability to diminish uncertainties linked to luck, trial and error, and random chance. It is effective because it is built on logical principles and a comprehensive understanding of all the Key Elements of the Complex Sale. Consistently applying these methodologies allows you to shape your own success.
There are two pivotal elements in a salesperson’s success:
1. Method: Strategic Selling professionals approach their sales with a systematic set of logical, transparent, and replicable selling steps
2. Constant reassessment: Given the ever-present changes in Complex Sales, your adaptability is crucial. You can only be undermined by change if you fail to adjust to it. To maximize the benefits of Strategic Selling, treat it as a dynamic system that is always in a state of refinement
There are two pivotal elements in a salesperson’s success:
1. Method: Strategic Selling professionals approach their sales with a systematic set of logical, transparent, and replicable selling steps
2. Constant reassessment: Given the ever-present changes in Complex Sales, your adaptability is crucial. You can only be undermined by change if you fail to adjust to it. To maximize the benefits of Strategic Selling, treat it as a dynamic system that is always in a state of refinement
Lifetime Approach
Strategic Selling is a lifelong approach to mastering the Complex Sale. As you persistently apply and enhance this model in your future sales endeavors, you’ll find yourself increasingly able to assert, “It’s my approach that sets me apart and makes me the best.”