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Posted by
Ian Brodie on September 26th, 2008.
It's really important to think about your competitors when developing strategy and trying to develop a unique differentiated position for your products and services.
But when you're selling – actually communicating with customers – thinking about your competitors, or even your differentiators, can be a huge mistake.
What customers are primarily interested in, of course, is what you can do for them: the end results or benefits they get.
But when you think about your competitors your focus turns instead to yourself and what you do – and how it's different from what they do. Your communication begins to move away from being customer-focused, to being seller or product-focused.
In fact, in the majority of cases, the best way to differentiate yourself is not to think about your competitors; but instead to focus purely on the value you bring to your customer.
If you can really understand that value – and communicate it clearly to your customer – then 9 times out of 10 you'll be the only one doing so. And that in itself will be a huge differentiator.
Ian
PS The picture is Mr Forgetful, of course.
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Posted byIan Brodie on September 22nd, 2008.
Selling to large companies can often feel like you're “wading through treacle”. Progress is slow at best, and it often feels like you've taken one step forwards only to take two steps back.
Often the challenge is not the company itself, or even their slow decision-making processes – it's the salesperson's lack of knowledge of how decisions are really made in the company.
When you're selling products or services of any significant size to a large company you'll almost always have to deal with a complex decision-making process. And unless you're lucky enough to be selling directly to the CEO, there'll be multiple levels of decision-maker, multiple budgets to be allocated, and an approval process of seemingly Gordian complexity.
Veteran salespeople who have worked on key accounts over a long period of time gain one of their critical advantages over “outsiders” by knowing how the decision making process works. But smart newcomers can begin to cut through the complexity – provided they are prepared to address the issue of the decision-making process openly with their potential customer.
Sometimes this can feel embarrassing or risky. It can feel like you're trying to “play the politics” of the situation. But the reality is that effective selling relies just as much on the politics and emotion of client decision-making as it does on the rationality of product features and benefits. If you believe in your product and it's in the client's best interests to buy it – then it's your duty to make sure it happens. And frequently, your clients themselves are less than expert in steering through their own decision-making processes – the coaching you can provide to guide them through this will be much appreciated.
The key to working your way through the decision-making maze is – like many things in sales – down to good questioning.
Firstly, it's vital to identify the key players in the decision making process and to understand their motivation. Typical questions you might ask are:
- Who else in the organization is touched by this issue?
- What do they see as the root of the problem
- What benefit would they see from getting these issues resolved?
- How important is this issue for them and is now the right time to be addressing this issue?
Drawing out a decision or stakeholder map with the client at this point can be hugely beneficial – as long as they don't begin to feel you're being too manipulative or self-serving.
In addition to the key influencers of the decision, it's vital to understand the decision-process itself. For example:
- What level of approval is needed for different levels and types of expenditure
- What is the timing of key events – tor example it's quite normal for project or financial approval boards to meet only quarterly and require all documentation weeks in advance – you need to know this timetable and the requirements – and know how to get on the approval schedule
Armed with this information you'll be in vastly better position to know who to meet up with, what to discuss – and ultimately, how to get your product or service sold.
Ian
PS – Many thanks to my good friend Rick McCann for providing the inspiration for this post. It was a discussion over a coffee with Rick a few years ago which provided the raw material and questions which I've used in this area ever since.
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Posted byIan Brodie on September 14th, 2008.
I had a discussion with a client recently where we were getting into some quite complex and frankly convoluted ideas for setting up sales meetings with potential clients.
At one point we both paused for a bit, recognising we were overcomplicating things. And then my client reminded me of something the great Ford Harding had taught him.
(I'm paraphrasing here, but I'm sure Ford will forgive me for mangling the words as long as I get the essence right).
Ford taught him that at the end of the day, all we're really trying to do is create ways of getting together with potential clients to listen to them and allow them to tell us what they need.
If we know that potential client reasonably well and we've been a valuable resource to them before, then often we don't need to engineer a clever excuse for meeting with them.
We can just ask them for a coffee and a chat.
And in that chat we can ask them “what's new?”. or “Anything interesting you're working on?”. Or any one of a myriad of little opening questions that allow them to tell you what they're focused on and what help they might need.
Of course, you could get more out of those meetings by using some smart questioning techniques and following a decent process.
But sometimes by trying to learn the perfect way of doing these meetings we paralyse ourselves and never have them for fear of not getting it right.
Often it's enough to sit down and have a chat with a friendly person we've built a good relationship with. We don't need the fancy sales techniques.
The key is to just get more of those meetings (or calls or whatever it is you do to bring clients on board).
Is it really that simple?
Well, for most potential clients, no.
But for some…yes.
I bet if you thought about it you'd be able to find at least one or two potential clients you've built a good relationship with who would be happy to catch up and find out how things are going on both sides.
And if you ask them what they're focused on right now, sometimes it'll be something you could help with.
Ian Brodie on September 26th, 2008.
It's really important to think about your competitors when developing strategy and trying to develop a unique differentiated position for your products and services.
Selling to large companies can often feel like you're “wading through treacle”. Progress is slow at best, and it often feels like you've taken one step forwards only to take two steps back.