- Increase velocity of client decision making thru sales cycle
- Increase conversion rate of sales opportunities
I described how as a sales guy I looked for a few key leading indicators to be present that both determined the deal’s velocity and guided my sales approach. These were - does client have need to buy, means to buy, and intent to buy? Of these three intent is usually the most troublesome - a manager may have a great business case but if his company does not have the “collective will” to take action his initiative stalls out. I posed the question: “Can a salesperson support business owner in building a consensus on action?”
Sharon Drew Morgen replied that if sales people use a different skill set (facilitation), put on a different hat, and be willing to first help buyers manage the change, then – yes, it is possible to collapse the sales cycle and spend a lot less time doing it. Sharon Drew described that only when buyers recognize and manage all of the systems issues that form the status quo, and get requisite buy-in for change from all who will touch or be touched by the solution will they be able to buy – and the time it takes them to do this is the length of the sales cycle.
I just read Sharon Drew’s new book “Dirty Little Secrets” and was quite impressed by the focus on facilitation skills to assist buyers arrive at a buy-in to their proposed change. Now I have only read the book and spoken with Sharon a couple of times however I can relate Sharon’s message to my own experiences. Using this new skill set in conjunction with an innovative approach (used in my sales background) can result in further significant break thru in sales performance. This approach focuses Buyers on the business outcomes they wish to achieve – a Results Chain. This approach could become the structure for the facilitation and the way to document what is surfaced as a result of the questions asked during facilitation. This is illustrated in the following presentation.
Use the following quick links for the items referenced above:
“TheFunnel Principle” – Mark Sellers
“DirtyLittle Secrets” – Sharon Drew Morgen
The Information Paradox – John Thorp
ResultsChain – Fujitsu Consulting Macrosope
After I posted this Blog in a Discussion on Mark Seller's LinkedIn Discussion Group there was some discussion. I posted a reply in Mark's Group and have included it in this Blog entry as a Comment.
ReplyDeleteMy recent selling background is IT Services, generally complex solutions. My firm had the kind of management consultants with training and background in facilitation and assisting clients thru discovery using ResultsChain (tool) as a way to focus client thinking on outcomes. After reading comments it generated a few follow up thoughts:
This approach discussed in my Blog has potential of significantly improving conversion rates of Lead - Won. On large complex opportunities it requires a team selling approach. The management consultants usually wanted to make their efforts a billable project (they were measured on billing revenue). But given potential reduction in marketing costs driven by greatly improved conversion rates I believe that sales organizations should make front end management consulting effort a sales effort and find a way to recognize consultant’s efforts [another sales compensation consideration!].
While this is a team effort someone has to be overall lead for Team and be “face” of company to client. This has to be the lead sales person, and they have to be seen by client as bringing all this “good stuff” to them, and part of client's team. This implies that the lead sales guy has to be able to act as a consultant in very early stages of client’s journey to engage client buyer(s) to bring them to initial phases of a facilitated effort where a management consultant can be introduced as part of team. Later as solution emerges from facilitated work then “sales person” can emerge to "place product". If client organization is a large national or multinational organization then sales person could be separate from Lead in a large Sales Team situation.
I fully agree with idea of bringing in an Industry Expert to provide some awareness and “education” on issues, challenges, and actions by other companies to client buyers. As with sales person key is to not be seen by client as “selling”, but rather assisting them to move closer to action of some kind. This could be same person who provides facilitation, but Industry Experts are usually in high demand so it is likely that Industry Expert is just another member of Sales Team with a specific focus.
In my experience service that was sold by Sales Team was then turned over to a Delivery Team for execution. Lead Sales guy and Lead Delivery guy were jointly responsible for overall success within client organization. [I always thought of roles as follows: Sales guy was responsible for catching bear and bringing it to tent; Delivery guy was responsible for skinning bear. Occasionally bear was still alive when delivered to tent!]. Delivery guy participated as a member of Sales Team and was active in final stages of sales cycle (to make sure that he could “skin the bear”).
Final comment for today is on “Pain” vs “Gain”. In today’s business environment most companies are pretty well equipped to recognize when they have pain. Days of driving past a prospect company’s driveway and observing a huge number of loaded pallets covered in weeks of dust (or snow) in loading bays and then calling upon president to suggest pain are a little past. It seems that today most agree that when a company realizes that they have pain that needs to be addressed right now they turn to provider with whom they have greatest confidence in fixing quickly, no time to evaluate a bunch of new, untested entities. That is usually their in-house group or their incumbent provider (no change required). Helping a company to recognize that a “gain” is available to them is important/essential, but if they cannot come together as a group and “buy-in” to need to make change to harvest gain then it will likely go nowhere. That is where the successful sales organization will assist client buyers to reach that buy-in along lines that I described in my Blog.