Posted by Adam Thorp
When planning a meeting, 'What is the sale advance you are planning to achieve'?
Having been part of the Capturing Clients pilot program you know how important it is to plan sale advances when preparing for a meeting. Identify an advance versus a continuation by using the definitions below and always have a primary advance and an alternative advance before you meet with a client.
Sale Advances:
A sale advance is where an event takes place, either in the call or after it, which moves the sale forwards towards a decision:
Typical sale advances might include:
- A client's agreement to attend an off-site visit
- Clearance which will get you in front of a higher level decision-maker
- Access to parts of the account which were previously inaccessible to you.
All of these represent an agreement with the client, which moves the sale forward towards the ultimate decision. Advances take many forms but invariably they involve an action and that moves the sale forward. Because of that, any call which results in an advance can be considered successful.
Sale Continuations
A continuation is where the sale will continue but no specific action has been agreed with the client to move it forward:
These calls don't result in any agreed action, yet neither do they involve a 'no' from the client.
Typical examples would be calls which end with a client saying:
- Thank you for coming, why don't you visit us again next time you're in the area
- Fantastic presentation, we're very impressed. Let's meet again some time
- We liked what we saw and we'll be in touch if we need to take things further
In none of these cases has the client agreed to a specific action, so there's no concrete sign that the call has caused the sale to move forward.
According to the research, continuations are classed as unsuccessful. This may strike you as a little unfair. After all, it seems harsh to say that a call has failed if the client says positive things such as 'We're impressed', or 'That was a great presentation'. Too often clients make positive noises at the end of a call as a polite way to get rid of an unwanted consultant. Success is measured by actions, not by nice noises. That's why advances are classed as successful and continuations as unsuccessful.
Success should be judged by client's actions, not by their words.
How Major Sales are Really Made:
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Posted by James Fennessy
In this video Neil Rackham talks about the customer shift in the way business is done.
Video: 7 of 11. Subscribe to our blog and you will be emailed as soon as we publish the latest video clip. (To subscribe enter your email address into the side bar at the top of this blog)
Posted by James Fennessy
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 We have just finalised our Negotiation Survey! We would be grateful if you could please take 5 minutes to complete it here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/huthwaite3
Every person who completes the survey has a chance to win one of TWO Apple iPads!!
This survey is designed to discover behaviours around sales negotiation techniques, and as always, we will update you with the findings.
Thanks, and good luck.
James Fennessy
CEO
Huthwaite
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Posted by Ralph Vugts
Transactional sales often seem pretty clear cut. The customer wants it so they buy it off you because you stock it at a competitive price... But is it really that simple? Are you loosing customers because the process you have in place for your customers doesn’t make it easy enough for them to buy?
I’ve come across this many times when trying to order products online, often online stores over complicate the process in turn forcing me to abort the process leaving me frustrated and annoyed. In my opinion the saying “Keep it Simple Stupid” is alive and well! This is backed up by recent statistics showing that up to 75% of all shopping carts are abandoned before completing the sale.
Imagine if you could turn this around? Here are the top reasons for a highly transactional customer not completing the sale are:
1. High shipping prices (72%)
2. Comparison shopping or browsing (61%)
3. Changed mind (56%)
4. Saving items for later purchase (51%)
5. Total cost of items is too high (43%)
6. Checkout process is too long (41%)
7. Checkout requires too much personal information (35%)
8. Site requires registration before purchase (34%)
9. Site is unstable or unreliable (31%)
10. Checkout process is confusing (27%)
As you can see from the list above a few factors are out of our control, but once you get further down the list you will see these complaints stem from poor system design.
Investing a little time correcting what annoys your transactional customers could significantly increase your sales. By removing barriers you are adding value in the customers eyes. It will increase the chances of the customer coming back at a later date and they might even recommend you to others.
Have you come across any prime K.I.S.S. examples? Let us know your experiences below.
Posted by James Fennessy
In this video Neil Rackham talks about some of his new ideas.
The "Big Four" of Challenge:
- Big - more comprehensive and further reaching than ordinary ideas
- Innovative - Pushing the envelope with new, often untested and unique approaches
- Risky - Both ourselves and our clients are taking bigger risk
- Difficult - Hard to implement because of scale, uncertainty or politics.
Video: 6 of 11 (part 5). Subscribe to our blog and you will be emailed as soon as we publish the latest video clip. (To subscribe enter your email address into the side bar at the top of this blog)
Posted by Izzy Wakeling
SOURCE: ANDREW KENT, 10 AUGUST 2010, SALES EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
Take a close look at your standard pitch deck, the "about us" section on your corporate home page, or your PR material. Highlight every instance of the words "leading," "unique," "solution," or "innovative." And especially find all instances of the phrase "we work to understand our customers’ unique needs and then build custom solutions to meet those needs." Then hit the delete key. Because every time you use one of those buzzwords, you are telling your customers, "we are
exactly the same as everyone else."
See, unlike Journey, you and your competitors aren’t "worlds apart."
The more we try to play up our differences, the more things sound the same. PR expert Adam Sherk recently analysed the 98 most common sales, marketing, and PR buzzwords used in company communications, and the results are hilarious and devastating. Here are the top 10:
It’s eye-opening, really.
By definition, there can be only one leader in any industry - and 205,900 companies all think they’re it. 75,500 companies think they’re the "best" or the "top." 30,400 think they’re "unique." "Solution" also makes an appearance at #7 - so if you think that calling your offering a "solution" differentiates you, think again.
So if everyone’s saying they’re the leading solution, what does the customer think? "Great - give me 10% off."
In my years at the Sales Executive Council, I have never once met a member who doesn’t think their product beats the socks off their competitors’. And it’s understandable... after all, why would we want to work for a company whose product is second-rate - especially when our job is to sell that product?
But what the utter sameness of language here tells us is that, ironically, a strategy of more precisely describing our products’ advantages over the competitions’ is destined to have the exact opposite effect - we simply sound like everyone else.
Our members’ customers told us the same thing back in 2008 - and it’s something that is, quite frankly, a little hard to hear: that as great as your products are… they’re not that much different from the competition. That no matter how much you tell customers, "we’re here to create quantifiable business value"… the next sales rep through the door is saying the exact same thing.
(In fact, I talked to a procurement executive at a food company who told me, "Every time I hear the word 'value,' my defences go up, because that's when I know they’re trying to sell me something.")
Just like a parent can tell twins apart in a way no one else can, we can see our products’ nuances - but customers can’t.
Thankfully, hope is not lost.
It’s still possible to differentiate yourself from the competition. The trick is not to describe your differences, but to make customers value them. And to do that, remember these two things:
- Be memorable, not agreeable. It’s all very nice to have a business conversation about profits and capabilities, or a relationship conversation around sports and people’s kids…But unless you frame your conversation around an edgy or unique insight, the customer will forget everything you said as soon as you walk away. Being different sounds risky, but it’s better than being forgettable.
- Build a pitch that leads to your solution, not with it. Before even talking about your capabilities, teach customers about a problem they didn’t even know they had - one that you can solve better than your competitors. Only then should you lead into the details of your specific solution.
Article by: Andrew Kent, 10 August 2010 Sales Executive Council http://saleschallenger.exbdblogs.com
Posted by Izzy Wakeling
Over the last few years, it has been generally accepted that the traditional model of the pharmaceutical sales representative as a communicator of information about their products, in today’s new business conditions, provides little value to the customer or the pharmaceutical company. But what does value mean to different customers? How can we determine what they consider valuable? And how do you develop a sales strategy that incorporates this? Huthwaite’s research has found that this shift in mind set is achievable and repeatable. First we need to recognise the buying mode of your customers.
With clinical information being more and more widely available on the internet, the old rule about the role of the sales person has changed. Customers who want to know about a particular drug or check a particular fact, can do so online. What is more, clinicians are getting more and involved and sooner in the clinical trials of drugs, the role of the sales representative have undergone fundamental and permanent change. The unique research that Huthwaite has done has shown that healthcare customers can be divided in into 3 categories, depending on their buying mode.
Successful sales organisations have recognised this new shift and are engaging with customers with different sales approaches tailored to their preferred buying mode. Of course customers will have different buying modes for different therapeutic areas and products.
Transactional buying mode: These prescribers make purchasing decisions based largely or entirely on the lowest cost. When they make purchasing decisions, they are armed with all of the product information they need. They view products as commodities and they resent the time they have to spend with sales people. Face-to-face selling provides very little value to them and access will be hard to achieve.
Consultative Buying Mode: In every therapeutic area, there are prescribers who are willing to go beyond a purely transactional relationship, provided the sales representative can offer more than just quality products and good customer service. A sales representative who can deliver a unique blend of experience, insight, knowledge and training will be a valuable asset to the customer. However I haven’t seen many pharmaceutical company fully recognised the opportunities that these customers offer, nor have they decoded exactly how to create value beyond their services and products. In our white paper “Creating real value for Physicians” we examine skills that can be employed to become a value creator.
Strategic Buying Mode: Beyond the level of expertise demanded by the consultative prescriber, there is a class of customers who want access to the full array of capabilities of the selling organisation on an enterprise-to-entreprise level. This kind of selling is often well beyond the scope of a single salesperson and may require the involvement of non-sales resources within the selling’s organisation. These are considered complex sales and the sales representative needs to have the skills and capacity to navigate their way around complex sales.
Once organisations and sales representatives can identify customers’ preferred buying modes they can adapt their approach to the engagement to their changing perception of value throughout the course of the relationship and are one-step closer to becoming value-creators.
Keep up-to-date on the healthcare industry. Join the Huthwaite Pharma and Medical Devices LinkedIn group here.
Whitepaper: Creating Real Value for Physicians
Download our latest whitepaper: "Creating Real Value for Physicians".
This free whitepaper provides some great sales strategies to employ and some to avoid.
Download it here.
Posted by James Fennessy
Since C-Level Executives (CLE) schedules are so jammed and tightly guarded, everything that you can learn about their problems, challenges and the impact of not changing should be done, if possible, in advance of a meeting.
So how do you gain access to CLEs using internal referrals? Aren't these people gatekeepers who try to shield the boss from such meetings? Not necessarily. Far too few salespeople understand when and how to request access to CLEs in a manner that will stack the deck in their favour. In fact, research conducted by Huthwaite determined that in strategic sales it is often advantageous to meet with the CLE's direct reports first before gaining access to the CLE. In other words, aim high, but not too high, initially.
Why is it advantageous to meet with the CLE's direct reports first? We are not talking about meeting with low-level administrators or individual contributors. If you are targeting the C-Level, their direct reports are at the Director and VP levels. These levels have detailed information that you should get from them in advance of a meeting with their boss, the CLE. Why? Since CLEs' schedules are so jammed and tightly guarded, everything that you can learn about their problems, challenges and the impact of not changing should be done, if possible, in advance of a meeting.
We know that direct access to CLEs is extraordinarily limited. How do you gain access to their direct reports, the Directors and VPs who are responsible for executing their bosses' strategies? Well, let’s first go back to timing. Rather than cast about and treat all prospects equally, your first step must be to identify the organisations where your solution is likely to help with a strategic challenge.
The research shows that there are three focus points of an c-suite strategy:
- The Focus of Receptivity - a person who’s prepared to listen to you. This contact can be an excellent source of information and can help you gain access to others.
- The Focus of Dissatisfaction - a person who is experiencing problems or difficulties with products or services for which you have a solution; or who may be willing to listen to an interesting opportunity.
- The Focus of Power - a person who can make the final decision on a purchase.
When you are granted an audience with a Focus of Dissatisfaction (FOD) how do you succeed in leveraging that meeting to gain access to the C-Suite? First you must determine the stage of the Buying Cycle that the client is in. If the client is in late Changes over Time/early Recognition of Needs, you are in the diagnostic stage of the sales process. Your job is to determine the extent and depth of their problems/opportunities and why it is important to change their current situation. The absolute imperative at this point is to talk very little about your solutions and focus 90% of your discussion on the client’s challenges and desired outcomes.
At the end of a meeting with the FOD, ask who would be involved in making a decision for change and what the process is for supporting a decision of this magnitude in the organisation. Follow up that question, if necessary, to inquire about the funding. Never ask about the funding first. It makes you look like an amateur because you haven’t yet earned the right. The process is equally, if not more important.
Most likely, by the time you have had discussions with the FOD, he has named his boss, the CLE, as the Focus of Power in the decision-making committee. If not, you must inquire - “Philip, you didn’t mention Ann Bigcheese as part of the decision-making team. In my experience, while someone at her level is never involved in the details, they are almost always involved in the final selection and funding of an initiative of this magnitude. Is that true here at XYZ Company?”
Once you are able to confirm that Ms. Bigcheese is interested and involved you can make the move to request time with her. Here is how you can make this request in a way that will dramatically increase your chances of securing a meeting with Ms. Bigcheese.
The model for getting time with a CLE requires two key steps. First, you must create the willingness for your contact, the FOD, to see the strategic value of providing access to his boss. You must remember that this access is closely guarded and that entry is provided to a select few. In essence you must build trust with every interaction and prove that the meeting will be valuable and a good use of precious CLE time.
To accomplish this goal you have to invest time and resources to expand the FOD’s understanding of his company’s challenges and desired state. There are several methods you may employ including interviews, diagnostic tools, focus groups, needs assessments, etc. The key element is—you need to make your FOD look good in the eyes of his boss and be prepared to shed new insights on the company’s strategy, opportunities and challenges. Be certain that there is some level of equanimity in the relationship. Your FOD should also invest time and provide access during this phase of the buying process.
Next, you must be able to clearly state the value and outcomes of a meeting with your FOD and Ms. Bigcheese. Be certain that you rehearse this request long before making the actual inquiry. The value of this meeting must be crystal clear to your FOD because you want him to make the request. Your chance of securing a meeting with a CLE increases exponentially when made by a trusted direct report.
Finally you must be relentless and focused in order to build the trust and strategic value necessary to gain and maintain access to the CLE. There are three key reasons that your access to a CLE may be blocked:
- Your sponsoring FOD is not held in high regard by the CLE. If this is the case, you have only one choice. You must find another FOD who has right level of respect and influence and can get you access to the CLE.
- The buyer has moved beyond Recognition of Needs to Evaluation of Options. In this case your access will be blocked until the point of choosing a final vendor is imminent. C-Level executives aren’t in the business of vetting potential suppliers. That is the domain of their employees. If you find yourself in this unenviable, yet very real, situation your strategy must be to differentiate at a level which allows you to make it to the finalist round in the selection process. At this juncture, the CLE will most likely re-insert himself in the decision process.
- Your sponsor doesn’t trust you. Now, it is very rare indeed that you will ever receive this feedback directly. You can bet that if a) your prospect is in Recognition of Needs and b) your sponsor has a positive relationship with the CLE and you are not granted access that trust is the real reason for this blockage. If this is the case, you will get a litany of excuses that are nothing more than smokescreens. At this point you must completely overhaul your strategy and determine how to provide new strategic value and insight to your FOD.
To find out more about C-Suite Strategy download our latest sales strategy white paper "Selling to the C-Suite" below.
Whitepaper: Selling to the C-Suite
Download our latest whitepaper: "Selling to the C-Suite".
This free whitepaper provides some great sales strategies to employ and some to avoid.
Download it here.
Posted by James Fennessy
In this video clip sales guru Neil Rackham talks about the Five Profiles for Sales Performance:
- Challenger
- Lone Wolf
- Problem Solver
- Relationship Builder
- Hard Worker
Video: 6 of 11 (part 4). Subscribe to our blog and you will be emailed as soon as we publish the latest video clip. (To subscribe enter your email address into the side bar at the top of this blog)
Posted by James Fennessy
What is the optimum time to gain an audience with a C-Level Executives (CLE)? Unlike commodity-driven purchasing agents, CLEs rarely get up in the morning thinking about interacting with salespeople. So, what do they think about? They are hyper-focused on improving their results and employing strategies that will help their enterprises grow revenue, increase market share, counter a competitive threat, acquire new customers, increase customer loyalty and retention, bolster margins, decrease costs, manage risk, increase shareholder value, attract and retain skilled staff and improve workforce productivity. There is a huge variety of strategies that CLEs employ to improve in these aforementioned areas.
One thing is certain: if you can’t clearly prove that what you are selling will help an executive improve in at least one of these areas, then you need not waste your time calling on the C-Suite. They don’t want to see you. However, if you can show that your offering will enhance results in these key strategic areas, you are still in the game.
The maxim “timing is everything” is massively relevant to those in the sales profession. If you know when CLEs are likely to be engaged in making a major purchase decision, then your odds of being “at the right place at the right time” will increase dramatically. Huthwaite’s research into the predictable patterns through which buyers progress as they make a major purchase decision suggests that there are normally six ongoing phases of what we call the Buying Cycle™:
Huthwaite’s research reveals that there are two critical junctures where CLEs are involved in the Buying Cycle and when CLEs have the highest probability of involvement:
- At the cusp between Changes over Time and Recognition of Needs, when the status quo is starting to unravel and new needs or problems are beginning to emerge (or early in Recognition of Needs, when minor irritations are beginning to develop into real dissatisfaction). This stage of the buying process concludes when the problem is understood and the buying team defines the outcomes they will expect from fixing the problem
- At the end of Evaluation of Options, when the CLE wants to make sure that the right decision on a vendor is made.
Examining the two involvement points for CLEs in making a major purchase decision leads experienced sellers to an obvious conclusion: the optimum time to seek and gain entry into the world of the CLE is early in the buying process. If you don’t engage the CLE at this point then the research shows that your chances of success lower dramatically.
There are two reasons behind this conclusion:
- CLEs value diagnosis significantly more than hearing about products, services and solutions. Lower level reports may care about your offerings and be willing to listen to pitches, but CLEs have no time for such activity. However, they will grant you time if you can truly help them diagnose a problem or challenge that is hindering their results.
- Since CLEs delegate the task of vetting potential solutions, if you missed the early opportunity, you will not be able to gain access to the CLE until the end of Evaluation of Options. You have unfortunately missed the opportunity to shape the problem or opportunity in your favour.
If you are not able to engage the CLE in Recognition of Needs, then welcome to “vendor purgatory” where the process, rules and access will be completely controlled by the buying team. You are now in the world of reactive selling where you and your competitors look shockingly similar to the buying committee.
To find out more about C-Suite Strategy download our latest sales strategy white paper "Selling to the C-Suite" below.
Whitepaper: Selling to the C-Suite
Download our latest whitepaper: "Selling to the C-Suite".
This free whitepaper provides some great sales strategies to employ and some to avoid.
Download it here.