Ignore Them at Your Peril
Wow, I had a couple of tough conversations with two clients this past week. Both are very successful, growing companies. However, a lack of discipline in their sales process could undermine their growth potential.
Both stories have to do with understanding the “Buyers” in your sales and account management process. So, who is a Buyer?
A Buyer is anyone who is involved with, interacts with or is effected by your product or service.
Yes, it’s that broad and it can be overwhelming in a complex sales environment. You can spend a ton of time figuring this out and it is not the most exciting work, especially if you know who holds the purse strings (Economic Buyer – thank you Miller Heiman). But to be successful in a complex sales environment, you need to cover this. And yes, it is a lot of work. If you are not up for it, then you are in the wrong job.
Story 1 – The Real Economic Buyer
Company A went through an extended process with a client evaluating their solution. Everything was going well. In the fall of last year, the client got the capital expenditure approved for the purchase. Right before moving forward, the client decided to wait due to their busy season. Then, last week, the client decided to postpone indefinitely due to new ownership. On the surface, those appear to be legitimate reasons. Upon digging deeper, I found out most of the leg work was done by the team that reports to the CFO. The CFO was involved in only 1 hour of meetings and that was the solution presentation. The CFO made the decision to not move forward. The status quo won. Company A got too comfortable once the Capex was approved and didn’t finish of the deal with the Economic Buyer and the status quo won (at least for now).
Story 2 – The Saboteur
When reviewing a customer survey for Company B, their feedback was good overall. However, one of their clients had issues and one person gave them very low scores. After about 10 minutes of “This guy was only involved in the kickoff meeting and I never talked to him again” the realization set it: he may not have made the decision to work with them, but he had influence. Company B was shocked at the low scores from this client. In my experience, it goes all the way back to the sales and onboarding process. This guy was not part of it, and potentially felt threatened by the solution. And once the project started, he was not properly engaged by Company B. So, just because someone doesn’t write the check, doesn’t mean he or she can’t sabotage the project.
Buyer Discipline
Even the most seasoned sales organizations can get blinded by their success. When they are doing well, details get missed. Then when a deal is lost, they don’t understand why. Or if a client leaves, they are left scratching their heads. However, if they take a closer look and ask a few good questions, light bulbs go on. They took for granted someone in the process and started assuming certain things would take care of themselves, instead of staying disciplined and insisting upon access to and feedback from all Buyers affected by the product or service.
Devil in the Details
Yes, it takes a little longer or requires tracking more details than you might like, but if you slow down the process to make sure you understand every Buyer’s point of view, your likelihood of sales success and retention of key accounts increases significantly. This paves the way for clear communication, a lack of assumptions and solutions all your Buyers will embrace.
If you are losing potential business or clients and are not sure what to change to increase close and retention rates, the Corlea Group would love the chance to help improve your outcomes. We focus on helping sales teams reach their full potential. Send us an email or give us a call at (858) 863-9913 to schedule a time to talk.
