Adventace SMS™: New Release. New Video.

We are pleased to announce our new release of the Adventace SMS™ application!

Watch the video on YouTube by clicking on this link Adventace SMS Video

Take a closer look at the application on the Salesforce.com AppExchange by clicking on this link Adventace SMS on the AppExchange

Opportunity Assessment - Part 2

There are key objectives that must be achieved from rigorous Opportunity Assessment.  The process must lead to:

• Early identification of gaps, or holes, in an opportunity that, if left unresolved, can come back to haunt the seller and everyone involved in the opportunity down the road after a significant investment of time, effort, and internal resources.
• Agreement to pursue between the manager and seller.
• With that agreement, the manager is then in a position to assign the appropriate milestone, or stage, for the opportunity based on objectivity, not the subjectivity of a seller.
• Conducting high quality Opportunity Assessments helps the seller and manager understand the qualification/disqualification level of an opportunity, and, if done well, is an opportunity for the manager to model the questioning process that sellers should be having in the future with their prospects.
• Surgical identification of the selling skill difficulty or difficulties that the seller has. If a skill has been identified as an area for improvement, a plan should then be put in place to drive measurable performance improvement on the part of the seller.

The solution is a consistent set of qualification questions that sales managers must ask sellers.   These qualification questions are critical and should be asked in the following sequence:

1. What is the buyer’s Critical Business Issue?

• Is it important enough to drive a sell cycle to completion?
• What is the financial impact?
• Are there other people, particularly above the buyer, who are personally impacted because of the problem?
• Are they looking for the buyer to solve the CBI?
• Is there a time frame expected for a resolution?  When?  How long?

2. In your diagnosis, did you discover the reasons for the CBI?

• In today’s operation, why is the buyer experiencing the CBI?

3. For each diagnosed reason for the CBI, were you able to identify with the buyer a well-defined capability so that the buyer can literally see themselves successfully using the capability in a manner that will contribute to the resolution to the CBI?

4. Did you identify other key impacted individuals?

• How are they impacted?

5. Given the other impacted individuals, is your buyer above or below the power line?  

6. If below, did you negotiate to gain access to power?

7. If above, did you discuss and agree on an Action Plan, i.e., the structured sequence of events leading to a buy decision?

From this information the sales manager will be able to identify gaps and actions the seller must take.  S/he will also be able to assign the appropriate stage at this point in the life of the opportunity.

Opportunity Assessment - Part 1

If every salesperson were equally experienced and adept at assessing the quality of their pursuits, there would be no such thing as “Happy Ears”.  After hours, days, and weeks of prospecting some suspect finally says: “maybe”.  Oddly, the salesperson, in spite of extensive rejection, is the most optimistic person in a company.  A “maybe” sounds a lot like a “yes” and our salesperson is on the attack like a hound after a hare.  As experience has shown, some “maybe’s” are indeed future orders; some are “tire kicker” requests; and some no more than opportunities to provide free consulting to keep a buyer-selected competitor honest during negotiations.  For 90% of salespeople, a “maybe” is an opportunity to do what they most enjoy: selling; and do less of what they don’t: prospecting.  Combine that with a generally buoyant nature and the result is exaggerated expectations about deal size, probability of close, and the buying decision process, including decision date.  If the cost of opportunity pursuit were zero, then we might be indifferent.  Quite to the contrary, the cost of pursuit can be very high both in accounting (proposals, trips to the prospect, marshalling experts) and economic costs (lost selling time, lost time of experts, revenue not pursued).  For these very reasons, organizations rely on the objective and skilled opportunity assessment of sales managers.  Assessment leads to a go/no-go decision to pursue and to the development of an attack plan.  The sales manager is central to the coordination of that plan.  The allocation of finite resources to opportunities that have the highest probability of closing is one of the most important jobs in a company and one of the top responsibilities of the Sales Manager. 

But what happens in most organizations?  Here is a sample of comments we have heard from executives:

Managers need to inspect in a common manner.  Everyone does it differently so results are across the board.

Opportunity assessment and management is done via brute force.

Because we have weak pipelines managers allow sellers to chase anything and everything.

Our forecasts are inaccurate because opportunities we were counting on go into the loss column or experience significant delay.

We end up blaming our products for losses on opportunities we never had a chance to win.

(A VP of Sales referring to one of his sellers) That dog can’t hunt.

We don’t effectively sell our low-end products.  How will we make the jump to selling solutions?  It’ll be like jumping to hyperspace.

High Performance Sales Environments depend on the objective, skilled, and surgical Opportunity Assessment of sales managers. In our next post we'll explore how sales managers should assess opportunities and what the outcomes should be.  Stay tuned!

How Buyers Buy: Part 2 - Concern for the Solution

In our previous post on "How Buyer's Buy" we described the setup of the 5-stage buying model.  In this post we will focus on the first of three important considerations that the buyer has: Their level of concern for the Solution over the course of the buy cycle.  That concern is depicted in the diagram below.

The Buyer's Concern for the Solution Over Time

Buyers are driven to successfully find solutions to the Critical Business Issues (CBI) that confront them (see our previous post for a more detailed review of CBI's).  The buyer’s concern to successfully find a solution to a critical business issue starts out at a very low level in stage 1.  Although the buyer is confronted with a critical business issue and would like to have a solution, s/he has put it in the background of their mind, i.e., they are not actively seeking a solution.  They may have done this because the CBI represents a lower level of concern (compared to others), or they may not feel there is a solution, or they may have found a solution but concluded that it cost too much or was too much risk, or they may have even purchased a solution but failed when they tried to implement it. Therefore, the level of concern to seek a solution to a CBI may start out at a very low level.  But for some reason (perhaps the buyer's boss says it is important and needs to be solved, a new solution comes to market, the buyer resolves one or more issues and the CBI that had been in the background moves to the foreground, etc.) the level of concern increases significantly.

It is surprising how many marketing organizations fail to realize and take advantage of this. All too frequently their messages reflect what they think are really cool things about their products’ features and functions, which buyers are not yet interested in.  They miss significant opportunity by not orienting their efforts towards showing buyers how to solve the high probability CBI's confronting them.

This is also why prospecting is a particularly loathsome task for most sales people: Traditional prospecting is fraught with failure!  When sales people do prospect, they very commonly "lead with product".  This means that they talk about features and functions of their product that the buyer is just not interested in hearing about.  It is the equivalent of walking into a minefield.  If, after the product pitch, the buyer says, “No thanks, I don’t want to meet nor do I want to hear more about your product”, the seller is left with little recourse.  Should they continue to attempt to push their product, it is the equivalent of attempting to push a rock uphill by trying to convince a buyer who said no that they really do want to hear more about the product.  That fails, sometimes miserably, and eventually results in the seller doing everything except prospecting.  But what if the buyer says, “Why yes, your timing is perfect!  In fact, if I like what I hear you can respond to the RFP that we have coming out!”  The seller thinks they have a great opportunity.  But isn’t it likely that the buyer is releasing the RFP because their organization requires them to look at multiple vendors?  In fact, isn't it likely that they are already deep into stage 3 with the competitor who got in first and already defined the solution to the CBI with the buyer?   

So what should marketing and sales organizations do?  They should first realize that most buyers – to the tune of about 90% - have not yet entered into a buy cycle where they are actively looking for a solution because the issue is in fact a background CBI!  Whether developing traditional literature, updating the buyer-focused components of their websites, prospecting, or developing outbound messaging for social networking, instead of leading with product, they should lead with how they help solve high probability CBI's.  

 

The buyer’s concern for the solution rises to a peak in early stage 2 and remains high throughout that stage.  Something has caused the CBI to emerge as a foreground issue.  As we said earlier, perhaps senior management in the buyer’s organization has said that the issue needs to be resolved. Perhaps a sales person conducted an effective prospecting call that resulted in the buyer having hope that there really is an effective way to solve the problem.

In Stage 2 the buyer wishes to move from being in a situation where they have a foreground CBI to where they envision a solution to their CBI.

Yet this is another area where sellers misalign in a major way.  What do most sellers do when they do secure an appointment or are invited to meet with buyers, and the buyers are in Stage 2?   Death by PowerPoint!  Continuing with their bad habit of leading with product, sellers deliver their latest and greatest presentation, which is yet another seller-centered attempt to convince the buyer they should look at their products.  All they do is convince the buyers that they are pushing product and are incapable of helping them solve the problem that is on their mind. 

This is the key Window of Opportunity for a seller because the buyer has a Foreground CBI and now wants to discover a solution to it!  Aligning with the job titles of the audience, when the seller introduces themselves it should be with a "we help solve problems" theme designed to get the buyers to conclude that this seller can in fact help them.  It sets the stage for buyers to open up about their CBI or CBI's, and the discovery process.

The buyer’s concern for the solution remains high in Stage 3 then drops off rapidly.  Once the buyer has envisioned a solution to their foreground CBI, they want to see whether there is someone who can provide the solution!  They seek proof; proof that someone in the marketplace can in fact provide the capabilities they need to solve their problem. 

Stage 3 of they buy cycle is also where the seller’s product / service / solution emerges as being important...and not until Stage 3!  And buyers do not need to see 5,000 features.  Their key interest is in seeing whether the capabilities, which the seller should have defined with the buyer in Stage 2, can be provided. 

It is therefore critical that the seller understand specifically what those capabilities are.  And, if possible, earlier in Stage 2 the seller should have done their best to define those capabilities in a way that differentiates them.

From the buyer’s perspective, once one or more providers have proven that they can fulfill the need the level of concern for the solution drops significantly because they are convinced that it can be fulfilled.  As we will see, other concerns now emerge in Stages 3 and 4.

The buyer’s concern for the solution re-emerges as a concern during stage 5 implementation.   Once a contract is signed and the buyer moves to Stage 5, the level of concern for the solution reemerges as a concern, but this is a fulfillment issue.  Through the capabilities we are receiving, are we on track to achieve the expected metric-based results that will eliminate the CBI?  To align with the buyer, the efforts of the seller should now focus on working with the buyer to make sure that the buyer, who is now a client, achieves the results anticipated.

Stay tuned for our final post on "How Buyers Buy", when we look at two key concerns, Value and Risk.  

How Buyers Buy: Part 1 - Model Setup and Buying Stages

A buying model must account for the most difficult scenarios that a seller may encounter.  We believe that this is a buying situation where the buyers’ problem is complex and difficult to solve.  Further, it must assume that the product, service, and/or solution being sold is conceptual or intangible to the buyer, and perceived to be expensive.  Finally, it must assume that a formal or ad-hoc committee will be making the decision.  Such a model is described below.

Setup of Buying Model

The diagram below depicts the setup of the Buying Model.  Note that the Y-axis defines the buyer’s level of concern, while the X-axis represents time.  The time period depicted represents the duration of the buy cycle.  

Buying Stages

Notice too that over time buyers progress through five distinct stages.

In the first stage there is recognition by the buyer of what we call a “background” critical business issue (CBI).   In this stage, the buyer recognizes that they have a particular critical business issue, but there is little interest or ability to resolve it at that time.  Note though that it is a critical business issue.  So why does the buyer shove it in the background of their mind?  Why do they not work now towards its successful resolution?  There can be a number of reasons:

·   The buyer may just have too many other pressing critical business issues that they are working on, and simply do not have the time or ability to take on another.  In essence, it goes to the bottom of the queue.

·   The buyer may have taken the time to look for a solution to the critical business issue, and concluded that there is not an acceptable one out there at this time.

·   The buyer may have taken the time to look for a solution, found one (or more) and concluded it is in the “too much” category…

o   Too much cost

o   Too much time

o   Too much risk.

·   In a worst-case scenario, the buyer may have found and bought a solution, but failed with the implementation.  These buyers commonly blame their vendor for this situation and are understandably “gun shy” when comes to future pursuit of a resolution.

The second stage is known as “discovery.”  In this stage the buyer’s Background CBI moves the to the foreground, i.e., in the mind of the buyer s/he feels they must resolve the CBI and do so soon.  The reasons for this movement to the foreground could be numerous:  The boss says it is important and needs to be solved, a new solutions comes to market, the buyer resolves one or more issues and the CBI that had been in the background moves to the foreground, etc.  It is in this stage that the buyer analyzes why they believe they are having the CBI, and identifies the set of capabilities (collectively, the solution to the problem) they need to solve it.

Once the buyer develops a vision of a solution to their problem in Stage 2, a great deal of analysis is done on the part of the buyer to determine if there is a vendor/provider who can provide the capabilities they need, whether it can be done meeting ROI expectations, whether it can meet their time frame, etc.  Let’s take a look at the implications internally on making these changes. It’s a great deal of analytical work gets done. In stage four, two important things happen. The buyer says “Do I want to do this; or not?”

Stage 4 is characterized by risk.  It is here where the buyer is getting ready to make a go/no go decision because they are confronted by the time, effort, expense, and risk if they actually do move forward.  A decision is made as to whether to not look back and go forward with a provider, or not go forward at all. That’s decision time.  There’s also an interesting thing that happens in this stage.  The buyer says, “Am I getting the best value for my buck?  Can I squeeze these guys (i.e., the sales organization)?”  Once these decisions are made a contract is signed.

Once the decision is made, the buyer moves into Stage 5.  Here the solution is implemented and, as a roll-out proceeds, the benefits are measured.  

In the posts that follow we'll take a closer look at the three major concerns that buyers have throughout the buy cycle: The Solution, the Value, and the Risk.  And, by understanding this, we'll see how sellers can better align with their buyers and win significantly more business!    

Adventace Adds Key "Opportunity Management" Component to "Winning Major Opportunities" Seminar

Adventace successfully added an important "Opportunity Management" component to its flagship sales seminar, Winning Major Opportunities.  It shows account executives and sales management how to:

Use the Right Strategies and Tactics
to Win Major Opportunities

• Assess and improve your ability to win the opportunity,
• Identify and score all key buyers' Preference for you Vs. the competition, and how to improve their preference,
• From six options, select the appropriate strategy to follow,  
• How to then deploy the appropriate tactics to continuously improve your probability of winning, and
• How to identify the personnel needed during the sell cycle, the timing of their need, and how to get management's full support for their utilization.

Here's a sample of the comments people made who attended a recent workshop:

A very good overview of how large opportunities need to be proactively managed and provides the tools we need to use daily.  

Very well done.  This will significantly impact my close ratio with major accounts.  

Very rarely do you attend training and have the ability to use it the next day.  I discovered several actionable things I can do immediately.  

The assessment piece will help me manage and control major account opportunities...for real!

Very helpful.  I will apply the principles across all opportunities, not just those from major accounts.

The material provides a very clear and organized process to navigate the complex sale. 

Take the Right Path When Developing the Needs of Your Buyers

Since the early 1990’s we have worked with thousands of sales organizations. During that time the changes in technology, markets and the economy have been dramatic, and the resulting impact on buyers forces us as sellers to be ever vigilant in adapting to these changes. In his book, “Differentiate or Die, Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition”, Jack Trout explores the marketing and branding strategies companies must take in order to succeed. The same can be said for selling. We must be able to differentiate ourselves from our competition, not just by what we sell, but HOW we sell. In spite of all the changes in the marketplace, one area has been a constant – the importance for sales people to be able to have business-level need development discussions with buyers.

When meeting with a prospect for the first time, there is often a crossroad that a sales person will encounter: Should I talk to my prospect about my product/service (the easy path) or should I ask well thought out questions about the areas of need this buyer has in his/her business, and then discuss the capabilities we can provide to help them address those needs (the hard path)? Although the answer is easy, the temptation to take the wrong path is significant.

Where we see sales people having trouble is in the execution. What bad things can happen to us if we take the wrong fork in the road?

• The prospect views us as just another salesperson, pushing a product.
• The sell cycle drags on forever because the prospect can’t make a decision about which alternative is better…or they can based on price!
• The prospect makes a ‘No Decision’ decision because it is better for them to stay with the known versus taking the risk of spending money on something they don’t see as a ‘solution’.
• If we are ‘below the power-line’, we stay there because one of our competitors has done a better job of understanding the business issues that they can help the prospect solve and they will get introduced to the ‘above the power-line’ buyer.

To avoid these problems sales people should be well versed in asking questions with the objectives of:

1. Understanding the Critical Business Issue (CBI) impacting the prospect. The CBI must be of high importance to the buyer, quantifiable, and something they say they must address.
2. Diagnosing the causes behind the Critical Business Issue (both the ones the prospect is aware of and others that we believe could be causing the Issue). With this understanding, sales people should now propose/suggest the Business Capabilities that your products/services can provide to the prospect to help them address the causes. This discussion should be much like a doctor diagnosing the ills of their patient.
3. Confirming with your prospect your now mutual understanding of their CBI and its causes, and, importantly, the Business Capabilities he/she needs to resolve that CBI.

Countless research studies have shown that people must diligently practice and apply new concepts over a twenty-one day period to have success with change. To ensure that you will always, and naturally, take the path you want when you encounter your personal crossroads, follow the three steps above. And get there by being prepared, practicing, and focusing on developing the needs of your buyers!

Prospecting To Create Interest – Combining Art and Science

OK, it’s time to COLD CALL!

What visions come to your mind when you think of this, or worse yet, when your manager says, "It’s time to COLD CALL"?  Many people conjure up the vision of a cactus-shaped telephone – just too dangerous to pick up.  Reluctance to prospecting can be a real fear, especially if you are not prepared and don’t have a strategy to make prospecting a routine part of your sales process.

If you want to have success calling on people above-the-power-line, you have to know what you are going to say to create interest in their minds so they will want to talk further. Being unprepared leads to ‘winging it’ and can prevent sellers from knowing what is working and what isn’t. This will lead to frustration, feeling overwhelmed, and will confuse your prospects because of the lack of a cohesive message. The next thing you know, you’re coming up with excuses not to  prospect. The result: a weak pipeline and chasing unqualified prospects.

Sellers should also be prepared for the variety of situations that you may encounter, such as voice mail, gatekeepers, and prospects who are not interested in talking further.  Create a script that is concise and one that you think will generate interest, then practice it so you don’t sound overly scripted or under prepared. Your message should be oriented around what will interest your prospect - like how you help companies resolve the Business Issues that keep them up at night. Find a ‘sales buddy’ to practice with; someone who will offer honest constructive criticism.  Remember also to 'keep your product in your pocket' in the early stages of a discussion.  If you don’t, you will get pushed down in the organization where your competition is already struggling to differentiate!  If a prospect believes you can add value to them and their business, why wouldn’t they want to talk to you?

Finally, do you have a goal in mind for what defines cold calling success?  We believe the best goal should be to determine how many legitimate opportunities you need to create during a given period of calling.  A legitimate opportunity is one where you are able to get the prospect to tell you about a Critical Business Issue, not just a willingness to have another conversation or to meet with you. If you use this as the foundation to managing your efforts,  you can then track how many calls it takes to generate new opportunities and how much time you need to spend on this important effort.

OK, it’s time to COLD CALL!

Good Selling!