Have you ever been at a party, and the person you were talking to couldn’t stop talking about himself or herself? One-sided conversations like that can be really off-putting. And, it’s no different in sales conversations, either.
While most sales teams today know conversations with prospects need to be more consultative and solution-oriented, many sales teams are still falling short of conducting truly buyer-centric conversations consistently. When executed effectively, buyer-centric conversations earn you that coveted trusted advisor status with the buyer. The end goal is creating value, not simply getting an order signed.
Many of us are dealing with multiple decision makers in every opportunity. You may have one person involved who has the final say (and authority to sign the check), but it’s up to you to ensure you are defining the required capabilities, positive business outcomes and metrics of the numerous people involved in the buying decision.
There’s likely a main business issue driving the decision process, but each decision maker has his/her own chunk of the problem that he/she needs to solve. Identify the specific business pain that each person is trying to solve, determine the requirements to alleviate that pain and then establish a correlation between that pain and the solution you provide. Treat each decision maker like a separate buyer. If you’re Command of the Message® trained, identify the components of the mantra for every buyer - before scenario, after scenario, negative consequences, required capabilities, pbos and metrics.
Your ability to broaden the value of your solution by addressing the several components of a business issue, is directly tied to the size of your opportunity. It also makes negotiating on value a lot easier when you’re able to quantify the value to many decision makers.
Be prepared to give your buyer proof that you can do what you say you can do. Proof points, case studies and testimonials can provide that third-party evidence that backs up the claims you’ve been making in your buyer conversations. Help your buyer see the future state and justify the spend by showing other companies that have faced similar issues and resolved them with your solution. Buyer-centric conversations focus on end results for the prospect. So, connect the adoption of your solution to short-term and long term-benefits. Results sell; you just have to communicate them.
Have you ever been in the discovery process with a prospect and realized your solution might not be the right fit for their needs? It could be that your solution doesn’t address their precise problems, or the timing just isn’t right for their company. Regardless of the cause, having an honest conversation. you (1) establish a reputation for being an honest, straightforward industry advisor and (2) you free up your time to work on better qualified opportunities.
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