Sellers Beware: The Procurement Gap
There is often a gap between how the buying decision should be made and how it is actually going to be made. That is between the buyers internal procedures, or external view of buying best practice and the everyday reality of rushed, or messy decisions. We call it the Procurement Gap. Helping the buyer to […]
48 Shades Of Grey In Buying
What your buyer is thinking and how he, or she is feeling about the decision are two different things. As salespeople we need to focus on both. The Stereotype Of The Grey Buyer Buyers and in particular procurement professionals are stereotyped as being pale faced – grey suited bureaucrats. They are typically seen as analytical […]
Sales Sabotage: When Politics and Internal Divisions Retard Sales
Is There An Enemy Within? You have often heard the saying; ‘a house divided among itself will fall’. The same is true of the sales organization. However, in too many organizations the sales effort is retarded by petty squabbles, territorial divides and personality conflicts. There are many organizations that are to some extent dysfunctional when it comes […]
Why Win-Loss Reviews Should Be Written
Our deal narratives – the stories we tell ourselves and others about stalled deals – have the power to either limit or boost long term sales success. However new research highlights the importance of writing and then editing the narrative of the lost deal. The Narrative Of The Lost Deal How a seller explains a […]
Stress Release for Sales People
A successful salesperson, justifying his purchase of a new carbon frame mountain bike as an investment, first made a statement of the obvious – ‘these are stressful times for anybody in sales’ and then a statement of wisdom ‘you have to have an outlet, or a strategy for dealing with that stress’. Fitness for Success […]
Justify With Numbers – Compel With Emotions
Fact sheets, spreadsheets and ROI calculators are vital sales tools, but they are not enough. The seller must tap into the buyer’s underlying buying motivations and emotions as well as connecting with the buyers logic and analysis to improve sales performance. Moving Beyond The Calculator In Selling In business, emotions are generally considered unhelpful at […]
The Most Dangerous False Assumption In Selling!
The Importance Of Knowing The 3 Types Of Buyers & Tailoring Your Sales Approach Accordingly There is an erroneous assumption about how buyers buy that is surprisingly common in selling. It is a major impediment to success for those holding it. Yet they seem blissfully unaware of their error. Here we will test to make sure […]
Bounded Rationality: Balancing Logic And Emotion In The Sale
Although organizations are increasingly structured and sophisticated in their buying, for as long as people are involved in making decisions there will inevitably be an element of human fallibility in terms of how decisions are made. This is the age of the Utilitarian or Economic buyer and the Cost-Benefit Analysis. Where decisions are made by […]
How To Open-Source & Crowd-Source Your Selling!
In these challenging times traditional job descriptions and role demarcations are redundant. No more is this evident than in respect to the need for ‘all hands on deck’ in terms of sales & business development. We call this trend the ‘Open-sourcing of sales’. Sales Requires New Collaboration Organizations can no longer afford to leave selling […]
Do You Know Your Buyer’s IQ?
The buyer’s knowledge state, what we call Buying IQ, is of vital concern to the salesperson in terms of adapting the sales approach, or pitch. It is also essential to accurately pre-qualifying, forecasting, sales opportunity and overall sales performance. Measuring Your Buyer’s Buying IQ The seller should start from the assumption that the buyer has […]
Q: What’s for desert? A: The salesperson!
Three salespeople and one procurement professional were deep in debate. The topic was the rise of the competitive tender and the delay in calling sellers to the table. “The problem is we are being called to the table later” said one exasperated sales manager. Continuing the table analogy he added “they don’t call us in until long […]
Sellers: Say ‘Yes To The Mess’
How do you cope when faced with complexity and constant change in respect of winning the deal? Well, a new book has been published that recommends you do what the world’s best leaders and teams do – adapt and improvise! Why Buying Can Be Messy We all know that buying can be messy. Buyers don’t always […]
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