Ray Collis

The Customer’s Hidden Agenda

The Customer’s Hidden Agenda

Is Your Needs Analysis Only Scraping The Surface?

What if your needs analysis is only scraping the surface? It may be effective in capturing a detailed list of product requirements and functional specifications, but that is not enough. Too often the buyer’s more fundamental underlying needs and motivations remain hidden.

 Ray Collis

Sellers: Don’t Wimp Out Because Of Their Process!

Sellers: Don’t Wimp Out Because Of Their Process!

Don’t get paralyzed by the buyer’s process. Don’t let it stop you selling. Even if your selling is limited to submitting a tender response, with little interaction with the buyer in advance, don’t cast aside the basics of either solution selling or relationship selling.

 Ray Collis

Sales Hopscotch: Turning Buying Process To Your Advantage

Sales Hopscotch: Turning Buying Process To Your Advantage

Buying has become increasing structured and process-driven. The steps in the buyer’s process therefore have a major bearing on the speed and indeed the success of the sale.
But adopting a less rigid view of buying process is important if the salesperson is to do his, or her job well. It requires adopting a non-linear view of the sales process, or what we like to call sales hopscotch.

 Ray Collis

The Importance Of Offering Options In Your Sales Proposals

The Importance Of Offering Options In Your Sales Proposals

Choice is good. That is a fundamental principle of western economics. However research now suggests that the choices contained within your sales proposals and quotations can have an important role in determining success.

 Ray Collis

How To Influence The Buyer’s Choices

How To Influence The Buyer’s Choices

Your customer will weigh up the alternatives and select the the best price-value mix, right? Well, perhaps not always.
Research suggests that there is less rational-analytical dimension to the choice-making process. More importantly it shows how the seller can use this to sway the buyer’s decision.

 Ray Collis

Are You Waiting For The Customer To Call?

Are You Waiting For The Customer To Call?

Sales in a dangerously reactive mode in many organizations. Indeed, research suggests that the seller is the initiator of contact in only a minority of instances – most opportunities are the result of the customer calling. In this insight we will explore the results and the implications of sales success.

 Ray Collis

Sellers Beware: The Project Behind The Purchase

Sellers Beware:  The Project Behind The Purchase

Behind many big purchases is a project. Indeed the purchase itself may be a project, with a set of steps, a project team, project milestones and so on. Adopting the project perspective on the sale is important from the perspective of qualifying and closing the sale.

 Ray Collis

Are You Only The Tip Of The Iceberg?

Are You Only The Tip Of The Iceberg?

When it comes to the customer’s costs, your price may only be the tip of the iceberg. That is important if you are selling a quality solution and want to avoid being hammered on price. By making your customer aware of The Iceberg Principle you can move the conversation off price and onto value.

 Ray Collis

Living In The Shadow Of Procurement

Living In The Shadow Of Procurement

In one way or another what is happening in procurement will shape your future sales success. That applies even if you don’t have to interact with procurement today. The reality is that we are all selling in the shadow of procurement.  Have You Escaped Procurement Thus Far? Many salespeople are oblivious to the role and […]

 Ray Collis

9 New Ways To Nudge Your Customer To Buy

9 New Ways To Nudge Your Customer To Buy

More information is simply not enough to get the buyer to across the line – we all know that. If it was then we would write longer proposals and provide more detailed product sheets. In this insight we will use the latest buyer psychology to examine how to nudge the buyer towards a decision.

 Ray Collis

Understanding Buyer Psychology

Understanding Buyer Psychology

Buying decisions are generally more complex than they may at first appear. We look behind the buyer’s stated rationale for the decision and to uncover the psychology that is often hidden.

 Ray Collis

Helping Your Customers To Justify Their Decisions

Helping Your Customers To Justify Their Decisions

Sellers must make sure that the buyer is in a position to justify the decision. Otherwise the risk of a stalled deal increases greatly. This is particularly important when decisions are driven by instinct or emotion.

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The latest research on how buyers buy
Who makes the buying decision