The 6 buyer strategies for cost reduction and their implications for sellers Today’s buyers are hell-bent on cutting cost. However for sellers that need not be all bad news. Indeed, the latest wave of buyer cost cutting, with its broader and more sustainable focus, has the potential to take buyer-seller relationships to a new level. [...]
With more sellers chasing fewer customers these days, do buyers have the upper hand? Well, according to buyers themselves, the answers is yes. However, it’s also apparent that some sellers are leaving themselves vulnerable to manipulation from increasingly aggressive buyers. In this article we look at what this means, as well as offering some advice [...]
Buyers these days are increasingly well-prepared for their interactions with sellers. Indeed, some are even going so far as enrolling in courses specifically aimed at learning how to deal with salespeople! This is yet another reason why sellers must beware of reusing the same old clumsy sales techniques that buyers can quickly see through…
Sellers expect to have to slug it out with other suppliers, but they may find that they ‘lick the competition’ only to then be beaten-up by the buyer. We asked sellers about their most bruising buyer encounters and the lessons they had to offer…
The buying revolution requires a more advanced, mature and sophisticated relationship than before between buyer and seller. It requires a partnership of equals, built around a steady progression from dependence to independence, and onwards towards interdependence…
‘Helping the buyer to buy’ may sound soft, compared to pitching, persuading and closing for example. However, the reality couldn’t be more different.
Applying the Golden Rule to Sales What goes around goes around. So treat salespeople as you expect to be treated. Call it good karma, good manners or simply The Golden Rule. Almost everybody in business will have to make a sales call at some time, or other. When they do they hope to be treated [...]
We are continually moving between the buyer and seller side of the table in order to understand the requirements of both sides as they evolve. Indeed, a constant theme of our presentations, talks and articles, is the great irony that sales success requires a greater focus on the buying, as opposed to the selling. After [...]
What makes a good supplier? Well, who better to ask than the buyer, or those who have written the bible of buying for UK Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply. Here are the answers: · Delivers on time · Provides consistent quality · Gives a good price · Has a stable background · Provides good [...]
Newsflash- Buyers don’t want to be treated as a lead, a prospect, or a sales opportunity. Here is what they are increasingly telling salespeople: – Don’t treat me like a lead… – Don’t prequalify me… – Don’t give me your sales pitch… – Don’t force your sales process on me… In short, buyers are increasingly [...]
The cost of selling to an organization is only a fraction of the cost of that organisation’s buying decision. For example where a major buying decision involves 3 competing suppliers, the time that the seller spends with the buyer has to be multiplied by 3, with the buyer allocating time to each of the suppliers [...]
How Skeptical Buyers Have Caught on to Salespeople and their Wily Ways! Buyer beware was the dominant concept for decades. No longer, the balance of power has shifted, with the seller ceding control to a more sophisticated and cynical breed of buyer. To demonstrate this point we have taken two recent books for buyers and [...]
Relationships between buyers and sellers are often dysfunctional, often being motivated by fear. For the buyer that is the fear of being talked into buying the wrong solution. For the salesperson it is the fear of missing target. Rather than working together for a win-win outcome, both sides are often pulling against each other. However, [...]
Wouldn’t your job be a lot easier if your customers and prospects saw you as a trusted advisor, rather than a salesperson? Well if the answer is ‘yes’ then ‘Trust-Based Selling by Charles H. Green’s is a must read. Do Buyers Trust Salespeople? The reality is that the words ‘sales’ and ‘trust’ are rarely used [...]
A salesperson’s needs to hold a mirror up to the buyer in order to fully understand his, or her needs. The objective is a two-fold one: 1. To understand what buyers sees as their needs so that they can be resolved by the seller’s solution 2. To shape that view by raising buyer awareness through [...]
Yet another big IT project is in trouble reports the The Guardian. The 750 million UK electronic border control project was awarded in 2007 to a consortium that included Raytheon, Serco, Accenture, Detica and QinetiQ. Some 3 years later The Home Office has sacked The consortium and is seeking to award the contract to another. [...]
Relationships between buyers and sellers are often dysfunctional, often being motivated by fear. For the buyer that is the fear of being talked into buying the wrong solution. For the salesperson it is the fear of missing target. Rather than working together for a win-win outcome, both sides are often pulling against each other. However, [...]
Sales people are increasingly learning that there is no such thing as a ‘sure thing’ sale. That is because as the sale approaches the buyer can get ‘cold feet’ and the salesperson may be the last person to know about it. For example, the salesperson’s proposal, presentation and price beats the competition, but somebody on the [...]
Seller Beware! Caveat Emptor, or buyer beware was the dominant concept for decades. No longer, the balance of power has shifted, with the seller reluctantly ceding control to a more sophisticated and cynical breed of buyer. Today it is the seller who must beware! The seller is no longer ‘the ringmaster’ of the sale, often being [...]
(a) Buyers Are ‘Doing It For Themselves!’ Buyers are increasingly self-contained. They like to be in control and to stay in control. That means they start to elicit the requirements, build the business case and define the solution well in advance of meeting vendors. Buyers know that they have the power in a market where [...]
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