Selling To Busy Buyers: What’s Your Decision Simplification Strategy?
Research into the science of decision making tells us that customers often simplify the basis on which buying decision are made. It is important for the seller to understand the buyer’s decision simplification strategy and to tailor their proposition accordingly.
Is Relationship Selling Under Attack?
Relationships are an essential ingredient of successful selling. But will your relationship survive a change in the customers strategy, increasing budgetary pressures or the involvement of procurement? In this insight we examine the challenges to relationship selling and how they can be met.
Taking Collaboration With Your Customers To A New Level
There is a new measure of buyer – seller collaboration. It is called Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP). Those sellers who can integrate effectively with their customer’s sales and operations planning can become more strategically important as suppliers.
How High Can You Climb To Communicate Your Value?
You want to be thought of by your organization and more specifically the purchase of your solution to be considered important by the customer. You want it to matter – you want it to be seen as ‘strategic’. But when it comes to buying decisions, what is strategy and how can you connect with it?
Sellers Look Out: It’s Open Season On Sacred Cows!
In the relentless march of procurement, it is open season on so called ‘sacred cows’. So, if your relationship with a key account depends on tradition, a personal relationship, or the old fashioned approach to buying, watch out! It is time to ensure the indisputable commercial logic is in place!
The Perfect Storm: 8 Trends That Will Rock Your World
How organizations buy is changing – we all know that. But as a seller how to know exactly what is on the horizon in your key customer, or prospects? In this insight we will examine the key procurement related changes that will rock your world and help you predict when they will happen.
Staple Yourself To Their Order
Are there opportunities to optimize how your customers interact with your solution from the moment of purchase to the point of payment? To find out ‘staple yourself to the order’.
So You Think You Know The Customer’s Buying Process?
Sellers are naturally focused on the purchase order. However, in winning the sale it is important to look beyond the buying decision to see the customer’s broader business and procurement goals.
Finding Your Hidden Sources Of Value
There may be unrealized opportunities for your solution to deliver even greater value to the customer. This insight provides a methodology to uncover your hidden sources of value.
Analyze This! The Role Of Analysts In Making The Shortlist
With a confusing array of competing vendors and solutions available in the market, buyers are increasingly turning to analysts for help in short-listing suppliers. But what impact will that have on the number of enquiries to your business? In this insight we discuss some of the requirements of working with analysts.
What ‘Know Your Customer’ Means In 2013
In this era of stalled buying decisions and increasingly complex buying processes sellers cannot really know their customers without understanding how and why they buy.
The New Love Affair Between CEOs and CPOs
Few managers or departments can write their CEO a cheque for millions and promise more again next year. Procurement however is the exception. Its almost un-paralleled ability to boost the bottom line has earned it a position of influence and power. Little wonder then that procurement is the CEO’s new best friend. Strategies for Low [...]
Why Earlier Is Better: Getting Procurement & Suppliers Involved
In many sectors there is a decline in collaboration between buyers and suppliers in advance of the purchase order. Yet, some industries clearly believe that getting suppliers and procurement involved earlier saves both time and money. In this insight we examine if earlier is really better. Sellers everywhere have noticed a clear trend with regard [...]
Can You See Your Deals In 3D?
A new framework provides you with a 3D view of even the most complex deal. That means you can maximize your chances of sales success. Suffering From Deal Complexity? Getting to grips with the complexity of modern buying is one of the key challenges facing sales teams at this time. It is key to addressing [...]
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 [...]
Auctions: The Rise Of ‘A’ Word In Buying
The rise of the ‘A-word’ in modern buying is causing alarm among sellers. The word is of course Auctions, or to be more precise Reverse Auctions. In this insight we will examine the rise in reverse auctions and assess the implications for your business. The ‘A-Word’ In Selling Some people get excited about the rise [...]
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 [...]
It’s Official: Procrastination Is Good For Buying!
Sellers battle procrastinating buyers every day in the hope of meeting this quarter’s target. But as a new book reveals there is a good reason for buyers to want to delay a decision. It is a classic case of buyer as a tortoise and seller as a hare. Selling To The Procrastinating Buyer Understandably sellers [...]
The Competitive Tender: Sellers Can’t Expect Buyers To Be Monogamous!
Don’t be taken aback when the buyer seeks competing quotes. Instead, only get surprised if he, or she doesn’t. A sales strategy that assumes buyer monogamy is a dangerous one. The Illusion Of The Monogamous Buyer! Sellers should never get complacent. Don’t let an apparent coziness fool you into thinking that the buyer is going to be monogamous! In [...]
