Counting your Chickens or Sales Too soon
It is a classic sales mistake. Thinking you have a deal before the order is firmly in hand. Maybe it takes the pressure off but maybe it also causes you to take your eye off the ball. So this is a touchy subject but do you know how the buying decision gets made? It is a little different at every company and with each sales cycle. There is more to this than almost making a sale there is your level of engagement in the selling cycle.
Typical office influences include –
Administrative staff especially those who work for the executive team, they have far more influence and access than you could ever hope.
Marketing and sales VP’s & Directors – so what you’re selling doesn’t affect them? Think again. The term higher and wider comes to mind meaning you need to be higher in the organization (i.e. decision makers) and wider, more contacts not just from the part of the business you touch. Another way of saying the same thing is where are you engaged but the real concept here is not just knowing people which is always helpful but entangling them in you product or service, making sure you deliver as much value as you can as many places as you can. Before you say to yourself, but my buyer is loyal. That’s great congratulations you’ve done a good job now what if they got hit buy a bus, won the lottery or highly more likely get a new job either inside that company or out side of it. How well positioned are you? Thought so.
So here’s a real world reason why you need to spread your contact through out an organization.
Once upon a time not so long ago an industry underwent a fundamental shift, during the post dot com bubble burst on the early 2000’s the telecom industry faced significant challenges. In addition to lessened demand for their products the foundation that their hardware platforms used was changing to the now much ballyhooed VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). What that meant was in addition to lessened demand the people who made the purchasing decision changed from what was a traditional telephony staff to the data geeks across the hall. What this meant is that two organizations that were generally diametrically opposed and very territorial now had to begin to work together. Worse if you sold phone systems and related technology most of your traditional contacts to quote four time super bowl champion coach Chuck Knoll would say “it was time for them to get on with their life’s work.” It meant that the people who bought from you began to get down sized, phased out or to put it more truthfully fired. Now imagine you are a sales rep who knew only that part of the organization, maybe you did a great jib knowing every one from the analyst to the Vice President but now you had to call on guys who spoke a completely different language, had different tolerances for how a product preformed, more readily accepted changes than the previous people whom bought from you and then add this new a terrifying proposition of having to solve a business problem and deliver a return on their investment with your product. Sad to say a lot of those sales people also got on with their life’s work, some of them had been the top performers, perennial president’s club attendee’s. What would the value have been if you had relationships with sales and marketing? How important would have been a VP or CFO’s endorsement from outside the telecom staff’s?
I personally watched a host of companies both big and small go down in flames. So how to take on such a challenge, learn where to be engaged. I took on a leadership role in a company struggling to make the transition and the reality is I was the specter of doom for a lot of those fallen stars who weren’t willing or able to change how they did business. Now in truth a lot of them had been victims of their own circumstance doing what always worked but wasn’t any longer. An example of the definition of insanity they kept doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result, in their case they kept calling the same old customers, the same level of contacts and wondering why the same old orders weren’t coming in, everything around them was changing but them.
So how do you address time like these whether they are as wide spread as the collapse of telecom in the early 2000’s or a new buyer since yours just got promoted.
To spread your contacts you need to learn how to speak that person’s language and what mattered to them, was it efficiency? Pure ROI (Return on Investment)? Maybe employee retention was key to a part of the business does you product help that?
Where you fit into their world.
Other reasons to spread out you contacts is the following
Points of influence- Do you understand where your product and service is really used? The next thing to think about is the down stream effect is can and does have on an organization, who else’s world will you be changing if they buy from you. They might not have the direct buying power but they most likely have an opinion is not a vote in what is going on. Keep in mind a lot of people don’t openly accept change so if you’re changing how a company works or does business you need to care for all the parts of the organization that gets touched. Don’t lavish undue attention on them but build support by including them and addressing their issues. At the end of the day a little support can go along way to helping create a valued and ongoing business relationship. In a business environment where more people inside a company work with and cross departments not just in occasional task but as a mater of routine business and function not to mention who reports to who. Commonly referred to as Dotted line reports or a Matrixed organization. Sounds too funky to be true look at it this way Finance reports to the CFO directly but they have reporting responsibility to sales for aged accounts. Viola a matrixed organization not to be confused with our next category Matrix of Authority
Matrix of Authority- Welcome to the business world that is largely influenced by Sarbanes Oxley. The concept is simple new contracts and agreements ranging from the utterly simply to the extremely complex in more and more cases have to under go a formal authorization process that might land on an Senior Vice President, General Manager or Even the CEO’s desk for review and approval. Most times the trust the people below them to make the right decisions but now days they need to acknowledge that they do need to know what is going on and how and where. You need to be prepared in the selling process to deliver the type of information executive care about, it’s different for every one so asking strong questions along the way helps. Most often you run into this type of thing. So to over simplify Capital Expenditures (Cap Ex in MBA Speak) and contracts are most often subject to this.
Levels of Authorization- This comes into play on repetitive buying and simple purchases and inventory tasks. The concept is simple based on title and experience people have the ability to execute on types of transactions up to a certain dollar amount after that it moves up the food chain. Your job as a sales person is to know when and where those points are and position your self not only at the top of the line or where your ;[products typically fall but through out it. One person may buy the products but another may review the maintenance or service agreement and so on and so on.
Departmental cross training- OK we’re sale pukes we don’t cross train well but other positions do, it is not uncommon to see people from finance move into purchasing, or operation move into other parts of the business, whether for a short time as a training and enrichment program or permanently to perform the duties of the job. If you know some one is being cross trained because your regular contact has shared that with them ask if you can add value by meeting them and explaining the business relation or role you play in helping their company succeed. Worst case you made a new contact best case is two fold, they might tell others about you and of course you prepared methodically to add value to the conversation and didn’t just show up with a Pizza and no other plan or if they do land in the role eventually or even one high up the food chain you are now a real person who took the time to help them grow.
Competitive pressure- I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, your competition is calling your customers each and every day some one is trying to take away the business you’ve worked so hard to create. Yes you think you are an invaluable resource to your clients, and your product fill a need no one else could ever hope to but what if some else, a c competitor gets their claws into a different level or part of the organization. If you are selling to the purchasing agent day in and day out and that’s the right place to be but if the VP or CEO doesn’t know your name and a competitor calls…you stand to lose. Lose sales, lose margin and just maybe lose the account.
Management or Staff changes-Change happens a lot of it is internal that you can control and depending on the industry the external change might be too. If you have a good relationship with a person and they move to a new company in the same or similar business there is a great chance to get a new client or additional business from where they landed. Will it be instant? Not likely and you will have to prove your value and win the business it won’t just get handed to you since you’re such an wonderful person but you have the possibility of having an internal advocate inside to help you get their pushing you and your service or products into the forefront of the discussion. On the same note if some leaves and the replacement comes in from the outside the more advocates you have the stronger the position but that doesn’t mean you won’t have to work hard to keep the business, be seen as a resource by the new ,manager and you can grow your business with them. While change is always a challenge it does at times open the door to conversations that couldn’t wouldn’t or just plain didn’t have with last contact.
Ownership changes- These shifts happen slowly but most of the staff and many of the suppliers get rotated out in the first two years after an ownership change. Make sure your not one of them.
TIP: Be prepared to speak to people at every level of the Customer’s company. This may require practice if you’ve never spoken at the executive level. Rehearse if need be, but always be prepared.
