SellingSherpa

B2B Sales Best Practices

The New Strategic Selling by Miller, Heiman, & Tuleja (Book Summary)

The New Strategic Selling: The Unique Sales System Proven Successful by the World’s Best Companies by Robert B. Miller, Stephen E. Heiman, Tad Tuleja

I. 5 Steps for understanding your current position

Every selling strategy is only as good as its most recent reassessment.

  1. Identify gradual or sudden changes affecting the way you currently do business
  2. Rate each change as a threat or opportunity
  3. Define your current single sales objective as follows:
    • WHAT are you trying to sell
    • WHO are you selling to
    • WHEN do you expect final approval
    • HOW MUCH do you expect the customer to purchase
  1. Test your current position by asking:
    • How you feel right now about closing this piece of business (note: blissful happiness and total panic are equally dangerous)
  1. Examine alternate positions that would broaden your (strategic) options
    • Every sound alternative position (a) eliminates a Red Flag and/or (b) leverages from a strength

II. 6 key elements of strategic selling (to move from your current position to an alternate position of greater strength)

  1. Identify all of the buying Influences (the players who can impact the outcome of any sale)
  • Economic Buying Influence. The ONE person who will give final approval to release funds for a specific purchase
    • Mainly focused on Results such as price-performance, bottom line impact, or organizational stability
    • This person should be identified as early as possible in the selling process and is usually highly-placed in the organization.
    • Often the best way to get to a buying influence is by leveraging a person inside your organization at the same level as the Economic buyer.
    • The single most valuable contribution you can bring to any Economic Buyer is knowledge to predict the future and to set appropriate agendas.
    • Avoid selling features and attributes to Economic buyers.
    • Maintain periodic (not sporadic) contact with the Economic Buyer throughout the course of the sale, providing value to them every time.
  • User Buying Influences. The individuals who make judgments about the potential impact of your product or service on their job performance. Get user buyers on your side by answering: “How will your product or service worker for me?” to help them improve their on-the-job performance. It is OK to sell them features.
  • Technical Buying Influences. The individuals who screen (out) suppliers and make recommendations based on how well a product or service meets a variety of objective specifications.
    • They may be technologies, legal counsel, HR, or finance/procurement.
    • Beware – do not let a technical buyer convince you they are the economic buyer.
    • It is OK to sell them features.
    • Leverage supporters (a “Strength”) against the negativity of technical buyers
  • Coach: Individuals who guide you to your particular sales objective by leading you to the other Buyers and by giving you information that you need to position yourself effectively with each one.
    • To close any Complex Sale, you should develop at least one Coach by asking him/her for information and advice.
    • A coach must (a) trust your credibility (b) be credible (c) desire your success (d) be in a position to get unique, relevant information
    • The best situation is for the economic buyer to also be a Coach
    • Coaches can help you reassess your position with other buyers
  • Roles can and do shift from sale to sale even within an organization. They will often be willing to help you understand your position with other Buying Influences.
  • For each individual assess and reassess:
    • Their degree of influence (high/med/low) which are a function of the individuals: organizational impact; level or expertise; location; personal priorities; organizational politics
    • Your current position on a -5 to +5 sales (excl. 0): How does each buyer about you? How does each buyer feel about your proposal (esp. relative to other options including competitors, internal action, or no action)? What questions does each buyer want answering?
  1. Red Flags/Leverage from Strength
  • Red flags are uncertainties and problems that can jeopardize sales. These include:
    • Any buyer ignored
    • Buyers in even-keel or overconfident mode
    • New players
    • Changes to organizational structure as a result of hiring, firing, reorg, consolidation, or acquisition
    • Blockers (show them how to win). Only attempt to close a sale where a blocker still exists when you have nothing left to lose at the account level (not in the individual sale)
    • Not finding Red Flags is a major Red Flag
  • Strengths are areas that differentiate you from the competition
  1. Response Modes (i.e. buyer’s responses to the change a seller is proposing)
  • Buyers will only be receptive to change if they see a gap between their current reality and the results they desire in a context of a specific situation.
  • Buyers in “Growth Mode”, those who seek opportunity, and buyers in “Trouble Mode”, those who seek survival, are both desirable
  • Buyers in “Even Keel” model, those who see no gap, and buyers in “Overconfident” mode, those who more than expect to achieve desired results, are not desirable. You can attempt to sell Even Keel buyers Growth or Trouble avoidance. Don’t work on Overconfident buyers; just wait them out.
  1. Win-Results
  • A “Result” is the measurable impact your product or service will have on one or more business processes shared by various people in the organization
  • A “Win” is an intangible, personal gain that satisfies an individual Buyer’s perceived self-interest. Examples include recognition, etc.
  • Give each Buying Influence a Win-Result (personal + business benefit) that will demonstrate you’ve served that person’s self-interest
  • Manage every sale as a win-win to ensure satisfied customers leading to repeat sales and referrals
  • You cannot manage a sale so that a company Wins. You can and must manage each sales objective so that every one of the Buying Influences in that company sees a personal Win in adopting your solution.
  • Results must happen before any Buyer perceives a Win
  • Concentrate on the Win-Results of the customer rather than on competitors or on pure product differentiation
  • Build a Win-Results statement for every buyer
  1. Ideal Customer Profile (to identify your real best prospects and to eliminate the bad ones)
  • Build by analyzing the demographic and psychographic characteristics common to your current and past good customers. Also, codify the characteristics of your worst customers.
  • Unless you start by judiciously restricting your Universe, the best time-management in the world will get you nowhere.
  1. Work the sales funnel (prospect; qualify; cover the bases; close the orders)
  • Pre-call planning: (a) what do I need to find out? (b) what information do I need to get about the desired Results and Wins of specific buyers (c) What do I want the buyer to do? (d) How do I want the buyer to feel?
  • Prospecting means to search for a fit
    • Universe: reasonable fit to your ICP
    • Above the funnel: Contacted one buying influence in Growth or Trouble response mode
  • Qualified – In the funnel: Possibility of an order.
  • Cover the bases – Best few: Eliminated luck and uncertainty as factors
  • To avoid the roller coaster: 1. Do closing work on your Best Few objectives. 2. Prospect by narrowing the Universe. 3. Qualify your Above the Funnel objectives. 4. Work the objectives In the Funnel.
  • Build an Action Plan. Each action should either eliminate a Red Flag or capitalize on a Strength. Restrict action plans to 4 or 5 items that (a) build on prior work (b) are urgent (c) are do-able in one or two sales calls If you cannot find actions that will improve your position, consider this may be a dead opportunity. Actions Plans should take about 1hr to create.

III. Other

  • If you provide an introductory discount, let the customer know in writing that they are getting a special deal so they do not balk at your future terms
  • Very early on, admit that you are higher priced than similar suppliers, but stress that your “total package” / superior quality makes you worth it.
  • When trying to knock out a competitor, show respect for their choice and explain why you want to be their “first choice for second place”
  • If you are asked to bid, assume that one of your competitors has already established the specifications and the buyer is only looking for pricing leverage in their negotiation
  • Start any complex sale with the buyer with whom you have the most credibility. The last thing you want to do is to barge in on an Economic Buyer and start pitching-your solution before you fully understand the organization’s current problems or the Economic Buyer’s individual Wins.
  • Do not to make unilateral presentations; rather, create interactive dialogues where 2-way exchanges happen within the first 5 minutes
  • Persistence, product knowledge, and analytical skill are necessary but not sufficient. Every great salesperson must possess credibility. Four techniques for building credibility: like-rank selling, the advertisement of past successes (incl. providing references to the economic buyer), executive briefings, and bringing in the services of an internal or external expert “guru.”

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