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B2B Sales Best Practices

THE CHAMPION SELL (Book Summary)

THE CHAMPION SELL: The 5 E.L.I.T.E. Sales Habits to Building and Winning with Buyer Champions by Richard Rivera

FOREWORD JOHN MCMAHON

  • The core of becoming elite in sales is the ability to seek and develop an internal Champion
  • They may have gained political power, garnered technical respect, or have specific expertise in a domain, each of which has given them influence in the company
  • When reps rush through the sales process knowing little-to-nothing about the customer’s business and their specific use cases, how can they practically convince the customer that their product or service solves their business issues?
  • The competitor’s Champion and even the installed base Champion might pose as a Fox in Sheep’s Clothing
  • They couldn’t affect the buying criteria and had no knowledge of the buying process or how the purchase would ultimately be decided
  • Elite sellers are never fooled into thinking that NINA (no influence, no authority) or ANI (authority, no influence) have the power to elevate their game and provide the control they need
  • Elite sales reps understand that Champions are intellectually astute and politically shrewd.
  • Champions are extremely careful not to attach themselves to small pains and certainly not work with unprepared salespeople.
  • Prior to entering an account, the elite sales rep is armed with open-ended questions and a cold proficiency of
    • the customer’s use case
    • use case pains
    • how their product differentiators solve the customer pain
    • the potential value of their solution
    • pertinent customer success stories
  • Champions have personal aspirations. To realize those aspirations, they need to differentiate themselves within the organization.
  • Elite sales reps target crucial business problems that directly effects
    • one of the Champion’s job measures
    • a major strategic initiative
    • a significant company objective like revenue cost productivity or risk
  • Together, [the seller and Champion] must prepare for:
    • the Economic Buyer meeting
    • the upcoming battle with the competitor’s Champion
    • build the cost justification
    • plan for product implementation and training needs
  • Elite sellers know that Champions value being empowered because they want to eliminate risk in the buying process and [in] implementation. They understand that the EB will hold them personally accountable for a successful outcome

INTRODUCTION-THE CHAMPION SELL

  • Our ultimate mission is that we need our Champions selling on our behalf
  • All Elite Sellers had three selling habits in common:
    • First they’re Intuitive with a pretty strong sense of empathy. Their intuition always questions The 3 Why’s: Why would they buy? Why now? And Why us?
    • Two they sell a Vision. Unless a buyer can see themselves in the future in a better state than they are today there’s not much chance that the capabilities or differentiation of a product will do much to get them motivated
    • And last they build Champions [by] identifying and inspiring the buyers with power and influence to sell on their behalf

CHAPTER 1-HOW DID WE GET HERE?-The Evolution of Sales

  • No economic buyer cares if a product is next-gen or old-gen just as long as it addresses what’s important to them in the moment
  • The ultimate question shouldn’t be product-market fit It should simply be “Why would a buyer take a meeting with my seller?”
  • Solution Selling: Mastering the ability to simplify complex products and services
  • To compensate for the rapid and sometimes overwhelming evolution of technology the craft of pain and gain Discovery and Value Selling became the focus
  • The most successful sellers are usually the ones who have the intelligence and confidence to engage in conversations that can often challenge a buyer’s point of view

CHAPTER 2-THE BUYER CHAMPION-No Champion, No Deal

  • No Champion No Deal
  • There are many traits of what makes someone a potential Champion.
    • Do they have political clout?
    • When we look at an org chart do they appear to have a title of authority?
    • Are they seen as a by-the-rules company man or woman or can they tend to be a bit of a rebel?
    • When we meet with them do they come across as highly intelligent and open to learn?
    • Are they often the alpha personality in the room?
    • When hard questions are asked in the sales meeting are they the one who everyone tends to defer to?
    • Are they ambitious trying to make a name for themselves?
  • THE 3 CHAMPION CRITERIA
    • Power and Influence – Power must be observed. We need proof that the buyer we’re targeting has the authority to set priorities involve the right stakeholders and ultimately make the decisions that count.
    • Access to an Economic Buyer:
      • The person who has discretionary authority to say Yes to a purchase.
      • We can never really know who the true EB is until we qualify our buyer’s decision process at a detailed level across the steps timelines and people involved in doing the deal
      • When salespeople only qualify the steps and miss who the people are involved in those steps they usually fail to get to the truth of who the Economic Buyer really is
    • A Willingness to Sell for Us When We’re Not There
  • Elite Sellers always try to build multiple Champions
  • There’s no evidence that someone’s personality is a strong indicator as to whether or not they would be someone’s Champion. We need to determine their tendency to take action
  • Any actions that you would define as the most important that your buyers take in a sales opportunity are how you should be defining your ideal bias for action in a Champion
  • When we meet a Complacent we first have to adjust our message to how we’re easy to implement easy to use and nondisruptive to their current world
  • The greatest sign that you’re probably working with a Teaser is that you’re single-threaded
  • Be up front about the perceived potential risks of adopting your product or service and the success plan you bring to the table
  • Ask them questions like:
    • “What part of the decision process will be most challenging?”
    • “Where could this decision go wrong?”
    • “What stakeholders might reject the purchase?”

CHAPTER 3-THE 5 E.L.I.T.E. SALES HABITS TO BUILDING AND WINNING WITH BUYER CHAMPIONS

  • To win in sales you have to possess the traits of
    • intelligence
    • high character
    • drive
    • disciplined hard work
  • What separated the best from the rest wasn’t their messaging product knowledge or even personal traits. It was their selling behaviors or habits they had with the people they sold to
  • They got their buyers to really engage and connect at an emotional level
  • They got buyers excited about a transformational vision
  • They didn’t just gain an interest or preference; they got commitment from their buyers
  • Focus on how your buyers perceive you
  • E.L.I.T.E
    • Emotional Connection
    • Leading Vision (sell transformation and how to build buyer certainty in that vision)
    • Inspiring Commitment
    • Trust-Building (where you have No Trust there you shall also have No Champion)
    • Empowering Champions

CHAPTER 4-EMOTIONAL CONNECTION-Survive, Thrive, Think

  • “Be honest. If we catch you in one lie you’re out of here. And if you don’t have real technical chops we’re not going to work with you.”
  • Make the decision that caring about and trying to understand your buyer’s current state is fundamental to how you’ll approach your job
  • Acting in sympathy, especially in sales, gets you and the buyer to a more comfortable state. That’s why sellers stay in unqualified deals too long. They like feeling comfortable
  • Emotional Connection needs to be built and rebuilt all of the time
  • In Discovery conversations we should frame those discussions around the problems and outcomes that they care about most

CHAPTER 5-LEADING VISION-Vision-Based Positioning

  • If the outcomes that we can deliver, the positive future vision that our buyer would care about, is not easily differentiated by tangible competencies, then a lack of value measurement will minimize our message.
  • Leading Vision habit is about the process in practice of how we position our high value message
  • It’s this personal vision that motivates them to act
  • if you expect me to take action on making a purchase with any urgency, I’ll need to understand the negative consequences if I delay. And, if you want to charge a higher premium, then I’m going to need to understand just how much value this would be for me
  • Elite sellers know that any level of doubt or hesitation in a buyer’s confidence that (a) we’re the right solution for them and (b) that this is the right time to make the change, will derail and stall the buying decision a majority of the time
  • A buyer understanding our capabilities and differentiation only builds clarity, not connection, and certainly not the level of certainty that we desire
  • One certainty strategy is using different Proof Events. Many companies execute proof of concepts freemium trials and pilot strategies
  • A more advanced proof strategy is called Simulation – This could be a call scheduled to walk-through a tailored process for them using systems that they relate to. A sales team could facilitate a hands-on process workshop
  • Another Certainty strategy is a Customer Reference
  • Customer and partner events offer opportunities to gain references of positive experience
  • Even more effective, connecting them directly to a respected and credible professional peer for a reference call
  • In all types of sales environments our buyers are pretty much asking the same four essential questions:
    • Who are you?
    • What do you do?
    • How are you different?
    • And why should I care?
  • Through Vision-Based Positioning, we’ll help a buyer discover that positive future vision across two areas.
    • First what is their vision for the problems they’d like to solve?
    • Then what are the positive outcomes they’d most envision for their future?
  • When buyers feel that something could be a waste of their time, not related to them, or add risk to their job objectives, they will take it as a threat
  • The buyer must first understand the unique Problems We Solve for
  • It’s this intersection of Identifying Pain and the Metrics of that pain where we uncover the extent of the Problem
  • If the buyer hears our bold value proclamation before they’ve started to form any emotional connection to our solution, their subconscious responds, Oh yeah Prove it! And who cares anyway?
  • If we don’t have a metric that relates, it’s best not to share one at all
  • Succinctly netting out how we’re different enables us to prevent Cognitive Overload
  • Buyer Champions develop a certainty in what we sell with a bias for action because of their belief in the outcomes that we can deliver, not our capabilities
  • Buyers don’t care how we’re different. They care how we’re different for them

CHAPTER 6-INSPIRING COMMITMENT-Purpose, Plan, Promise

  • 4 Buyer Commitments:
    • Risk
    • Advocacy
    • Economic Authority
    • Urgency
  • Selfless selling is observed when we positively and proactively identify the risks that our Champion will need to commit to in order to support this decision with us.
  • When our Champion is advocating for something to their peers or authorities, they’re putting something very personal on the line: their reputation and credibility.
  • Elite sellers realize that they need to intentionally get those preliminary commitment needs of Economic Authority met as early in their sales process as possible.
  • Most sellers don’t maniacally qualify the decision process and its natural steps timing and people involved.
  • As sellers, we should be seeking out a state where our buyers are meeting their Urgency Threshold. This is the mental conclusion buyers make where their fears for the problems we solve and desires for the outcomes that we address are in balance.
  • The Commitment Path: If we want a person or a group of people to be committed to something, then:
    • they’ll first need to understand the Purpose of it
    • then the Plan of how they’ll achieve success
    • and finally, the Promise of what they should expect to receive in return
  • If I called each of your Champions and asked them all to tell me the purpose of making this purchase with us, what would they say?
  • For a commitment purpose to be a forcing function, there will typically be a real negative consequence to not doing something.
  • A buyer is not going to believe or intellectually commit to our proposed value until they understand just how they would attribute their success.
  • Value realization is when we define how our solution will deliver a specific desired measurable impact. If a buyer can’t see evidence of how they’ll achieve value realization, then all they’ll be left with is unknowns and unanswered questions for this new product or service.
  • A primary capability is telling a Champion that this is the most impactful and differentiating attribution from our solution that you can count on to deliver the level of value realization you need to feel inspired to make this commitment.
  • Avoid positioning a commitment plan that’s cluttered with every capability that [the seller] consider[s] strong or differentiating
  • Success attributes can also be found in a Credible Process. We could justify this in a core services methodology.
  • Implement or emphasize unique processes such as solution delivery, implementation, migration, or assessments that would have immediately disarmed and reassured the prospective buyer.
  • While we were always quite proud of our product’s disruptive differentiation, many startups actually find the most success inspiring Champion commitment from a more white-glove and higher expertise level of service.
  • Many buyers, whether they share it or not with their salesperson, feel a strong hesitancy toward committing to a new solution due to their lack of resources. Buyers are understaffed or lack the expertise needed to ensure operational success.
  • In the commitment plan of our greatest success attributes, a premium service can be seen as an extremely valuable differentiating attribute to deliver customer success and value realization.
  • Commercially, in the legal financial and business agreements that are structured between buyers and sellers, there are almost always Special Terms which, if identified and proposed, will serve as a calming success attribute or protective reassurance for a Champion.
  • Special terms might take the shape of
    • price incentives
    • payment structure
    • legal language
    • service guarantees
  • Internal Qualities
    • Your company has a great reputation, and we really appreciate your partnership. We realize you’re not perfect, but we believe that you’ll always make things right and deliver for us.
    • Your subject matter expert has really impressed us. She makes us feel confident that we’ll get the level of guidance and execution we need.
    • Our needs will be long-term, and your size and stability make us believe that you’ll be able to scale and be around as long as we need you
  • A promise of value doesn’t necessarily have to be a carefully analyzed and calculated value metric that now exposes us to unnecessary risk and questioning of our credibility
  • In our commitment message, when our objective is to set a buyer’s expectations of future results, their Commitment Promise should meet four criteria:
    • Relatability to the Purpose
    • Conviction of the Seller
    • Legitimacy in the Claim
    • Validation from our Champion
  • Validation is an act that we sellers lead and facilitate. In a direct collaborative discussion between us and our Champion we have asked and they have confirmed that they believe our projected results are acceptable and true
  • In a sales opportunity, we ultimately define a Champion by their willingness to sell for us when we’re not there
    • Are they getting us wider in the account?
    • Elevating our access to higher executive and economic authority?
    • Do they show willingness to change the decision criteria or process to better align to our differentiation and path to selection?
    • Have they shared information with us that they haven’t with our competition?
  • Testing a Champion means that we provide a challenge to them typically in the form of a strategic ask or request
  • If we choose to do anything in a test of a Champion that alienates them, makes them look like they’re not doing their job, or exposes any weakness or risk that they have in accomplishing their mission, especially to their management and peers, then we’ve just blown up any trust that we had.

CHAPTER 7-TRUST BUILDING-The Power of Trust

  • The buyer walked me through how his favorite sales rep with another tech company treated him, how he always tried to understand what his team was experiencing at the closest level he possibly could. He never proposed anything until he could really see the specific unique value for them. His words were always carefully chosen, and he never assumed he had any credibility with new people he’d meet.
  • Never forget that just because our Champion has been identified to have power and influence in an organization, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they have all the power and influence
  • If we’ve seen a very strange change in the buying process, we might just ask directly, “Hey, buyer. Is the reason that the process is slowing down because either you or someone on your team is struggling to trust something about this decision? I’m totally open to hearing anything out and respect your concerns But just shoot me straight.”
  • Time is rarely our friend when it comes to trust. The more mature that a low-trust state of mind is allowed to grow, the more strengthened its force and harder it is to overcome.
  • We should be optimizing the time we have putting in place strategic trust building processes into our sales motion where we consistently address and build confidence around those risk factors with rigor and discipline. Examples could be
    • thought leadership workshops
    • executive briefings
    • meetings introducing Subject Matter Experts
    • building customized value realization plans
    • success playbooks
    • facilitating customer interactions
  • Three important traits that make up this trust path:
    • our Character or integrity
    • our Credibility
    • our Competencies
  • Everything that we and our solutions say and do needs to come across as believable.
  • In sales, a loss of trust can happen in the earliest of meetings and on through the final steps of closure.
  • A buyer needs to trust that we are Buyer Value-Oriented. They also want a seller who is Buyer Service-Oriented
  • The ultimate character that a buyer wants and needs from us is one for whom they will see evidence of thinking and driving toward value for them, as well as putting the hard work in to ensure that they’re successful.
  • Another major facet of our sales character is our level of Positivity, and certainly how we project it.
  • How precise were you in qualifying that the very specific differentiating capability or set of capabilities you offered was what they believed they needed the most?
  • As elite Champion Builders, we shouldn’t be expecting a buyer to prioritize our differentiating capabilities. Buyers won’t become trusting of our solution until we align their priorities with the precision of our capabilities.
  • For a buyer to place their complete faith and trust in making this final purchase agreement, they’ll need to see some evidence that our capabilities will be capable enough for them
  • What this chapter is trying to drive home is that we need to expand our view of merely aligning to a Champion’s decision criteria for what a solution can do and go deeper toward what it would take to earn a buyer’s trust in what we can do for them.
  • Gaining validation from a subject matter expert either internally or a peer in the field can be a trust differentiator.
  • In enterprise IT, two cloud technology providers might seem similar. All the buyer knows is that their business will need to primarily commit to one, and that it’s going to be an expensive hard road to transform. Of the two comparable but equally transformational cloud solutions, the one where a trusted advisor or subject matter expert exists to support that the technical competencies are highly valuable and risk-mitigating will usually become the winner
  • There are often new people introduced into the buying process as part of a consensus group We’ll need to recognize this and work toward building trust in each stakeholder individually

CHAPTER 8-EMPOWERING CHAMPIONS-The Work we do to Win!

  • Has a buyer ever given you feedback that what set your solution apart was the effort that you and your team put in to ensuring that they had everything they needed?
  • They don’t care about how we’re different. They care how we’re different for them.
  • No matter how strong a justification appears to a set of decision makers, any amount of risk to their business that can’t be explained or satisfied will expose our Champion and completely implode this deal that we had so close to the finish line.
  • A consensus means that multiple people, sometimes brand – new people to the process, need to agree, or at least respect each other’s decision criteria.
  • No qualifier of a decision process is more important than learning who the people are involved in each step.
  • When a buyer leaves us exposed with no support or even a semblance of guidance during a negotiation, we simply don’t have a Champion by the very disciplined standards of an elite seller.
  • A sacred cow is any term in our agreements that just cannot and will not be compromised.

CONCLUSION – THE GRIT, GRATITUDE, AND GRACE OF THE CHAMPION SELL

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