For success in sales you must identify the decision maker
When approaching a major organisation with a product or service, it’s vital to know the needs and wants of its relevant stakeholders at every level
SOME years ago, a good friend of mine went out shopping for a new car. For three or four Saturdays in a row, he visited approximately 15 different showrooms in Dublin. From Volvo to Mercedes and from Renault to Ford, he tried them all. Arguably a shy but friendly man, he browsed and kicked tyres as he pondered to what extent each car suited his needs. He did the rounds on his own as his even quieter wife stayed at home and left him to it.
In each showroom, he’d sit in to the car and fiddle around with the seat controls. He’d push the seat as far forward and as high as he could, looking like an eejit as his nose nearly touched the windscreens. This man’s wife is 4ft 10 and his primary buying criterion was for the seat to be adjustable to suit her. Now you may be wondering why she didn’t go with him. Don’t even go there, she just didn’t.
But here is the interesting thing: only some of the salespeople engaged him in conversation (usually with pushy selling questions), and not even one asked him why he was doing it.
WHICH OF YOUR CUSTOMERS’ STAKEHOLDERS IS THE DECISION-MAKER? There are two significant issues of relevance here. One is that salespeople continually miss the opportunity to ask the right questions of a customer. The best salespeople know how to extract relevant information (buying motives) from the customer.
In every industry, there are usually a handful of topics that the saleperson should uncover information or opinions on. In cash and carry kitchens, the designers want to know the measurements, your likes and dislikes about the old kitchen, your preferred colour and finish, your lifestyle and what accessories you’d like. For car salepeople, standard questions should include “Who else will be driving the car?”.
The second issue is, who else is involved in making a decision? Very often in large organisations there are multiple players involved in the decision-making. I experienced this personally when selling training programmes to Symantec Corporation.
The head of human resources invited us to meet her to discuss the training needs of the localisation department. Her main concerns were the approach we’d use, the trainer’s profile and the cost. I then met with the head of the department, whose primary concern was timing, content and business impact as a result.
So I went away and developed a proposal to match their needs. After presenting the proposal and getting the green light from both stakeholders, I then discovered that it had to be approved by the head of procurement. Guess what that person’s primary concern was? Yes, it was cost, payment terms and process. I never made that mistake again.
MATRIX SELLING Frequently, McArdle Skeath (profiled below) find themselves in multi-level negotiations with customers. The complexity of logistics and the number of key people involved on the customer’s side demands a matrix-type response. The key to success is to recognise that within your customer’s organisation, different people may have different needs. Here are some examples by way of illustration. ÷ CEO: His or her focus will be on vision, strategy, capability, profit and loss. ÷ MARKETING: Consider fit with brand, digital and traditional marketing plan, packaging, customer feedback and analytics, provenance. ÷ COMMERCIAL: If your customer is a re-seller, show how your product fits with their current portfolio, customer base and territories. What new knowledge and skills will the sales team need to sell this product? Will your product bring added sales? Will it match margin expectations? ÷ PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: This team might be interested in collaborative innovation, manufacturing ingredients and process, packaging and pricing, and results of market research. ÷ SUPPLY CHAIN: How can you make life easy for the supply chain team? Consider paperwork, lead times, cost efficiencies, order tracking, returns, sizes and weights, ÷ OPERATIONS: Pack and pallet sizes might be a concern in a warehouse situation. What level of compliance and equipment is required for handling goods, especially for high-value goods, food, pharmaceutical or hazardous goods? ÷ FINANCE: The commercial finance people will primarily be focused on return on investment, business case, impact on balance sheet or profit and loss. ÷ HUMAN RESOURCES: HR cares about impact on attraction and retention of good people. Think of recruitment needs, training, communications, culture and cost. ÷ ICT: The IT team will want to know what support in terms of manpower and finance is required from a technology and networking perspective. They will also be curious about security, risk analysis, roadmap,
LAST WORD This list is in no way intended to be a definitive list, as every industry is different. The message is more about taking time to consider each stakeholder’s needs in advance and to tailor your sales strategy and pitch accordingly.
For McArdle Skeath, they ensure that their subject matter experts buddy up with their counterparts on the customer’s side to listen and to reassure them. In other words, everyone is in sales.