A strategic sales system that serves to identify what the different buying influences need and want.
"The purpose of my sales is to help people get what they want: to feel comfortable with what they have bought and also with themselves."
"I enjoy more, and achieve greater financial success when I stop trying to get what I want and help other people get what they want."
Spenser Johnson and Larry Wilson
Jeff gave him two pieces of information that were final.
Miller and Heiman in the last decades of the 20th century developed a sales system - they called it Strategic Selling - tested and developed with great success by the best North American companies such as Dow Chemical Co, General Electric Co, Hewlett-Packard Co, ITT Dialcom Inc, Johnson & Johnson, Reynols Metals Co…. Without their thinking, their workshops were pure complex sales coaching. They started their workshops raising Ray's case.
Ray was the agent in charge of selling sophisticated computers from a leading manufacturer with a turnover of hundreds of millions of dollars a year. I was about to close a sale to a potential new client. He was very confident. He had been talking successfully for months with the client's senior managers. He was even from the same club as the Chief Executive. With a high five-figure commission, I was already choosing the car to buy.
He knew that it was not the only company trying to achieve this operation. That a smaller and much less prestigious company had initiated contacts with the client. But the agent of the other company, Greg, only knew him by name, had not even made contact with the Chief Executive.
What Ray didn't know is that young and ambitious Greg had just attended Miller and Heiman's Strategic Selling program.
It was true that Greg had never been with the Chief Executive. But with what he had learned he knew he didn't need to either. As Ray focused his attention on top managers, Greg spent his time identifying who really could influence his specific sales target and what precise information he had to give for approval.
He found what he was looking for in Jeff, an outside company consultant whom Ray had completely ignored. Jeff gave him two pieces of information that were definitive:
-In that specific sale, it was the Director General who was empowered for final approval, not the Chief Executive.
-The best way was Jeff himself since he was his technical consultant. In addition, he had been trained in the technological organization department of this company before becoming independent and had greatly helped the CEO in its promotion.
With this information, what Greg did was to demonstrate to Jeff the adequacy between the client's needs and the solutions of his computer, and he left it to Jeff to demonstrate this to the CEO and the IT organization department.
Very soon all the parties involved in the decision were very satisfied with the computer and signed the contract.
It was Greg who bought a new car. While Ray, who had believed he had the sale in his pocket, investigated what had happened. When he found out that the Miller and Heiman sales program Greg had made had influenced him, so did he. After a while, he also bought the car he wanted.
What do we understand by complex sale
We call complex selling that does not depend on a single buying influence.
In complex selling the foundation of any reliable strategic decision is knowing who the key players are.
The most important thing before carrying out a sales project is to identify all the revealing participants in their approval and to know their particular vision of it.
How we identify the different Buyer Influences.
Normally in organizations the decision system is more complex than it appears.
The foundation of any sound strategic decision is knowing who the key players are.
Does this seem like a good first step?
It is. But very often we forget… and with predictable results.
How many times have you assumed that you already knew the people whose approval you needed?
In this article the most important thing you will learn is not to take it for granted.
Experience shows us that if you look for them without a systemic strategy that experiences what you are identifying, many times you end up talking to people who are comfortable with you or what you are talking about. They may even have appropriate titles or have made decisions of this kind…. but in the past. Do you think their information is reliable?
If you have complex sales experience, you will remember many anecdotes, the loss of time they have caused you, the unpredictability and, above all, the frustrations.
You have to learn it in practice but with a systemic approach. Each person, each organization is different and has different motivations. We are not going to focus on what changes in each case, this can only be done by you. Now, we are going to focus on what we have discovered to be universal and continuous.
Who have decision-making functions on a sales target
However many people are involved in a decision and whatever their representative functions in an organization, it has been experienced that in any complex decision there are four key functions. The people who carry out these functions, which can be many more than four, are what we call Deciding Influences. They are any person or groups - council, commission, committee… - that has influence on the decision, regardless of the position that appears on the door of their office or business card.
Our strategy begins by effectively positioning yourself with respect for all the people who perform each of the four roles. This supposes:
Understand each function.
Identify all the key participants in each of these functions in your specific sales objective.
To understand why we focus attention on functions rather than on past positions or contacts, the sports analogies are much clearer, much more so with the coaching methodology. The four decision influences are:
Economic, technical, user and ally.
Specification of each.
The Economic Function is the one that gives the final decision.
It is the only decision-making influence that is made up of a single person or a single group of people, a committee, a commission or a council…
You have access to the money and its delivery, by whatever process.
His basic point of attention is the impact that the investment will produce in the organization.
It normally has veto power. We can consider the example of the protagonist of the book The self-leadership of Ken Blanchrd. He presented an Advertising project to a large company, it was the most important of his professional career. While everyone nodded after having answered their objections, the Economic Influence only spoke one word: trash! The presentation is over and from this the protagonist was going to present his resignation to his company ……
One thing that we cannot forget about every decisive influence is that they all want results for their organization and also in every decision personal profit influences.
The Technical Function is that of sieve.
Normally the Technical Influences are several and can be many.
They are people who analyze measurable aspects of the proposals. They don't say yes, they only make recommendations. They can say no…. and very often they do.
His point of attention is the product or project itself, its quality and requirements.
They are difficult to identify, there are camouflaged technical influences.
It can be fatal to disregard them.
Just as these influences are apparently invisible, others are too visible. Many times their function interferes with the economic one, making your identification difficult. Many try to convince you that they are the ones who give the final approval. The worst that some believe. If you, too, believe it, they can create problems for you before you start.
The User Function issues impressions on the impact of the result of the product or the project.
They are people who use or supervise the results of the project or product. They are usually several and can be many. But there is always one person, at least, whose focus is your project.
If you want to offer an organization a corporate coaching project, surely there will be a director of training, human resources or both, who will assume the role of user as well as other central or local managers, team leaders…
Each type of organization is different. Even each organization in those of its kind. When you become familiar with the organization charts of similar organizations, you will be amazed at how different they are and even with their terminology. The User Influence is carried out by the person who will actually use, or supervise, your product or service. And keep in mind that sometimes it has nothing to do with your card or job.
Its function is to make judgments about the impact of this product or service on your personal life and the work to be done.
This influence has a direct connection between your personal success and that of the project. The user will live with your proposal and its development.
Your point of attention is what the service or product brings to me. They will ask you questions of immediate and daily concern.
What will this service bring me?
If it's in an organization: How will it work for me? What learning difficulties do you have.
What may be its impact on the spirit of the organization?
Since their attention and reactions to the proposal tend to be subjective, many professionals often consider it irrelevant. When many consultants, vendors, and also many managers who do not have a systemic perspective, often disregard this User Influence, the end result can be very bad. Those of us who have heard of quick fixes that can turn into problems have a case here. In the next dialogue we will put examples. Then you might say about a participant in another workshop who explained a real case. He concluded by saying:
From now on, whoever wants to be a client of mine will have to want it.
If you do not have the consent of the User Influence even if you get the approval of the Economic Influence you will not have a good client. You may find yourself later hampered by resentment, lack of cooperation, and even direct sabotage. It would be a case of the typical pattern of "solutions that become problems" or at least it will cost you to obtain good results. We all have experiences in these cases!
Precisely the phrase of the workshop participant mentioned above constituted a motivated purpose for having ignored these decisive influences. Our friend learned a lot. You will no longer do without users!
The Allied Function acts as a guide, as an instructor.
It is advisable to have at least one. It can be in the organization you are going to work for, yours or outside both.
Many sales or marketing programs call you Prescriber. It may have a similar function, but it is not exact and its terminology is not suitable for corporate coaching.
In coaching it is not prescribed, this is done by doctors, therapists and many consultants.
It is a decisive function for your project. It can supply you with valid information and can interpret yours. You can do it on the current reality, on the vision of the Deciding Influences, and above all, how to win everyone.
This is precisely his point of attention: the success of the project.
But the ally's influence is very subtle. This is well known by experienced sellers. How many Allies have made them lose time, sales, customers and prestige? To get a good Ally we have experienced three basic criteria:
- That you have credibility for this person.
- That he has it for the organization.
- Who wants the project to succeed for both parties. And, let this be your main motivation. As for your success, it is not necessary that you refer to your career, we are not talking about a mentor, it can be from this specific project. The most advisable thing is that for another project you have another.
Importance of the characteristics of the Economic and Allied Influences
The basic strategy to get the approval and realization of your project with valid results is that all the Influence Decisions win and so do you.
Many times this is very difficult with respect to the Economic. They are much more difficult to identify. It is much more difficult to reach them both physically and psychologically.
In the next nanoexperience we will learn specific strategies to reach the Economic Influence. As always, you will see that the first thing that arises is the problems. I summarize in three groups what I have heard in others:
- I don't know where to look for it. I can't know who it is, nobody assumes it. I can't identify him. I do not trust the director of training, I have been told that he does not decide anything.
- He refuses to receive me. All your visits are highly selected. There is another colleague who has interposed. The technician wants to handle everything personally. What happens if I “bypass” it?
- I feel uncomfortable talking to him. I get nervous. I have no credibility. I feel very insecure.
We will train ourselves to overcome these problems or difficulties. What better system can we use better than ours? If you have it, use it and please bring it.
Allied Influence may be the key to achieving this.
