Elevate your Sales Influence

Change your team's sales approach and they'll flip CEO's

A well-developed value proposition often fails because it’s delivered to the wrong person. This is often the case when reps are talking to Procurement, or even when speaking with low-level managers of the solution. They get the problem, acknowledge that your solution might help, and then… do nothing.

This happened to one rep we were coaching.

An account he’d been trying to break into had a policy of competitively bidding every.single.order. Seriously. A tough scenario for a supplier who didn't have the lowest unit price but instead focused on total cost of ownership.

The rep saw an opening with an incoming VP of procurement, and knowing his solutions reduced total cost of ownership, he leveraged a champion to get a meeting.

After strong prep, and a well-structured conversation, the rep realize that the procurement executive’s reward metrics didn’t favor changing the policy and chances were low he would change his mind.

☕️ After a couple of more meetings at the account that day, the rep happened to bump into the CEO in the lunch room.

The Insight

Now, most selling methodologies have two recommendations when something like this happens:

1. Map the buying group and know people’s roles.
2. When a higher level individual is in the buying group, engage a higher-level member of your org, often referred to as “High-Wide and Deep” management.

#1 is fantastic, we advocate it too.

#2….? weeeeellll…

We think #2 is nice, but it’s a bit of a cop-out, a punt. On the one hand it tells you to leverage all the resources of your organization, which is a great thought. On the other, it doesn’t really tell you how to deliver the value prop, only that “someone else can.” And it sort of teaches you that it’s all in the position power. My VP is going to deliver the same value prop I did. But he’ll win because he’s a VP.

That is complete BS. Yes, position authority helps, but that’s not the only element. We’ve seen high level execs blow the same kind of conversation.

The key is that one must discover the people in the organization who have the problem that you solution addresses, see it the way you solution is designed to address it, or change their frame so that they do.

And this the difference between consultative and solution or value selling.

Back to the Story…

What happened with our rep?

The rep introduced himself, struck up a friendly conversation, and elicited information about the challenges the CEO saw with business. Upon hearing that cost was in her concerns, given the economic slow-down, the rep steered the conversation toward raw material supply costs.

💵 By carefully asking questions, he determined that the CEO was frustrated with some of the things she’d seen on procurement, but hadn’t fully connected how certain processes and activities were hindering their approach. 

Careful not to implicate any of the people in the organization, the rep offered a perspective on total cost of procurement, suggested a few things the company could look at that might have a significant impact and what the company might have to reassess to access those options.

He didn’t mention his solution. (not yet at least)

The outcome?

🎯 The rep won a series of orders at the account and now has steady business, without compromising his pricing to get it.

A rep won the sale because he was prepared to have a conversation about what mattered to an executive.

Actioning the Insight

In this case, because of his circumstances, the Head of Procurement, didn’t see the problem of total cost the way that the solution was designed to address. But the CEO did.

And because the rep was trained in how to elicit the understanding, he was able to deliver the value proposition, himself.

As you are presented with your next sales pipeline review and need to coach your reps, it pays to ask:

• Who in the customer org is primed to see this solution?
• How can we determine if they frame the issue in the same light?

Usually this is a set of questions that solution selling systems don’t ever teach, and value proposition development won't 

• A way to elicit the framing someone has and
• ways to introduce new thinking

Most people think of being “consultative” as helping others solve their problems. But at the heart of it, a consultative approach is about generating influence with trust. And anyone, not just your boss, can be a trusted advisor.

Kendall -

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