Tips to get access to the real decision makers

By Pascal Persyn on September 1, 2009 @ 08:54

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I’ve seen and heard it over and over again. It’s difficult to get access to real decision makers. It’s even more difficult to keep them in the loop.

Entering late in the buying cycle is probably the single most important reason. A project manager is taking the lead once an opportunity is in the closed minded phase (in some businesses when the RFQ/RFP has been send out). This means that all requirements have been gathered and translated into buying criteria. Therefore real decision makers and those faced with the business problem are no longer involved in the market research phase. They will of course come back into the loop at decision time but that’s way to late to build a meaningful relationship for this opportunity.

5 tips to help overcome the main obstacles:

  • Research the power structure and contact the highest ranked person faced with the business problem:Marketing should influence all decision makers faced with business problems you can solve. See: how to influence key decision makers And the one with the biggest impact should be contacted by sales to make an appointment based on a value proposition adapted to the business problem you want to discuss. They will only accept an appointment if their ‘readiness to buy’ is far enough developed but not yet to the state that they’re already convinced to know the buying criteria the solution must meet.
  • Speak their language: Sales people are often pushed down or don’t get access to them because they’re unable to have a value add business conversation. Decision makers are not interested in a product or technology pitch. Nor are they interested in knowing more about your company. Remember: Decision-makers believe they know the destination but they have a problem getting there.
  • Understand the psychology: Your contact will probably have cold feet of introducing you higher up in the organisation. They’re not sales people and therefore be reluctant to sell the idea to their boss. Afraid of the impact in case of a wrong judgement or setting up an appointment with a sales rep that doesn’t speak the right language.
  • Get agreement on value chain impact: Showing that the business pain has an important impact on other key people in the organisation will help you to get access even higher in the organisation. the reasons are:
    • You helped your contact to build the needed story to sell the appointment
    • You proofed that you understand and have experience dealing with the business problem
    • You proofed that you speak the right language.
  • Negotiate access: You have to negotiate access if all of above has been insufficient to get access. Remember to check the status of the opportunity in terms of readiness to buy. All of above will probably fail if you came in via the project manger or buyer because the opportunity is already too far down the buying cycle. So if you came in at the right time you will get access when agreeing on certain work or commitments from your side that are of value to your contact in exchange for that meeting.

Closing tip: Be careful with your forecast if you put in opportunities without having access to the real decision makers. These opportunities will drag on and on in your pipeline. Quit normal of course since you have very little insight and control over the ‘real decision’.

Want to sell more: Pitch a reference story

By Pascal Persyn on April 8, 2009 @ 10:13

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It’s amazing how many sales people enter a first call and make the 2 biggest FATAL mistakes:

  1. Pitch their company story on how big, great, superior, experienced, financially stable, oldest in the market,…. they are.
  2. Can’t wait to demonstrate their product convinced that the product is so good it will make the difference.

This is the best way to decrease your hit-rate and create a bad corporate brand despite the money and energy you put in corporate branding.

This is why:

brand-loyalty

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture clearly shows the impact of field-driven activities on your brand in a B2B environment based on research

by sales & marketing management in 2006

So what should one do to increase your hit-rate and improve your brand perception:

Telling a story was definitely the right way. We all know that stories, pictures and metaphors are a great way to communicate a message.

Yet the story should be on ….. a customer.

So here’s a great way to open a first face to face meeting:

  • Present the goal of the meeting and get buy-in
  • Propose an agenda (and check available time dependant on the country culture)
  • Present yourself

This is the part where the story kicks in. The story starts with your value proposition adapted to the prospect in front of you. followed by telling a story about a customer (don’t use the name)who was faced with several problems,…….. Together you found a solution which would enable him to ……..  and this resulted in an improved…. decreased by ….. (use numbers!) after a certain time of use. This story should be adapted to the prospect and the role of the person in fromt of you.

  • Transition into needs analysis through questions

The story you just told is proof of your expertise and shows the prospect that you’re used to hear and handle confidential information. That’s why you should not give the name of the reference at this time since you would otherwise implicitly say that you will use his confidential information to other prospects in the future. It will create enough trust for the customer to start telling his story and explain the specifics of the problems their faced with. A better insight in the specifics will allow you to create a vision of an improved future based on capabilities they will acquire without mentioning your product nor its features. You need to wait to speak about your product until you get confirmation on the vision. We call it getting Vision-Lock.

 

Tip: Check your PowerPoint’s used by sales and adapt them in a way to facilitate the above scenario with quotes and pictures. It’s a great tool to be used in meetings with multiple people for the first time.

 

Remember what happens in a doctors cabinet: First diagnose then prescribe!

Segmentation: increase the hit-rate and lower the cost of sales

By Pascal Persyn on February 16, 2009 @ 21:36

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Categories: B2B marketing, Motivation, Sales Strategy, Sales effectiveness, Sales-Process, Strategy execution

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Companies have been doing their segmentation based on industry verticals for several decades. Vertical knowledge as a key differentiator has been added into the equation in a more recent history. Yet not all companies in a vertical are faced with the same problems and priorities at the same time. All of this has led to some important inefficiencies.

  • People had to be trained on specific vertical knowledge and product knowledge leading to long ramp up times for people in a multi offering company
  • Sales & Marketing facing difficulty to match specific needs in a vertical to the product offering
  • Sub optimal Product/technology innovation due to conflicts in priorities
  • Product releases not adapted to market readiness leading  to a high cost of sales and low hit-rate
  • A frustrated sales force and an unhealthy tension between departments because their concerns are left unanswered by management
  • Sales loosing a lot of time in finding the “needle in a haystack” prospects

A lack of “scalability” throughout the entire value chain is the root cause . The impact on scalability of an organization should be taken into account in each decision you take.

Let me propose how to use segmentation as a way to better align marketing and sales thus improving the scalability of your organization:

  • Get to “really’ know your customers by understanding the problems their faced with.
  • Define KPI-level pains a prospect should be confronted with in order to seek your leadership. (i.e. VP-Sales- not meeting sales target or too high cost-of-sales)
  • Map your differentiators and delivered capabilities to those pains.
  • You will now be able to create a set of “pain-based segments”
  • Plot your segments in terms of size, solution awareness in the market and level of differentiation.
  • You will now be able to prioritize your pain-based segments
  • Identify the impacted people in their organization as high as possible on the org-chart which could or will be involved in a buying cycle (key-contacts)
  • Map above information for each of them and rank them in terms of impact. The most impacted person will become key in your marketing and sales approach
  • You should now be able to write a value proposition for each of the targeted segments. This value proposition is the foundation for all buyer-aligned deliverables such as white papers, solution briefs, case studies, product collateral etc.
  • Build a sales kit per segment covering the quantified pains, their causes, needed capabilities, quantified results, ideal buying criteria, benefits and unique features per key-contact
  • Populate and qualify your database with suspects based on their pains and readiness to buy and launch a lead generation and/or lead nurturing program to start generating qualified leads for sales.

Above will result in an increased focus:

  • More engaged employees
  • A lower time to productivity as low as 6 to 7 months for complex solutions
  • Increased hit-rate up to 75% and more depending on the level of differentiation you can proof
  • Decreased cost of sales by at least 22%

Above shows how segmentation can have an important impact in terms of a better sales and marketing alignment.

Write a comment or question to dig deeper into this improved way of segmentation.