Joe had already invested a significant chunk of his selling time with this prospect to uncover needs, and had presented a solution to meet those needs that was within the prospect's budget. Joe was convinced that he hadn't engaged in Premature Presentation and that he'd worked well with the prospect at all phases of the sales process, but the answer continued to be "no decision -- yet". Joe couldn't understand why the process wasn't moving forward.
Joe was feeling significant pressure to close this sale. Joe had arranged to quote a discount pricing guarantee contingent on quantities which was approved by sales management. At the time, Joe had expressed a high degree of confidence that this pricing would secure the business. A couple of months had passed since his presentation and now some embarrassing questions were being asked. Not only was Joe under pressure to make his numbers, his judgment was being questioned and he felt that his credibility and reputation were on the line.
It became clear through the discussion that the pressure Joe was feeling might affect his behavior during the call. We agreed on the need to focus on what we could control, and moved on to steps 2 through 4 of the Outcome Based Thinking process -- what are you hoping to achieve, what is the other hoping to achieve, and what might win-win look like?
I encouraged Joe to take a step back from the situation. We started with a review of the basics -- where were we in 'the process'? Although it seemed obvious on first glance (close the sale), Joe had learned in training that there are at least four ways to look at your Sales Process: as a list, as a flowchart, in what/how/why format, and as a radar diagram. Because we needed a diagnostic tool that would help him examine his situation more closely in the context of his process, we decided that the radar diagram would be most helpful.
Assuming you're not familiar with these 4 Ways To Look At Your Process, a brief overview follows:
- A list of steps helps you to name and understand the purpose of each step.
- A flowchart helps you to understand where sequence is and is not important, and also to see how the process will respond to the ebb and flow of a real situation.
- The what/how/why format helps you to learn the specifics of how to execute each step and to see the "Commander's Intent" that lies behind each step.
- A radar diagram helps you to see where you are now, in this Specific Selling Situation, so that you can determine what you should be doing in order to move "the process" forward.
**Note that I'm not suggesting this is the sales process to use, it's simply the process that Joe was using in the moment.**
Since he had already presented, I asked Joe to rate where he thought he was at that moment on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 being on the outside edge and 10 on the inside edge). His self-rating looked something like the picture below (see marks in green). Additional discussion about steps 1, 2, and 5 led us to believe that perhaps his position was not as strong as he had thought in these areas (see additional marks in blue). From here we were able to craft an approach that we both agreed would be most likely to succeed.
A large part of Joe's strategy required him to put the elephant on the table, and the process above brought some clarity to where and how he needed to do it. He felt that he needed to emphasize making it safe ("…there's probably something about this process that I don't understand…" and "…the last thing I'd want is for you to feel hesitant about sharing bad news with me… no is OK"), making it equal by sharing his needs and being prepared to share a Positive No ("…my team is hoping for clarity, we promised pricing based on quantities, we need to forecast production to continue these pricing guarantees..."), and discovering more about the decision process (share what he doesn't know or understand, and ask for clarity).
How Did It Work Out?
Later that week I got another phone call from Joe. He was pretty happy about the results of the planning exercise. The process was unstuck, and Joe learned some things from the prospect that he needed to know about the situation. The prospect shared that he had an internal battle to win, and felt that he was close to winning it. It turns out that a sister company produced a product that was similar to the product that Joe was selling, but that product wasn't working well in the specific application that Joe was selling to. The prospect had done all of the analysis about what was working (and what wasn't), but was required to go through a lengthy and complicated internal process to justify the departure from what was perceived to be a standard internal solution. The prospect asked for more time and shared his timeline, which helped take some pressure off of Joe. Eventually (after a few more weeks), Joe got the sale.
During the Learn discussion, Joe shared that The Radar Diagram was most helpful to him in this situation as it helped him to Get Specific about what part of the elephant to put on the table. Joe shared that the pressure he was feeling could easily have caused him to violate his own process by expressing his own needs more than the prospect's needs. The pre-call plan helped him stay true to his process (and to his prospect's needs).
In reflection, Joe decided that perhaps he didn't know as much about what was happening at the account as he thought he did, and crafted some follow-up actions to rectify the situation (Treatment). We also discussed ways of noticing this type of problem before it got big (real-time indicators) and discussed how to prevent it (Prevention). Finally, we agreed that while this degree of pre-call planning isn't always necessary, some degree of pre-call planning is ALWAYS necessary.
Some key lessons from this situation might be:
Practice the discipline of Plan-Do-Learn. Set as much time as is needed, but Keep It Simple -- avoid Analysis Paralysis. Diagnostic tools can help. So can a coach. Got one? Get one. Period.
Know your sales process, make sure it's in control, but let the Specific Selling Situation drive your process. Develop a clear "Commander's Intent" for the situation; plan and prepare accordingly.
KFC - know what you want, find out if you're getting it and, if not, change what you're doing until you get what you want. If you're not clear on your goals, use your diagnostic tools (e.g., a Radar Diagram and The Sales Engine) to determine where you are and where you should be going in this situation.
Elephant is the breakfast of Sales Champions. It's amazing what happens when you share what you're feeling and/or what you don't know but would like to find out (and why) with the other person. Elephant is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to learn when you put it on the table. If you can exercise the discipline to close your mouth, open your ears, and listen with your eyes, you'll almost always learn or confirm something *useful* and/or *new* about what's happening from the other person's perspective.
Treatment ain't prevention. The Learn phase of the Plan-Do-Learn cycle helps you to identify (1) where things might not have gone according to plan [making an addition to your Personal Encyclopedia] and (2) how to notice and prevent this type of situation in the future.
Do you have a situation you'd like to share? How might a Radar Diagram help you with pre-call planning? Look forward to reading your comments.
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