Anatomy of the Lost Order II

The late Peter Drucker, Mangement Cunsultant

If you Google "Peter Drucker" (world famous management consultant and author of many books) you will find hundreds of great quotations.  His most famous one was "Doing the right thing is more important than doing the thing right."  For purposes of this post, we're going to examine his quotation: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast, technology for lunch, and products for dinner, and soon thereafter, everything else too."
Culture is a "top down" thing; it determines the way we look at ourselves and our jobs.  Let me give an example.  A company that I'm familiar with demands that its salespeople "sell" a minimum of three units a month.  The boss doesn't care how it gets done, just that it gets done.  You can see how this culture (if you can call it that) eats strategy, technology and products right up.  Everything takes a back seat to the sale--to the transaction.  (Remember Transaction Man?)
But, if you know you're competing against Transaction Man (a salesperson so desperate to get the order to make a quota that he'll give the product away at very little margin), you know how to beat him.
Rebekah Iliff discusses this in the July 31, 2017 issue of INC magazine.
Relationships build companies, not transactions.  "Making an emotional connection with the buyer is what matters."  The culture that we're promoting is a relationship driven culture, not a transaction driven culture.
To beat Transaction Man to the order you have to work harder to build a relationship with the customer.  You have to understand that all Transaction Man has to sell is price--he has to get the order.  Therefore you have to find a connection with the buyer that goes beyond price.  Iliff's suggestions:
1.  "Make an emotional connection with the customer."  This will demand some homework.  Use LinkedIn and Facebook to understand his personality; use Google and Manta to understand his company.  Do your homework before making that first sales call.  Remember, you have to beat Transaction Man and it better be something other than price that sells your product.
2.  Understand that the customer has to be comfortable that you have to demonstrate that you know more about your product than Transaction Man.  Don't be afraid to get help in this area.  Be humble, ask your colleagues for help.  Overconfident Man loses to Transaction Man every time.
3.  "Set clear expectations and follow them."  Make sure the customer understands that what you're offering transcends price; you're putting yourself and your company into the mix.
4.  "Communicate til you're blue in the face."  Never, ever say--"this order is in the bag."  Overconfident Man loses to Transaction Man every time.
Be Humble and Assume Nothing.  Your culture is relationships, not transactions. Relational culture beats transactional culture.
PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE, HUMILITY, RELATIONSHIP BUILDING.  These are the things that beat someone who is just using pricing to get an order.

Transaction Man

If you've ever been to a timeshare sales event, you know what a Transaction salesperson is.  The Transaction Salesperson knows (or thinks) he'll never see you again, so anything if fair game--play on your guilt, play on any weakness he's been trained to spot.  He knows this is a one time shot and that sales is a numbers game:  talk fast and furious to enough people, and you'll land your quota.
So, the transaction salesperson is a popular style in situations where there is a one-time event with virtually no chance of seeing the customer again, so anything goes.  Beware of Transaction Man.
Never put your sales team into a situation where they feel that getting the sale is all there is. 
This style can be a danger to a commission only sales team.  If one's living is solely determined by commission, if the only way a sales person can survive is to close the deal--then you may be inadvertently creating Transaction Man.  A sales person has to be able to make a living with a base salary; a sales person has to be able to pay for his gas and expenses with an allowance.  If not, he may turn into Transaction Man and hurt your company's reputation.
Next, we look at blending the three sales types into the perfect sales person.

Rejected! Continued

Frederick the Great of Prussia (Germany) mid 1700s

Frederick the Great was the legendary King of Prussia (Germany) in the mid and late 1700's.  He famously declared: "It's not a disgrace to be defeated. It's a disgrace to be surprised."
You have lost an order and you're now analyzing why it was lost. There is absolutely no reason to be dishonest with yourself.  Were your sales calls well made, well prepared, and well argued?  Honestly?  So here are some facts:

According to Steve W. Martin in a recent survey of 230 buyers

1. Buyers rate two-thirds of business to business salespeople as being average or poor
2. Just 18% of salespeople are classified by buyers as trusted advisors whom they respect
3. Only 31% of salespeople can talk effectively with senior executives
4. 54% of salespeople clearly explain how their solution positively impacts a customer’s business

So what's the problem?  According to Martin:

5. Buyers sense the salesperson’s agenda to make the sale and can feel pressured ["Transaction Man will do anything for the order"]
6. Salespeople give a canned pitch and don’t listen to buyer requirements
7. Differences in communication style and personality can alienate buyers
8. Salespeople don’t adapt their approach to differing gender perspectives
9. Salespeople want to develop relationships but buyers are too busy

A poorly prepared sales call in which the salesperson can't answer the customer's questions, can't respond the competitive issues, and doesn't know how their product applies to the customer's needs leads to certain defeat.  The salesperson has been surprised by poor preparation, has not prepared himself for the battle. This can be prevented three ways: preparation, preparation, and preparation.  Know your product, know your competitors' products and know your customer.
We will be going into great depth on this subject in future posts.  There is a lot to be gained from analyzing the lost sale.

The Value Proposition: the centerpiece of a sales presentation

I recently gave a networking workshop.  My focus was the "elevator speech"--the speech that you give when someone asks you what you do for a living; the speech that the listener gives you thirty seconds to deliver and rolls their eyes when you never get to the point.  The centerpiece of the elevator speech is the Value Proposition.
Wikipedia defines a value proposition as "a promise of value to be delivered, communicated, and acknowledged.  It is also a belief from the customer about how value will be delivered, experienced and acquired.  A value proposition can apply to an entire organization, or parts thereof, or customers accounts, or products or services."
The value proposition of the products or service that you sell are the things that distinguish them and separate them from the competition--what is often called the features and benefits.  The value proposition can also be the benefits that you bring to the sales process or the organization that you represent.  The value proposition is a statement summarizing why someone should use your product or service over anyone else's.  It is absolutely essential that you think about this and internalize it and practice it and use it every chance you get.  It doesn't need to be long--in fact it should be short and to the point and represent the soul of who you are and what you're selling.  Some examples:
Uber, the car service:  1. Pickup in less than 5 minutes; 2. Lower prices than a taxi; 3. An app to track your car's approach; 4. Cashless transaction; 5. A rating system that guarantees security.  "Tap the app, get a ride."
Slack, the messaging service: "A Messaging App for Teams who put robots on Mars." And "All your tools in one place."
Evernote, an online note storing app: "Remember everything."  "Provides the ability to organize all your notes in one place so you never forget a great idea."

What is the essence or the soul of your business or service?  Once you have determined that, put it into as few words as possible and internalize it and use it until it becomes a part of you.
Every business should have a value and every employee should understand and buy into that value; every person should have a value and should be able to vocalize that value and believe in that value.
This idea is worth thinking about--long and hard.  What is your value?  What is your company's value? What is their product's value? 
People tend to believe in a person or product that has value.  People tend to buy a product or service from a person who believes deeply in what they're selling and can express that value briefly and confidently and from the heart.