The Third Selling Stage

January 12, 2015 //
0

In previous posts in this series on the B2B selling process – which, I’m sure you’re sick of reading, matches your customers’ B2B buying process – we covered defining and listing your addressable market and then defining the sales opportunity for you.

This third selling stage corresponds to the ‘brief’ buying stage and concerns the customer’s objectives. What are they looking to do? Your prospective customer is setting out its requirements for removing the barriers to achieving its objectives. The brief can come in many forms, from the ultra-short verbal brief – especially if you’re already a supplier to the customer –  to the more formal requests for information, quote, or proposal, through to the ultra-formal Invitation to Tender.

The really important point to bear in mind is this: if this is the first you’re hearing of a potential opportunity to do business with the customer, you’ve already missed a few stages in the customer’s buying process. They may have already done a fair bit of work researching their problem, and researching you. Worse still, they may have also received help designing and framing their requirements from – yikes! – a competitor. And if the competitor has helped them write the brief, guess what the optimal solution is likely to be geared to? Yep, the competitor’s offering. And what’s the success rate for responding to an unexpected invitation to bid for business? Zero to 5%. Yep, that’s not a typo, it’s 0 to 5%.

Let’s pull ourselves away from this gloomy scenario for a moment though. At this selling stage you have a couple of options. You can either assume the customer has a clear understanding of what they need or you can ask them a bunch of questions to challenge their assumptions, qualify their requirements in more detail and maybe highlight some additional areas that they might not have considered. The golden rule in a sales opportunity is ABQ – Always Be Qualifying, through the life of your active association with the opportunity, until you win it, lose it, or pull out. Use some of the following questions to help dig into the customer’s objectives:

– Who is involved in the decision? What’s the pecking order?

– What is their role in the decision? They will have different roles, from evaluators through to decision-makers and decision-approvers.

– Some of the people will have different things they want to get out of the project. What are they? Whose are more important?

– What is the process from here, all the way through to completion?

– Is the budget rock solid? There’s no chance of another project getting the funding?

– Is the budget enough for what they want to do?

– Why do they have to do this project?

– What happens if they don’t do this project? If nothing happens, you don’t have an opportunity. No-one you want to work with is going to spend money they don’t need to spend

After you’ve satisfied you have a clear understanding of the objectives, and the prospective customer has confirmed them, there are some additional things for you to consider yourself:

– What relationship do you have with the key people involved in this project? Most importantly, what relationship do you have with the person who is most impacted by the success or failure of this project?

– How are you going to win this business from the competitive alternatives, including an internal alternative, or the ‘do nothing’ alternative?

– What’s the fit like between your solution and their objectives. You need to be able to demonstrate you alone are the best fit for them

At the end of this stage you need to be able to articulate how you feel about this deal and why you think you should pursue it or disengage. From here it gets expensive for you to compete and so you need to be sure you understand clearly what is required and what your chances of success are.

Tags ,
Categories Customers, Marketing, Sales, Strategy

The Second Selling Stage

January 9, 2015 //
0

Ah, the second selling stage. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? And so it should, because it’s a very important stage. Coming after the first selling stage where you have defined and listed your addressable market, the second selling stage is opportunity definition.

This stage corresponds to the Second Buying Stage of problem / opportunity definition. If your customer has a problem to address, or an opportunity to exploit, then you need to define what the opportunity is for you. This stage is all about qualifying the situation. At this stage there has been some level of engagement between you and the company. Either they’ve reached out to you or you to them.

Don’t get your hopes up yet, however. If you can’t qualify the opportunity to your satisfaction, as far as you should be concerned there is no opportunity. Being ruthless at this stage and discounting the ‘bad’ or non-opportunities is the best thing you can do, because it frees you up to concentrate on – or find – the good opportunities.

So how to qualify? Many people use acronyms like BANT – do they have Budget, do they have Authority to buy, do they have a defined Need, what is the Time limit by when they have to act – to help them define the opportunity. In essence, this sales stage is all about establishing that this is worth your while putting in more effort to pursue the opportunity, over other opportunities. These questions will help you:

– exactly what’s stopping them from doing what they want to do? What’s the problem?

– is there a great fit between what you provide and what they need?

– who are you talking to at the company? are they high enough up the pecking order?

– when do they need to act by?

– what will happen to them if they don’t act?

– what other alternatives are they considering (the biggest two being do nothing and do it ourselves)?

– how can you do a better job for them than the alternatives, and why?

– do you like the odds on getting this deal?

Ideally, you don’t want to deduce the answers to all the above questions, you want the company to confirm the answers for you. All that is, except the third question and the last question. I would keep these answers to yourself and use them to decide the following: am I in, at this stage, or am I out?

Tags , , ,
Categories Customers, Marketing, Planning, Sales

The First Selling Stage

January 7, 2015 //
0

Whew! I’ve recently finished a blog series on what I see as the seven typical stages in the B2B buying process. Call them the magnificent seven if you will :-).

It’s important to understand how our customers buy expensive, drawn-out and complex things because if we don’t know how they want to buy from us, we don’t know how to sell to them – effectively. I say effectively because we can all do whatever it takes to sell, but you need to do it profitably, productively and sustainably, or you won’t grow.

In order for you to deliver on this understanding, you need to do one really important thing, which I shall emphasise with the ‘dah dah dah’ dramatic use of the hyphen. You – need – to – match – your – sales – stages – to – your – customers’ – buying – stages. Simple!

Which brings us to the first selling stage. This is aligned – for that is the meaning of ‘match’ – to the first buying stage, namely the ongoing operation and review of the customer’s business that reveals awareness of a problem or opportunity. The first selling stage is your Addressable Market.

As you do your research into potential industries and customers to sell to, consider these questions:

– what businesses are they in that you could help improve?

– do they normally buy your kinds of products and services?

– do they have the kinds of problems that you can prove you solve?

– which role usually does the buying for your product and service?

– are they of a similar size, growth stage, sector and region and that you are comfortable doing business with? Hint: if not, they probably don’t fit nicely into the same buying process…

– are they already working with companies that fulfil a similar business need to you?

– are there enough of them and is their combined spend enough for you to win an achievable market share that allows you to grow?

Once you can get a sense of your total target market, you can then decide which portion of that market would pay for your products and services. This is your addressable market.

Don’t be tempted to put additional companies into your addressable market if they don’t fit. They’re a distraction and too expensive to sell to and service, because of the lack of fit.

Do be tempted to keep adding in new companies that do fit your addressable market.

Tags , , ,
Categories Customers, Marketing, Sales

The Seventh Buying Stage

January 5, 2015 //
0

Following the investment stage in the B2B buying process, dear reader, which follows the awareness of a problem or opportunity, defining that problem or opportunity, briefing the requirements to fix the problem or capitalise on the opportunity, evaluating the alternatives and selecting the best alternative, we come to the seventh and final buying stage.

In fact, as is true in the cycle of business, the seventh buying stage is also the first buying stage. In the ongoing operation of the business, the buying company is reviewing its operations, assessing the results of the investment against the target results it has set for the investment, and making changes where necessary to improve performance.

It’s also the stage where the company makes a call on whether it will supplement, renew or reorder – in the sense of order again rather than re-organise – the product or service that formed the original investment. This will depend on the resulting behaviours and achievements of the company against the plan for the investment. It will also depend on what other problems or opportunities arise that compete for attention and investment in the general running of the business.

In future posts I’ll examine the sales stages that align with these buying stages for successful selling.

 

Tags , ,
Categories Customers, Marketing, Sales

The Sixth Buying Stage

January 2, 2015 //
0

I see seven stages in the typical B2B buying process, and so far we’ve covered the awareness of a problem or opportunity, defining that problem or opportunity, briefing the requirements to fix the problem or capitalise on the opportunity, evaluating the alternatives and selecting the best alternative.

The sixth and penultimate stage is investing in the best alternative and implementing that investment. This can often be the shortest stage, as long as the hard work has already been done.

As I’ve mentioned, the risk has been increasing for the buying company and is at its highest the moment it signs on the dotted line and submits the order. At that point it is committed and is now usually interested in the quickest and most effective implementation possible, so that it can start to reap the benefits of its carefully calculated and judiciously selected investment.

The buying company is also running a business at the same time, so it needs to make sure the implementation happens in a way that allows it to keep running that business at the same time as transitioning to the new ways of doing things with the new product or service it has bought. This is not usually easy!

 

Tags ,
Categories Customers, Marketing, Sales

The Fifth Buying Stage

December 31, 2014 //
0

The first four stages of the B2B buying process – at least as far as I’m concerned – are awareness of a problem or opportunity, defining that problem or opportunity, briefing the requirements to fix the problem or capitalise on the opportunity and evaluating the alternatives.

The fifth stage is selecting the best of the available alternatives. This is the narrowing down of the candidates to one preferred candidate and negotiating with them on the terms of the deal. This is where the risks start to further increase for the buying company, since they are moving towards investment and tying themselves in with a supplier for some defined period of time.  There is also the opportunity cost of not going with any of the other alternatives to consider.

As with the fourth stage, the selection phase can take a frustratingly long time for both buying and selling organisation, but it’s important that the terms are correct and fair for both parties for the long term welfare of the partnership.

Tags , ,
Categories Customers, Marketing, Sales

The Fourth Buying Stage

December 29, 2014 //
0

In our series of posts, dear reader, on the buying process for B2B companies, we covered awareness of a problem or opportunity, defining that problem or opportunity, and briefing the requirements.

The next stage, the fourth as far as I’m concerned, is where the company evaluates its alternatives. Among these alternatives might be answers to the following questions:

– do we have to do anything?

– can we do it ourselves or internally?

– if we can’t do it ourselves, who shall we evaluate?

– how shall we evaluate them?

If the answer to the first question is yes, and the answer to the second is ‘no’, then you have a buying situation, and not before.

Evaluation of the buying alternatives can take many forms, mini stages and time before the buying company can move to the next buying stage. The bottom line, though, is that the company should select the alternative that best fits their unique set of requirements.

Tags , ,
Categories Customers, Marketing, Sales

The Third Buying Stage

December 26, 2014 //
0

In previous posts on the buying process for B2B companies, I shared my view that the first buying stage is awareness of a problem or opportunity, followed by the second stage, namely defining that problem or opportunity.

The third stage is the brief, where the company sets out its requirements for removing the barrier to achieving its objectives. The brief can come in many forms, from the ultra-short verbal brief, to the more formal requests for information, quote, or proposal, through to the ultra-formal Invitation to Tender.

At this stage companies may still decide they can meet these requirements internally, that they don’t need to go for outside help. Don’t forget that for you the selling organisation your two biggest competitors are ‘internal solution’ or ‘do nothing’.

Most importantly, the requirements stage is where the customer outlines what they think they need. They might not need what they think they need. Crucially too, they’re pre-occupied with the ‘what’.

They’re not as focused on the ‘why‘, which is the key question, nor the ‘how’, which is down to you.

Tags , ,
Categories Customers, Marketing, Planning, Sales, Strategy

The Second Buying Stage

December 24, 2014 //
0

If the first buying stage is awareness of a problem or opportunity during normal business operations, the second buying stage in the B2B buying process is an acknowledgement and definition of the problem to be solved, or the opportunity to be captured.

Your prospective customer – or existing customer – has identified that there is a barrier to achieving an objective, or to capitalising fully on the opportunity that has come to light. Something is broken and they need to change the way they do things. At this stage, they haven’t decided if they can fix the problem internally, such as by reallocating their resources. They still might need to go outside their organisation and invest in your product or service.

In this buying stage the customer needs to define these three important questions:

– what are we trying to achieve?

– what is currently broken that is stopping us from getting there?

– what will happen if we don’t fix what’s broken?

Companies are generally very good at answering the first two questions, but less good at quantifying or qualifying the the answer to the third question, which is effectively the ‘opportunity cost’ of not doing something.

Once the customer has defined their problem, they’re in a position to move forward. If they can’t articulate their problem, they’ve got problems, plural.

Tags , ,
Categories Customers, Marketing, Planning, Sales, Strategy

The First Buying Stage

December 22, 2014 //
0

I’m beginning, dear reader, a series of posts on the various buying stages for business-to-business customers. These buying stages correspond – as you’re probably sick of reading on this blog by now – to the sales stages of the selling organisation.

There will inevitably be generalisations, and of course you should adapt – through experimentation – what I say to your own customer groupings, but in the main the vast majority of this holds true. The terms, jargon and definitions may vary, but the essence is the same.

The challenge for the selling organisation is that nowadays it’s possible for the buying organisation to complete quite a few of the buying stages without the selling organisation ever knowing. So, unless you’re on top of your game and the available technologies, sales may simply pass you by.

So, back to the first stage. This stage is what I call ‘ongoing’. It’s the ongoing operation of the business. It’s in the day-to-day running of the customer’s business that problems, issues or opportunities arise. It’s the stage where the customer first becomes aware – awareness is the key behaviour here – that a situation exists that they need to address or capitalise on. This is the inflexion point where the company starts to contemplate spending money in order to make more money than they’re spending.

This is also the stage where companies are also evaluating the investments they’ve already made, reviewing their performance and making decisions about whether they will reinvest. As such, this stage both starts and completes the buying cycle.

Tags ,
Categories Customers, Marketing, Sales
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »