tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33396825.post7986490957741738219..comments2023-12-28T07:30:24.136+01:00Comments on The Ultimate Sales Executive Resource (TUSER): Is your Sales Process Adapted to the Internet Era?Christian A. Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08015689385433958471noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33396825.post-78821674934398644102012-03-29T23:32:05.568+02:002012-03-29T23:32:05.568+02:00plan a detailed and accurate business proposal, re...plan a detailed and accurate business proposal, research, practice or rehearse what you're going to say when the time comes for you to present them to possible clients. Also, you must maintain a calm and optimistic mindset for you to succeed in this business.Sales Training Courses Londonhttp://www.curranassociates.co.uk/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33396825.post-49731780366655988292008-08-07T13:27:00.000+02:002008-08-07T13:27:00.000+02:00Actually, this topic is extremely relevant--moreso...Actually, this topic is extremely relevant--moreso than most think. Christian, I would suggest that your idea of multiple sales processes are correct.<BR/><BR/>Buyers don't always know what they want--even if they believe they have self-diganosed their issue. So getting to the bottom of "where are they in the process?" is key. <BR/><BR/>I suggest that if you ahve a prospect who is at the initial/exploration stage of their buying, you have an educational stage--whereby you can educate them as to what they may be in for, how to assess their current landscape etc., <BR/><BR/>We believe in Diagnosis before Prescription--but most sales teams have no way of knowing when / how to diagnose, because everyone they come in contact with seems to be an immediate prospect--and they aren't. <BR/><BR/>Thanks for good work.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03765071477487640267noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33396825.post-2957390854807194362008-07-29T17:59:00.000+02:002008-07-29T17:59:00.000+02:00Hi Lee,thank you very much for taking the time to ...Hi Lee,<BR/><BR/>thank you very much for taking the time to give us the background that let to your statement I quoted. <BR/><BR/>I guess we can conclude that your view and Dave's do coexist, it all depends on the sophistication of the buyer and seller you are dealing with.Christian A. Maurerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08015689385433958471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33396825.post-23363868975357884912008-07-29T17:04:00.000+02:002008-07-29T17:04:00.000+02:00In response to Dave's comments -- we talk with CIO...In response to Dave's comments -- we talk with CIOs at Fortune 100, Forbes 500 and smaller companies every day. From executives holding multibillion dollar IT budgets to principals of small companies, they describe a consistent set of activities conducted by sellers that get in the way of their buying process:<BR/><BR/> - failure to follow up<BR/> - incomplete or inaccurate proposals<BR/> - focus on their own products and company rather than on the customer's problem<BR/> - skirting the truth or outright lying "sure, it will do that!"<BR/><BR/>What really surprised me is that global companies report these problems as often as 500 person firms. They report that sellers are so focused on making their monthly or quarterly quota that they completely ignore the buyers' pleas for thinking long term and really building relationships that drive long term customer share, satisfaction and profitability.<BR/><BR/>Even Dave, who works with the cream of the crop, has a ticker on his home page counting off the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the end of the quarter. <BR/><BR/>I'm not picking on Dave...the ticker is a great reminder of the urgency of sales. I would suggest that the teams that work with Dave have already fixed most of these problems I mentioned earlier, and are working on higher order challenges.<BR/><BR/>Even so, vendors must be diligent in policing/coaching their reps to always do the right thing, and not get lost in the focus on making this month's numbers. This singular focus damages relationships, to the point that buyers identified specific vendors (and individual sales people) that they've dumped because of their disinterest in building relationships.<BR/><BR/>I would agree with Dave's statement that buyers do share culpability. Buyers' processes aren't perfect and many are disorganized or unfocused. To address this, a few vendors formally manage the sales engagement as they would any other project, actually assigning project managers to large engagements.<BR/><BR/>Both sides must work to do better...when both sides do, the selling/buying process will go more smoothly and all involved will derive more value from the engagement.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33396825.post-81806261220854610372008-07-24T16:25:00.000+02:002008-07-24T16:25:00.000+02:00Hi Dave,thank you very much for taking the time to...Hi Dave,<BR/>thank you very much for taking the time to comment this entry.<BR/><BR/>I fully understand your concern abbout the added compexity and I feel the same. I have also no issue with skipping some activites in a process as you describe. However I have seen that the skipping of whole sales stages in a one process environment can lead to distortions of the shape of the funnel and therefore lead to wrong conclusions. <BR/><BR/>So if there is a high likelihood that customer buying behavior migth lead sales people to skip entire sales stages (especially when the transition rules are based on verifyable customer evidence, then I would recommend to look into having several processes.Christian A. Maurerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08015689385433958471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33396825.post-76684478973294564472008-07-24T15:39:00.000+02:002008-07-24T15:39:00.000+02:00Hi Christian,Levitt's comment about sales engageme...Hi Christian,<BR/><BR/>Levitt's comment about sales engagement antics puzzles me. Through all our work with selling companies, I have never observed this--not even once. It's most often the customer that doesn't have a plan to buy, or they don't have all their buying criteria in place, there is no particular rush for them to buy, or...<BR/><BR/>Your point about needing to know how the customer wants to buy is precisely right. In general, sellers' sales processes have to built taking into consideration how customers in their markets buy.<BR/><BR/>I don't have an issue with multiple sales processes when a company has different product lines to sell to different types of companies when those companies buy differently.<BR/><BR/>On the other hand, I'm not so sure I agree with you about taking the several processes approach. My concern is the complexity you are adding. <BR/><BR/>Our approach has been consolidating different buying requirements into one process. If a customer wants to skip a step, that's fine so long as the result of that step satisfies your criteria for advancing the deal. An example: A customer knows you, your product and your company very well. A step in your sales process (based upon the buying patterns of most of your customers) is a reference site visit. The customer says they don't need one because the VP of manufacturing used your software in her last company and they trust her opinion. Force the visit anyway? I wouldn't. Skip that step? Makes sense to me. <BR/><BR/>When companies want to skip a step or steps--say they're calling you up to join an evaluation in the late stages... I say same process. Just make it flexible enough to acommodate these different buying patterns--and make sure you aren't missing a critical step, task, event, etc.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com