Preparing a strategy for the buyer or buying committee conversation requires work, and research shows that the most successful conversation strategies address five critical areas:
- Strategic priorities: Confirming the customer’s underlying strategic priorities and critical success factors not only enables salespeople to verify the accuracy of their assumptions, but also earns them credibility by demonstrating that they have done their homework.
- Time-bounded goals: The salesperson who asks targeted questions about the senior-level customer’s goals for a specific time horizon can demonstrate knowledge of the customer’s metrics and focus areas.
- Opportunities and problems: Asking high-gain questions about opportunities and problems that the senior-level customer faces can provide insight to pressing issues and possible solutions.
- Benefits and insights: Recognizing that they are not trying to overtly sell but rather are trying to win the job of business partner, expert salespeople offer solid benefits and insights related to the customer’s goals and opportunities. They avoid discussing product features and functions.
- Criteria for a business relationship: By establishing themselves as credible and insightful, top-performing salespeople drive the conversation toward a central question: What does the customer typically look for in good business partnerships?
Conversant in Conversation
With research in hand and a strategy to follow, all the salesperson must do now is talk—which is easier said than done. That’s because high-performing salespeople optimize their conversations by striking a delicate balance of inquiry and advocacy. Each of us has a tendency to use more of one area than the other(free “gifts of Knowledge”). Journalists are trained to use inquiry; lawyers are trained more in advocacy. Salespeople should be excellent at both.When salespeople balance inquiry and advocacy and use both effectively, they can achieve a skillful discussion with customers in which they lay out their own reasoning and experiences in a compelling way, and then encourage the customer to challenge and question. They listen actively to what the customer says and then probe to uncover the customer’s reasoning and experiences. They are passionate about their own ideas and, at the same time, are open to the customer’s ideas.
Conclusion
Moving a customer to view a salesperson not as a vendor but as a strategic business partner is a critical transformation, but no more critical than the transformation the salesperson must undergo in order to succeed at this level. The salesperson’s perspective must change from closing the deal to opening the mind, from having the answers to generating discussion, from getting a point across to sparking the imagination.
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