{"id":5722,"date":"2015-03-26T11:59:31","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T11:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/?p=5722"},"modified":"2015-03-26T11:59:31","modified_gmt":"2015-03-26T11:59:31","slug":"getting-things-won-a-paint-by-numbers-for-the-art-of-the-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/2015\/03\/26\/getting-things-won-a-paint-by-numbers-for-the-art-of-the-sale\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Things Won \u2013 A Paint-by-Numbers Approach to the Art of the Sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winning business is challenging, and no business can thrive without sales. This is a problem in most organizations, because many people hate the idea of having to sell things, and spend their careers avoiding it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was one of them. For years I avoided sales work because I associated it with the experiences that I\u2019d had of being sold to by people who sell poorly. Think over-friendly insincere extrovert shouting to be heard over a loud plaid jacket. Will Ferrell as sales guy in a Kubrick film with screenplay by Stephen King. Scary.<\/p>\n

So, I\u2019m not a salesperson. Certainly not if that is the template. But as a card-carrying introvert who co-founded a business with a credit card and more hope than good sense, I had to find some buyers for what we were selling. And I needed to find a different approach to selling, because what I was being told was necessary to make sales was not something I would ever excel at.<\/p>\n

Below is six years\u2019 worth of thinking about what goes into selling things with the least amount of \u2018Selling\u2019 possible. An idiot\u2019s guide to selling, if you will, for those allergic to plaid. I\u2019ve listed out the component parts that I\u2019ve identified in the sales process by the challenge it represents (named at the top of the diagram), and then offered a few thoughts on what solutions to those challenges might look like (the bottom of the diagram).<\/p>\n

Sales Challenge: Leading a persuasive sales conversation (in the room\/on the telephone with a potential buyer)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"slide<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the part of the sale where buyer and seller explore the buyer\u2019s need, and then what the seller proposes to offer to fill that need. The skills required from the salesperson include questioning, challenging, listening, summarizing, matching, envisioning and persuading. Strangely, the thing that doesn\u2019t work in this part of the sales process is \u2018selling\u2019. There is a lot going on, but if done well it just looks like a very interesting conversation.<\/p>\n

Critical here is the ability to let go of one\u2019s own sales agenda \u2013 at least for a bit \u2013 to find out what is important to the potential buyer. For instance, unless they believe they have a problem, you can\u2019t have a solution. Similarly, if you don\u2019t know what they think their problem is, then you can\u2019t present them with possible solutions that they\u2019ll recognize as such.<\/p>\n

You have to earn the right to be seen as a potential provider of solutions, and you earn that right by listening \u2013 really listening, with no intent to sell \u2013 for much longer than you might think.<\/p>\n

Solution:<\/strong> SPIN selling, Miller Heiman Conceptual Selling, and pretty much anything that helps the buyer feel his needs and desires are the focal point of the discussion.<\/p>\n

Sales Challenge: Talking to people who can actually buy<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"slide<\/a><\/p>\n

You can be as good as you like at the skills needed in the room with a client, but if you are not talking to the right people your efforts will be wasted. Prior to getting into a sales conversation we need to consider who needs to be in the room for your listening, challenging and influencing to have the desired impact on the road to a sale.<\/p>\n

Solution:<\/strong> There are various ways to do this, but Miller Heiman\u2019s Strategic Selling offers a great way to think through what kind of buyer you are talking to (technical, financial, user, etc), what their concerns might be, and who needs to be in the room for the sale to move forward. Mapping what you do and do not know about the personalities (and the motivations) of those on the buying side won\u2019t give you all the answers, but it will give you great questions to ask of yourself, the client, and your network.<\/p>\n

Sales Challenge: Sales \u2018Hygiene\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"slide<\/a><\/p>\n

Here it is all about whether you can coordinate action between your team and the client\u2019s team in a timely and reliable manner. All of the sales skills in the world will not help you if you have destroyed your credibility by not sending the follow up documents you said you would, at the time you said you would.<\/p>\n

Another way to think about this is that in order for your pipeline to be pushing out sales on a regular basis you need to put a lot more sales opportunities into the pipeline than you want to get out the other end as actual sales. Many of those opportunities only need weekly, monthly or quarterly nurturing to stay alive and still moving through the pipeline, but what I see many people doing is focusing too much on the few opportunities that are near to closing. In doing so they get trapped trying to close things that are not yet ready to close, and can end up driving clients away with their desperation.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t force sales any more than you can force plants to grow, but you can do the work that supports them coming to fruition. Many sales people are inadvertently doing the sales equivalent of pulling on buds to make them bloom because they are only able to manage a small number of opportunities in their system. With the ability to manage a greater number of opportunities through the pipe, one can relax and nurture opportunities safe in the knowledge that they\u2019ll bloom when ready.<\/p>\n

Solution:<\/strong> GTD, to not put too fine a point on it. Using GTD consistently has dramatically impacted my ability to sell things over time. Some relatively random suggestions from the methodology that support increased sales:<\/p>\n