Posts tagged as:

solution selling

Change the Way You Sell or Get Left Behind

May 9, 2010

The following is a re-post from the Solution Selling Blog by Sales Performance International (SPI). This post was written by Robert Kear, CMO. ExecuTrain of Kentucky is an authorized provider for the SPI Solution Selling Program.

2010 Sales Trends Are In – Change the Way You Sell or Get Left Behind

In annual research by CSO Insights and co-sponsored by Sales Performance International, the key trends analysis for 2010 contains some unsettling data. The 2010 Sales Performance Optimization study incorporated participation by 2,800 global firms ranging from small businesses to the largest global companies. Overall, the results reflected the difficult economic situation encountered in 2009. Key findings in the study include:

Quota Attainment Fell Significantly

The percentage of sales reps attaining quota in 2009 dropped to 51.8% (58.8% the prior year). According to the study, “While we have seen this percentage lower one time (49.1% in 2003), the 7% drop from 2008 to 2009 is the largest in the sixteen year history of our study.”

Revenue Plan Attainment Declined Significantly

How well did companies manage to attain their overall sales plans? Again, the results were quite disappointing. According to the study, “Here we see an even larger drop of 8% from 2008 to 2009 (also the largest decline in performance in the history of the study).” While general economic trends clearly contributed to these difficulties, the study noted multiple factors related to investment in sales, including:

  • Reduction in lead generation spend
  • Reduction is sales training budgets
  • Deferred investment in sales knowledge management (SKM)

As a result, not only were sales conditions extraordinarily challenging, companies invested less in areas that consistently correlate to higher levels of sales performance.

Trusted Partners Continue to Outperform Vendors

One of the most intriguing aspects of the annual report is comparison of companies that have elevated their relationship with customers to that of a “trusted partner” versus companies that are perceived as a “vendor.” Even in a down year, the companies that have attained a trusted partner status with their customers significantly outperformed their vendor peers in all key performance areas. The trusted partners enjoyed the following performance advantages over vendors:

  • 15% higher quota attainment
  • 9% higher attainment of company plan
  • 11% higher forecasted wins
  • 5% less turnover

A key conclusion of the report was “you can raise individual rep quotas in a bad economy and achieve them if you change how you sell. Optimize process and relationships, and reps will be able to compete more effectively.” The question is how can your company successfully transform its approach to selling and realize the performance gains that trusted partners consistently achieve? For access to the 2010 key trends report, and a white paper that illustrates how your organization can move from vendor to trusted partner, follow the link below.

Learn more about the CSO Insights report, Sales Performance Optimization, 2010 Key Trends Analysis and Sales Performance International’s From Vendor to Trusted Partner white paper.

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Overcoming Buyer Risk in Major Purchases

February 28, 2010

This blog post is a re-post from the Solution Selling Blog. It was written by James N. Touchstone, Solution Selling® Product Mgr. ExecuTrain of Kentucky is a Solution Selling trainer. Contact us to learn more about this very thorough and success-proven sales training platform.

The risk associated with making a major purchase is not a new emotion to buying and selling, however, it appears to have taken on more significance given the current economic conditions.

The first step in overcoming buyer risk is to recognize that risk is a natural emotion within a buying process. When making a purchase, most buyers go through a need  analysis and budgeting phase, then a solution-evaluation phase and finally they weight the consequences and benefits of a purchase-decision. In this final phase, they experience and work through risk.

During the risk phase, buyers ask themselves questions such as: “What are the consequences of taking action?”… “What if we don’t see the results we expect?”… “What if the offering or service doesn’t work the way we expected it to?”… “What if a better alternative comes along?”

Risk is the concern that causes buyers to slow the decision down and maybe not make a decision at all. It’s in this phase that salespeople lose deals without knowing why. The salesperson may have been winning the opportunity up to that point, but because they didn’t understand the risk phase and because they weren’t looking at a potential purchase from the buyer’s perspective, they say and do the wrong things and lose the sale.

For example, the salesperson tries to mitigate the risk by saying “Don’t worry about those things, everything will work out, trust me.”… “The economy is going to rebound.”… “We need to get this signed by the end of the week or our special pricing is off the table.”  Or they do things that they think will get the buyer over the risk but actually throw them into more risk – such as “drastically dropping the price” which in some cases can throw the buyer in further risk because it causes them to question the original price offered (i.e. “Why did they drop the price all of a sudden, is there something I should be worried about?”). In all these cases, the seller can seem insincere and focused on what is good for him or herself, not the customer.

The key is to recognize that risk is a positive buying signal (yes, a positive signal). It means the buyer has naturally gone through their buying process and is serious about making a purchase. They just are at the end of their process where risk naturally shows itself. The seller should smile and recognize they are close to a win. They just need to consultatively and empathetically help the buyer through the risk by doing a few simple things… recall the business issues driving the purchase, how they helped the buyer understand the scope of the issue and how they demonstrated how their solution can help address the buyer’s business issues. Then reassure the buyer that they understand the decision is a big one but that it is a good one.

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