Decision Process How to control

In this chapter, you will get a method for early mapping the customer's decision-making process, which steps and time frames apply. You get an understanding of what the customer's path to decision looks like, from when someone at the customer gets an idea to making an investment until they sign a contract. You will be able to see when the different decision makers get involved and what roles they have. You will be able to spot potential sales problems and influence the process in your favor. You will get tools to analyze and influence the customer's decision-making process. By understanding the customer's buying journey, you can plan your efforts better and prepare for the typical times when decisions drag on. I will introduce a tool, the MEDDICC GO-LIVE plan, a way to make joint planning with the customer and be able to control the customer's decision-making process. More information about the GO-LIVE plan can be found in chapter 4.

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The customer's decision-making process is not a straight line

"We had been working for months to get the contract ready before the end of the quarter, but the day before the customer decided to cancel the process"

How often does it happen to you that the closing meeting is canceled at short notice, perhaps even on the same day. Of course, it can feel sour to inform your sales manager that the deal is coming later than planned. In high-tech business, the customer's decision-making process is rarely planned. New decision-makers will get involved, new requirements and needs will emerge during the journey. The customer may be in a rush to make the investment but probably they have another technology that works well enough they can wait until they feel they are making the right decision. Many sellers underestimate the customer's need for security, they are so used to talking about their solution that it feels obvious. The customer is just beginning to understand that they need to invest and how the new solution can help them. The customer is not as experienced as the salesperson and thinks the decision is risky. To reduce the risk of making the wrong decision, the customer can bring in more suppliers, do more tests and involve more decision makers. This can happen at any point in the decision-making process. The seller will experience that the decision-making process becomes difficult to overview, that it drags on and that there are long periods of silence, the customer stops answering emails and phone calls.

An example of this was when the salesperson had not discussed the decision-making process with the customer. The day before, the closing meeting was cancelled. A municipality wanted to purchase a new financial system, they did not go out in a tender but selected the supplier that their municipal colleagues had recommended. Everything was correct, the customer's needs were similar to those of other municipalities and the solution was largely ready. The contract terms were based on a municipal-wide framework agreement with fixed prices, the customer thought they did not need to be renegotiated. The seller and the customer's contact person, champion, had set a tight timetable for the implementation. The seller had received a verbal OK that the deal was in port. At the last minute, the client's finance manager comes up with an idea, wouldn't it be great if the finance assistants could see and give their input before the final design was decided? A demo was arranged at short notice. But the seller's expert in municipal accounting was booked up that day, so they asked another skilled economist to carry out the demonstration. What no one had anticipated was that the finance assistants had very specific accounting technical needs that they wanted to see the system handle. The economist was unable to demonstrate these functions during the demonstration. The following day, the closing meeting was booked. The reason? The financial assistants saw the system and felt that it did not meet their needs. No one had expected that the financial assistants would have such a strong influence. They could not sign the contract, they could only block the deal. If the financial decision maker had run over the financial assistants, they would probably have sat crosswise. The salesperson did not understand the importance of the financial assistants and their role in the decision-making process. Since they were so important, the demonstration should have been moved to a date when the municipal expert had time. Now the seller pushed the demonstration to get a quick endorsement and lost the deal. You don't have to sell high-end solutions to have problems following the customer's decision-making process. Service sales is definitely an area that many customers find difficult to buy. Perhaps it is because a service cannot be tested or touched. This increases the risk of the customer making the wrong decision.

This means that the buying journey can become messy, new people get involved, the requirements picture changes and there is a great risk that the whole project will be postponed.

This happened to me very recently. My economic buyer and I had identified a great need to train the sales managers in goal management and coaching. We had conducted both interviews and a survey. The plan was that we would develop and launch a training program based on the survey results. Everything looked good as usual, we hadjointly defined which metrics were important and there was a clear business case. In addition, their sales had decreased sharply, there was a clear pain. We worked on the survey and analysis. But at the presentation meeting, a new person is invited, the company's sales director. He sits in a staff function and has no influence over the operational decisions. I asked my economic buyer about the manager's role, how we should involve and engage him. I get short text messages in response: "The goal is for him to like the program". My gut told me that something has happened, that this will not go as planned. Unfortunately, I was right. Somewhere my economic buyer has told me about the program he intended to run and met resistance. He gets cold feet and to keep the peace in the house he invites the opponent without giving me the whole picture. I thought we had jointly decided on the process and that my contact was my Champion. But I was wrong, the sales manager blocked the program. I bring up this example to show the importance of analyzing the political decision-making climate and how it affects the decision-making process. With hindsight, I should have asked questions such as: "How will you anchor your decision? Who in management will have opinions about it, what interests do you need to balance? What is the best way to involve the most important people without creating too much work? What can happen if someone thinks that this program does not fit into the strategy?” Awkward questions I missed asking. Why? I was honestly convinced that my economic buyer could do as he wanted. I wanted to minimize the risks of the customer bringing in competitors.

The customer and you need to agree on the decision-making process

Before we go through the Go-Live plan, a tool for you and the customer to be able to make a joint plan for the decision-making process and its various steps, we will take a closer look at which parts can be included in a decision-making process, which of the customer's decision-makers are important and what formal and informal steps need to be completed for it to become a deal. All we need to do is ask the right questions and help the customer structure the decision steps in a timetable. As the decision process progresses, you can move the deal forward in your CRM system.

When you document the decision-making process, it helps your champion describe to others in the organization how the evaluation will be done, a way for your champion to gain confidence. The process includes the timeline, the validation and the different types of approvals. There can be both formal and informal decisions to be taken by the customer.

The decision criteria are about what the decision is based on, the decision process is about the way there.

We divide the decision-making process into three parts: The road to a technical decision, that the solution solves the operational needs, Technical Decision Making, the road to releasing money, Business Decision Making and the road to all formal approvals, such as contracts and agreements, Paper Process .

Technical Decision Making (TDM)

In order to evaluate whether the solution meets the technical and operational decision criteria, the customer creates formal or informal processes to be able to approve it. As with the decision criteria, this process should be documented and confirmed by the customer's champion. You need to get a clear sign that when all steps in the technical decision-making process have been completed, this part of the decision-making process is complete, that no new requirements or tests shall be added.

The decision process can consist of tests, demonstrations, proof of concept, reference visits, certificates from suppliers whose solution is to be integrated with yours and control of the necessary certifications.

An example of this was when a large company had to choose a data center to place its servers in. On paper, the technical requirements picture was easy to understand, it was about power and cooling capacity, physical security and access to backup power. But when the salespeople dug deeper into the decision-making process, it turned out that the customer's sustainability department had strong opinions. They wanted all subcontractors to be environmentally certified. This was a requirement that was not included in the procurement documents. The vendor discussed with his team and came up with an idea: If they could get the customer's technical decision makers to include environmental certification as a core requirement in the procurement, their position would be strengthened. The seller submitted a proposal to the customer's evaluation team. Ded had the opportunity to make a virtual visit to the data center so they could see with their own eyes how environmentally friendly it was. This "digital sightsing" convinced the customer to choose them. The vendor had identified more technical requirements, matched them with their strengths and was able to influence the technical decision-making process.

Often there are more influencers and more requirements than you think at the beginning of the sales process. Also expect that your competitors will do their best to influence the customer's technical decisions so that their position is strengthened.

Businessss Decision Making (BDM)

Who needs to approve the investment? Are there any formal boards and decision-making bodies? Is there a formal procedure or are decisions made informally? When do the different groups meet? Do they meet regularly? How do they prepare decisions and what information do they look at? Can you make a presentation? You need to have answers to these questions, you need to know how they make decisions about the investments. If they are above a certain level, the customer's board needs to approve them. When this is the case, you need to get to know the board members to know how they think and what they like. This example shows how important it is to have insight into how the board is involved.

A seller I know had a great champion. Together they had developed a solution, a business case and also carefully investigated the technical conditions for an implementation. The technical decision was made. All that remained was approval from the board. The salesman was not allowed to attend the meeting but his champion had promised to call if there were any problems. The day after the board meeting, the seller received a brief email: "We have chosen another supplier. Thank you for a great collaboration.” The seller called to get an explanation, the manager would call if something went wrong. The manager explained: “One of the board members had done a parallel procurement process that I didn't know about. He suggested another supplier who had a cheaper solution. I explained that it won't be as good as the one I produced, but was overruled." This is not entirely unusual, for champions to overestimate their influence. I asked the seller what he knew about the board and their network of contacts. He hadn't read up on their profiles. But when he did, it turned out that the person who suggested the new supplier had worked there. But with a little research, the seller could have prepared his champion better. You need to know how the customer makes the financial decisions, who has influence and power and how they evaluate the investment.

A positive outcome came from a salesperson who carefully discussed with their champion how they made decisions. Champion said that the board often tabled investments that lacked an ROI, return of investment analysis. The seller asked to see examples of how some approved investments were presented to the board. He copied the best ROI template, adapted it to his quote and gave it to his Champion. The investment was hammered through without any questions.

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Paper Process (PP)

Paper process is a misleading name, it should be called document flow, most documents today are digital. You need to know which agreements must be signed in order for the deal to be approved. You need to know who will sign them, what language they will be in and how they will be signed, physically or digitally. Today, these are mostly digital documents. It can be a confidentiality agreement (NDN, non disclosure agreement), license agreement, purchase order (PO, purchasing order), license agreement and contract. Rigorous requirements for regulations or business compliance often lead to time-intensive negotiations. These can take weeks or even months, but are necessary to have a legal agreement. This process is the most common reason contracts are postponed and deals are pushed to the next quarter. Make sure you have sponsorship from the financial decision maker to give negotiations with the purchasing department and lawyers the right focus, the right time and the right resources. Be paranoid about the details! Common parts of the paper process are contracts and terms of agreement, guarantees and technical certificates. If you sell to other countries, a number of permits from authorities may be required to export. They may take time to arrive. The legal process in particular can drag on. They always have a lot to do, the contracts can be lying around for weeks because the lawyers haven't had time to review them. The client's lawyers will do their utmost to minimize their risk, which may mean you may end up in lengthy negotiations about different types of conditions. Delay fines, liability and who bears the responsibility if something external happens. You may have been involved in an injury or event that caused you to ask your insurance company for compensation. Hopefully, you got your claims through, but often there are conditions in the insurance contract that mean that the compensation is reduced or completely absent. You can count on your clients' lawyers thinking the same way, they want to minimize their liability.

An example of how easily a deal can go wrong was when a state-owned company was ready to sign the agreement with a seller. Both parties had worked for several months on the solution, planned the implementation and agreed on the terms of the agreement. The seller worked for an American company, he could not sign the contract himself, it required a high-ranking manager in the United States to give his approval. On the day of the contract, the seller presents the signed contract. All that was needed were buyersns signature. When the pen was a few centimeters from the contract, the customer's CEO discovered that the contract was in English, not Swedish. In addition, all the draft contracts that had been presented had been in Swedish. The CEO refused to sign an agreement in business English. The seller's team quickly tried to produce a translation, but their American colleagues did not prioritize a costly translation. The deal was delayed and the customer finally chose another supplier. A completely unnecessary mistake that cost the seller a great deal. Another example was when I worked with a fantastic sales team that had undergone my MEDICC training. They had realized that the decision-making process always took time when the lawyers started discussing the contract. In order to speed up the contract process and reduce the risk that external circumstances changed the conditions for the deal, they asked their lawyer to get involved early in the sales process. In parallel with the technical and financial decision-making process, he began the legal one. The sellers' lawyer got in touch with the customer's lawyers. Thanks to this change in the paper process, they were able to shorten the decision-making process by 6 months.

If you don't control the decision-making process, your chances of winning the deal are at risk

If you notice that the customer's decision-making process is to your disadvantage, you need to pull the handbrake. It could be things like you having to submit a quote without getting to meet the decision makers, that another supplier influenced the decision criteria or the timeline. Are there requirements you cannot meet? Then it is just as well to withdraw, alternatively renegotiate the decision-making process with the customer. My advice is to take action immediately and take it up with the customer. You gain nothing by waiting. If you have the opportunity to influence the decision-making process and the timeline yourself, you should of course do it as quickly as you can - it will increase your chances of winning.

An example of this was a brave sales manager. She made an uncomfortable decision whenever a major procurement was at stake. A large company wanted a quote for a complex POS system. The client had set the rule book for the procurement: first they wanted to receive quotes from a number of suppliers and then select the three they met, a fairly common way of doing things. When the sales manager, who went through my MEDDICC training, read through the request documents, she saw that they did not meet several of the decision criteria and that the timeline was too short for them to be able to provide a reasonable quote. She did the only right thing, wrote a nice email with a rejection, they wouldn't submit a quote, time was too short and they didn't think the client's idea of a solution would work. The customer made contact immediately, they were both concerned and annoyed. They were not used to a supplier giving them criticism. After several contacts, even the sales manager's CEO received a call from the customer, they agreed on a plan. The sales manager and her team were given a week to present an alternative proposal, if it seemed reasonable they would be allowed to meet the Swedish management team. The client liked the proposal, the meeting went well and after 6 months of negotiation they signed a large contract. Afterwards, the sales manager was overjoyed: "We win when we tell the customer what to buy, we are professionals in our field". She inspired her salespeople to dare to stand up for their competence, even if it meant refusing to participate in important procurements.

Procurement consultants

It is becoming increasingly common for the customer to hire procurement consultants. They effectively block all direct contact with the customer. The consultants are hired to be impartial and experts in their field. Unfortunately, the consultants often have their favorite suppliers. If you are one of them, you should notice it in the way the procurement is written - then the consultant has included decision steps and criteria that increase the odds that you will win the deal. An example of this was a salesperson who participated in a procurement. He said: “The client's buyer asked for an informal meeting. The purpose was for the buyer to get inspiration from us, so he could include our advantages in decision criteria in the request for quotation. He wanted us to win the deal.” The seller gave the consultant a proposal for procurement documents and won the deal. The consultant wanted to make it easy for himself and chose the provider his client liked the most for help.

But if you are not on the consultant's favorite list, your chances of winning the business are slim.

Sometimes you need to submit an answer in order to develop the relationship with the consultant, sometimes because your managers want it. The fact remains, to win you need to create a partnership with the consultant so that they become your champion, they will sell for you when you are not there. In my other books, Co-Creative Selling (REF) and Solution Selling, Success or Failure (REF), I describe various methods of getting the consultant on your side. If you can convince the consultant that you are his winning ticket in the decision-making process, you get a champion. My best tip is to treat the consultant as your champion, your success is the consultant's success. Laytime to develop relationships with key consultants, train them, socialize with them, immerse yourself in their daily lives and success factors. Some of the most successful sales people in the IT industry that I know have succeeded because of their relationships with consultants. The sellers are always invited and get a cream pie in the procurement. They get to meet the customer and most importantly, they get information about competitors' offers.?

Examples of questions about the decision-making process

? Has the financial buyer approved the decision criteria and the decision process?

? Which people are involved in the decision-making process and what are the steps for making decisions?

• What are the formal decision-making bodies that must approve the contract?

• When and how often do they meet?

? What does the schedule look like?

• How are the financial investment decisions synchronized with your decision-making process?

• When will the solution be operational?

? What does the process look like to approve various large investments?

? How do the decision criteria relate to the identified pain and to the metrics?

? What does your plan look like to get the technical, financial and legal approvals required to make a decision?

? What is required to become an approved supplier?

? What does the approval process look like for a business the size of ours?

? What does the formal procurement process look like, who is involved and what are their roles and agendas?

? How is the legal contract construction structured? Who is the formal organization that buys?

? Does a framework agreement need to be in place?

? What are the critical mandatory terms of the agreement?

? Which contract is the basis for the negotiation?

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Paper process: (agreement process)

• How is the legal construction structured?

• Is a framework agreement needed?

• Who must sign the contract for it to be valid?

• Which documents need to be signed?
• In what order should the documents be signed and by whom?

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The GO-LIVE plan

In the next article, I will give you access to an amazing tool: the GO-LIVE Plan. It is a plan that you make together with your champion and the financial decision maker. In the plan, you document which milestones must be met, technical, business, contractual, in order for the contract to be signed. You set up a timeline for when the various milestones are to be reached and which people are to be involved. In order for the planning to be proactive, you set a start date for when the solution must be operational, a GO-LIVE date. Planning is based on that date. The plan becomes more realistic and you avoid delays in the decision-making process.

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Summary

The decision process, decision process, is very important to have control over. It can be complex or simple. The saying the more cooks the worse the soup is also true in business. When there are demands from many departments, especially in procurement processes where you have to answer 200 questions in order to qualify to submit a quote, it's easy to get lost. If not sooner, you need a strong Champion who can guide you in the decision making process. With a joint GO-LIVE plan and a strong backing from your company, you will be able to put the resources required to handle the decision-making process all the way to the contract being signed. If you notice that you cannot cope with the decision-making process, or cannot influence it in a way that allows you to win, it is wise to withdraw - the chances of winning are too low. Your resources are better used in other sales processes.

Jens Edgren, MEDDICC Master intructor. CEO

www.meddicc.se [email protected]