Engaging with customers: are you leaving money on the table?

To maximise the impact of every customer engagement for both you and the customer, sales teams need to become more strategic when engaging with customers – here’s how.

In edition 2 of this newsletter, I talked about systematising sales, which is today a fundamental factor in sales organisational success. In editions 3-5 I wrote about to two of the six key competencies you need in your sales system:

• Strategy at the account level
• Strategy at the opportunity level

In this edition, I focus on a third competency - strategy at the client engagement level. This is how your client facing people can quickly become more effective in front of your customer.

Too many salespeople see selling as just the tactical performance in front of the client. Of course, tactics and performance are part of being successful but not to the exclusion of strategy.

Strategic client engagement starts with understanding that there are three different types of client engagement, the strategic objectives of each and the tactical execution skills required in each of these meetings. Let's start with a foundational question.

Why do people buy?

This is THE fundamental question in sales. Customers buy to solve a problem or take advantage of an opportunity; we call that solving a Business Issue. Understanding this cause-and-effect relationship is critical because nothing happens without reason.

Can your buyers act on every business issue in front of them?  Most likely not. They prioritise an issue by assessing its impact and the consequences of not acting. They ask:

“is the sacrifice of cost, time, risk, hassle, disruption worth the effort?”

It follows that:

Buying action is driven by a perception of the business issue and its impact on both the business and, the customer personally.

And because it’s a perception, all client-facing people can influence this in some way.

Can you distinguish between the different types of needs?

Needs arise from your customer’s perception that there is business issue to solve, but not all needs are made equal. The ‘Need’ Categorisation Matrix (below) helps us categorise the different types of needs and what to do when we come across them.

Some needs are spoken freely, some are known but unspoken and some are just unknown by the customer.

Not responding to needs appropriately can mean missing opportunities and ‘leaving money on the table’. An issue that many sales leaders acknowledge is prevalent in their organisations.

Implied Needs require a conversation about their impact from the customer’s perspective. Try to talk solution to an Implied Need you will get pushback from the customer. In a ‘need development discovery conversation’, the customer must state for themselves that there is an issue to be solved, the consequences are high, and the value of solving is big enough for them to act. Implied Needs need to be developed into Explicit Needs.

An Explicit Need is when the customer states a desire to take buying action to solve a business issue. Whilst Implied Needs may be spoken, unspoken or even unknown, Explicit Needs must be spoken by the customer.

Here’s the golden rule:

Never talk about your solution or your capabilities unless the client has articulated an Explicit Need.

It follows that everyone in your business who touches your customer should not only be able to distinguish between different needs, but they should also be able to respond appropriately.

Somewhat contentiously, this means we are asking ‘non-salespeople’ to adopt a level of sales acumen and by that we mean, everyone who touches the customer should be able to identify, categorise and respond to a customer need.

There are three types of client engagement

Every client engagement is in some way selling. All client-facing people in your organisation need to know the type of meeting they are attending and be able to respond accordingly.

1.   Opportunity Origination Meeting

This type of meeting is early stage for the seller but, could be early, mid, or late stage for the customer, depending on where the customer is in their buying process when you meet them. Firstly, it is critical to align to where the customer is in their buying process.  Then you need to understand there are two different selling scenarios:

Proactive selling

• The seller engages the customer about a specific business issue and the possibility of buying a solution to solve it.
• This is early stage for both buyer and seller as the buyer may not be aware of the issue or its seriousness.
• Buyers may have unknown or known-unspoken needs, which are likely to be Implied in early conversations.

Reactive selling

• The buyer engages the seller because of a perceived business issue they need to solve.
• Buyers are likely to have known spoken, unspoken needs and possibly unknown needs as well. Needs may, at this stage be Explicit because they are aware of and are considering solving an issue.
• This will be early stage for the seller but could be early, mid, or late stage for the buyer.
• People attending could be from various functions in the selling business – not just sales. They should be able to identify an opportunity without the presence of a salesperson. Their situational fluency needs to be strong enough to enable them to develop an Implied Need into an Explicit Need.

2.  Opportunity Pursuit Meeting

The pursuit is on! Meetings for a specific opportunity pursuit should be the outflow of the Opportunity Pursuit Strategy. Your sales strategy should enable you to get in front of the right decision-maker, at the right time with right questions and/or information.

In the table below we focus on the key things to consider when attending Opportunity Pursuit Meetings.

There will be multiple Opportunity Pursuit Meetings; the sales team’s job is to get clear about the customer’s known spoken, known unspoken and unknown needs. It is also to understand who is involved in the decision-making process, are they all aligned with the Explicit Need for taking buying action and whether there are advocates and/or ant-sponsors.

3. Relationship Development or Client Service Meeting

There are plenty of instances where we meet with customers and are not involved in an opportunity pursuit. These meetings should (always) be connected to the strategic account plan as they should be aligned to the overall relationship development strategy. From research we know that customers are very clear in what they want from their selling partners:

• Know them - research their business and demonstrate that knowledge to a high level.
• Make good use of their time - facilitate mutual and compelling discussions that respect their time and abilities.
• Solve their business issues - demonstrate commitment to what happens after the sale.
• Educate them - differentiate by sharing insights that help them make decisions, develop their understanding, and expand their expertise.

Relationship development meetings may turn into opportunity origination meetings, which may subsequently turn into opportunity pursuit meetings.

Importantly, these meetings are not a licence to discuss your latest wares without first identifying the issue they solve and the importance of the issue to your customer.

These meetings are part of the process of developing and demonstrating a deep understanding of your customer’s world as part of the strategic relationship development process.

Last thought

Each of the three meeting types is an opportunity to identify new issues we can help solve, advance the pursuit strategy, or extend and develop the overall relationship. The key is to ensure all meetings are connected to the overarching strategy and, that every client-facing person has the capabilities to identify and develop needs intentionally.

This is what we do at Transform2perform, we help you transform sales and business performance. Download our eBook to get deeper into each of the four 'Cs’ and or connect or call us for a chat on how we can help you.