Let's get rid of Sales Cycles.

I suggested in my last article that Sellers do away with sales cycles and replace them with Buyer Journeys.

And I promised I would explain how to do that in this article.

First, why Buyer Journeys?

Well, they are a Customer/Buyer-focused process. Sales cycles, on the other hand, are Seller-focused.

And Buyer-focused means value-focused, which to me means a Seller's principal objective is to support buyers in their quest (i.e., Journey) to gain value. Selling them something comes second.

Wait, what?

Yes, you heard that right.

Now, of course, the goal of Sellers is to sell stuff, whether you are into Cycles or Journeys. My point is that you should forget that when interacting with Buyers. I'll use a sporting analogy to illustrate:

Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Co. enter tennis tournaments to win. How do they do that though?

Not by focusing on winning the tournament (analogous to a sale) because that would distract them from what it takes to win. Look at Roger here. Where do you suppose his head is right now? It is 100% on the shot he is going to play. And when he has played that shot, his focus shifts to the next shot and then the next. He focuses on every next shot until he wins the tournament.

And so it is with selling.

When you forget about 'making the sale' and instead focus on every next shot i.e., being of value in that Buyer interaction, then you will inevitably move ever closer to winning the sale with every interaction.

Unless, of course, you cannot be of value, in which case you should qualify out. I'll get to that.

The Big Idea

Focusing on Buyers and not your sale, i.e., yourself, stops you from coming across as self-interested and salesy. And helping people to get what they want is a natural way to have them keen to help you get what you want.

The big idea then is that Buyers come first, and Sellers come second, which contrasts with sale cycles where Sellers come first.

Sales Cycles are a sequence of events arranged for the convenience of Sellers to support their goal of influencing Buyers to their way of thinking.

And well over half the time, they fail.

The Buyer’s Journey

To continue with the tennis metaphor, a Seller's first objective is to determine whether they have the shots in their armoury to enable them to meet Buyer Perceptions of Value (POV). If not, they should qualify out.

And so, early and rigorous qualification is integral to the value-focused approach, which is why, in my experience, it enjoys 70% plus win rates. Sellers spend less time pursuing losers (which more than 50% typically are).

And it is not a typical sales cycle type of qualification based on Seller perceptions of product/service fit, decision-making processes etc, or even need. Instead, their ability to match Buyer POVs is the criteria.

And value is not the same as need BTW, which I will get to in a bit.

The Seller's role in the Buyer Journey is to help Buyers to clarify the value they want (which they have often not thought of in a way that is useful for Sellers) and to then guide them on how to get it.

Here's the thing, when you focus on Buyer POVs you quite quickly figure out whether you might be able to meet them. That doesn't mean you necessarily have a so-called solution. It simply means you believe you can collaborate with Buyers to create one that meets their POV.

If at any point in the Journey you do not have that belief, then that is the sign you should exit, which contrasts with sales cycles where Sellers tend to hang on until the bitter end (of the cycle).

Speaking of which…

The Sales Cycle Approach

Sales cycles are a process where Sellers shepherd Buyers (like sheep) through a series of steps or stages with the hope that they will be ever more likely to say 'yes' to whatever they are proposing.

It is not about what Buyers value so much as the Seller's perception that: 'look, I know what you need, I just need to get you to see that'.

Sales Cycles manage that process. However, reality rarely matches theory. Witness the notorious inaccuracy of pipelines. They reflect Seller perspectives of where they think Buyers are in their buying journey, not where Buyers actually are.

The Buyer Journey Approach

The Journey approach is about being very aware of what is happening for Buyers.

Buyer Journeys are what Sellers do with Buyers not to them.

Here is how you do that.

Remember paper street directories?

When figuring out a route to get to where you need to go, how did you do it? You looked first at the destination, right? Not at where you currently are.

Once you saw where you wanted to end up, you worked your way back to your current location to determine a route.

To relate that to our discussion, you could say that Value is about arriving at the desired destination. And once you have clarity about that, you then focus on the route, i.e., what you Need, to get there.

Now consider a sales cycle. It usually starts with Needs Discovery (the route) i.e., what is needed to fix a problem rather than why the problem needs fixing in the first place. It overlooks root cause, which will reveal the desired destination.

Exploring the Buyer's destination or desired end state is called Value Discovery, as you seek to discover what value Buyers want (that they are currently not getting).

Value Discovery

Value Discovery is a conversation you have in Buyer or Problem language rather than Product language. And it is a conversation, unlike Needs Discovery, which tends to be an interrogation to Buyers.

Here's an example of the difference between Buyer and Product language:

• Buyer Language: 'I want the ability to move NN tonnes of material every day from A to B' (the value I want)
• Product Language: 'I need a ten-ton dump truck' (the product I need).

However, there is more to Value Discovery than that. As I mentioned in earlier articles, value is a personal perception. Like beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder and what we Sellers need to know is what each Buyer's POVs are.

For example, the Buyer responsible for moving material from A to B has KPIs, either formally or informally, the achievement of which satisfies their WIIFM e.g., keep a job, get a bonus, get promoted, look good to boss etc. Those benefits represent value to the Buyer and will motivate their buying decision.

Can you imagine a Buyer voting for your truck if it might compromise any of those WIIFM's? Not likely. ??

Value Discovery is the conversations you have to discover Buyer's desired future state(s).

Value vs. Needs Discovery

In my experience, most Buyers do not correctly understand the distinction between value and needs, and neither do most Sellers. That represents an excellent opportunity for Sellers to embrace and understand value so that they can then be of value to Buyers in helping them clarify their perceptions.

A Buyer's lack of clarity becomes apparent when you ask them 'why?'

Often when I have asked Buyers 'why are you doing this?' (and even some with multi-millions at stake). They had no real answer beyond, 'it is in our plan or budget' or 'our current systems are outdated' i.e., no defined outcome or end state.

In my next article, I will share some practical ideas and tips on how to have Value Discovery conversations.?

In the meantime, if you would like free tips on value-focused approaches, you'll find plenty on the?Resources page of my website .

And if you would like some insight into how value-focused your sales processes are, try this FREE self-assessment. There are two versions.

Individuals or Sales Teams and one especially for MSP's

If you got value from this article, please like or share so others might get value too.