One Step to Double Your Sales

You’re off to a perfect start with a new Prospect.

You have consensus with Buyers on their needs.

They even said, ‘you understand us.’

And you're confident your product is a perfect fit.

Great!

You send them a proposal, and….

CRICKETS. Nothing.

You call them and…

‘Thank you for your proposal. We’re currently reviewing all offers and will come back to you.’

WTF happened there?

Well, you missed something. The same thing 90% of Sellers miss.

What Did I Miss?

Before I answer that, some context: consider how Buyers probably regard you. At first anyway.

They see you as intent on persuading them they need your product or services, and that you are naturally biased and self-interested. In short, not to be trusted.

I mean, if those Buyers trusted and/or valued you, they’d engage with you. Right?

Just to be clear, I’m not dissing Sellers here. I am one! And I’ve known thousands, most of whom are honorable people. Nevertheless, sad fact:

Buyers don’t trust us!

Despite that glaring fact, sales processes haven’t adapted. Yes, we’ve updated our language to talk of buyer-centricity, being of value etc., but the process itself is rooted in antiquity.

Engage>>>needs/value exploration>>> gain consensus>>>propose a product.

There's a critical step missing from that sequence, and it’s the key to having Buyers engage with you and trust you to help them solve their problem/challenge.

I'll explain with an analogy…

The Dating Game

You’ve been dating a while, and things are going great. You’re sure this is the one, and you pop the question:

‘Let’s get married,’ ??

Your Date: ‘Say what? I hardly know you. What about kids? I don’t like cats, and I don’t know if I could live with a vegan. Where should we live? I hardly know your family or most of your friends…blah blah blah’

You: ‘Nah, it’s fine, I’ve considered all that. We can live in my apartment, and we’ll have kids sometime and a dog; I don’t like cats either. And, no worries, you’ll come to love my family. It’ll be great!’

Your Date: ‘Are you insane? What about what I want?’

Obvious problem, right? Your relationship suggests you have some consensus on needs, but your date certainly hasn’t bought into marriage as a solution. That’s your solution not theirs.

You missed a step, the one about exploring and agreeing what the next step should be.

The Missed Step

Just like your date, Buyers must decide on the experience they want i.e., their solution. That is, before choosing a product they need to explore what type of product to choose.

Following Needs Exploration (usually with a few different Sellers), Buyers hopefully understand their problems/challenges. And that’s all.

Their next step is problem solving and it’s the step that 90% of Sellers miss out on.

Offering a product is not problem solving, nor is it a solution. It reflects a cognitive bias:

‘Seller Myopia:’ the tendency of Sellers to view the world through the lens of their products/services.

To avoid succumbing to that, adopt the mindset that a solution is whatever Buyers think it is; what they will eventually buy. Anything else, e.g., your product, is merely an option.

Also, bear in mind that Buyers have a holistic view of their solutions that includes a lot more than products, for example, new processes, integration, reorganization, training etc. ?

The Opportunity

That 50% of B2B purchase pursuits result in no decision, is just one data point that illustrates Buyers need help to buy.

As someone once said (I wish I knew who):

Buyers need to trust someone to help them make decisions ?they don’t trust themselves to make.

Who could that be?

From a Buyer’s perspective, that someone would ideally be an ‘independent’ consultant who has no stake in the game (nothing to sell), is free of bias and understands their problems/challenges. Preferably they have hands-on experience implementing the types of solution they likely need and even better, a few learning scars.

Where would they find such a person?

Well, someone that used to work in a vendor environment sounds ideal.

Oh wait! Why not someone who still works in a vendor environment?

All it would take is for that someone to not act like a Seller!

Ta Daaaa!

See the opportunity? You, and you colleagues, are the obvious choice to help Buyers create their solution. I believe that to be the greatest untapped opportunity for Sellers to dramatically increase their sales.

In my experience, active Seller engagement in unbiased (no mention of product) problem-solving lifts the probability of their winning the sale to at least 70-80%.

Even more so in high-ticket complex sales

It really is a no-branner, especially as so few Sellers step into the role (reflect on that 50% number again).

All it takes is positioning yourself with Buyers to do so.

Inventing Buyer Solutions

Like any new thing, collaborating with Buyers in the way I’m about to suggest is a challenge if you haven’t done it before. It is a change in mindset that will likely nudge you out of your comfort zone.

For the exercise, just imagine you left your company a couple of weeks ago.

You are independent, no longer a vendor representative and you have current domain knowledge.

Secondly, appreciate that a Buyer Solution is their solution that is expressed in their (Buyer/generic) language, not any vendor’s product language.

The Buyer Solution is a comprehensive description e.g., a full specification, in Buyer (generic) language of what will address their needs.

Finally, each combination of organization, Buyers, problem/challenges are unique, and they need a unique solution. Your role is to empower Buyers to create something that’s not existed before, which is why I call the process INVENT.

Given the scenario, you have undoubtedly guessed that INVENT relies a LOT on trust. Buyers must be totally confident you are 100% free of bias and self-interest and will put them first, ahead of your own need to make a sale.

For a guide on exactly how to do that, look at The Seller Code of Conduct (https://thesellercode.org ).

Getting to INVENT

The steps prior to INVENT e.g., exploring Buyer needs and perceptions of value are where you grow trust, essentially by not losing it i.e. by not talking about yourself!

I often get the comment that ‘gaining a lot of trust must take ages.’ Yes, it does when you act like a Seller.? However, provided (yes you got it!) you don’t act the least ‘salesy’ you can achieve it in just one or two interactions.

That said, learning how to have these conversations requires commitment. ‘Salesy’ patterns of behaviour are in our DNA. They’re habit and it takes repetitive practice to a) overcome the compelling instinct to discuss product and b) hold conversations that are 100% about Buyers and 0% yourself.

That absolute absence of self-interest commences from first contact with Buyers.

Mention your company when first introducing yourself and that’s it! Then make no mention of your company or your product through the entire engagement until INVENT is completed. There should be no need anyway as needs and value exploration are about Buyers, not you.

INVENT starts once you’ve confirmed needs, for example:

As I understand it, you need A. B, C, and D, is that right?

OK, so how about we explore some options. For example, with A, what thoughts might you already had on how you might address that?

Your role is that of a facilitator and sounding board, asking rather than telling to help Buyers think through their solution. Make suggestions e.g., ‘how might so and so work for you?’ ?I won’t delve into the conversation now, that’s another article. Hopefully, you get the general idea.

Again, ZERO mention of products (no apologies for repeating myself!) and remember this is the Buyer’s solution and will likely include a lot of stuff not in your product set. Nevertheless, stay involved. You’re there to help them invent a complete solution.

Even if asked ‘what would you recommend?’ DO NOT succumb to temptation! Stick to non-product language:

So, one tonne van (NOT Ford Transit).

Here’s the thing, Buyers can readily agree a one-tonne van is a good idea, but agreeing to your Ford Transit is a whole other thing, that feels like agreeing to a product. See the difference?

INVENT ends when Buyers respond, 'yes' to your question: 'If you can get that (the solution we just invented) for $Budget will you buy it? Note that during INVENT you will explore costings (not your pricing).

If the response is ‘no’, you have more inventing to do. Iterations are to be expected.

When Buyers eventually say ‘yes’ that’s the signal you’re set for the next step and can ‘dovetail’ your offering of products/services to match the solution you invented. You then formally propose that.

Then the magic happens. Because you were instrumental in creating their solution, 9/10 Buyers will choose you to supply it, even if they go to open bid with the specification, as often happens. Don’t panic!

No quoting, No objections, No negotiation, No closing. Just agreement.

Finally, if you can’t get to ‘yes’, then there is no solution for you to match and you can’t offer anything. You should exit the sale.

It Works!

I have practiced INVENT and taught others for over 30 years, and we have applied it to consistently win sales from $10k to $100+M across industries. If you’d like to explore how it might work in your sales situations, DM me or comment ‘more’ below and I will forward some FREE resources to you. If you’re in large complex sales, ask about my ‘Catalyst’ strategy to outmaneuver competition to be the solution benchmark.

As a final word, INVENT is backed by science. As researchers Michael I. Norton, Daniel Mochon, and Dan Ariely discovered in a 2011 study of The IKEA Effect as they termed it, individuals place a disproportionately higher value on things they create themselves. INVENT creates that environment.

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My focus is Buyer-Centric, Value-Focused sales approaches of which INVENT is part.

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