‘Selling’ doesn't work

My first selling role was in 1978 in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) where I was trained by ex-Proctor & Gamble sales leaders. Proctor & Gamble were one of the major players in FMCG and their training was leading-edge for consumer products. I worked in a number of leadership roles and went on to start my own businesses providing services (rather than products).

The 7x6 model I was taught in FMCG and the approaches I adapted in services relied upon the customer or client choosing me or my company because our products or services had superior features and benefits, or, in the case of my niche consulting business, we had a no-risk approach to fees where our income was determined by the results we achieved for the client.

In 2006 I sold my niche consulting business to Accenture. After the first 12-18 months of integration, I moved into an outright ‘solution selling’ role and was exposed to Accenture’s global sales methodology.

This was so compelling that it changed my view of selling, which is that when selling professional services or complex solutions, success has very little to do with the features and functions of your solution. Conversely, what I have learned in the intervening years is that the best solution loses more times than it wins in a competitive environment!

What I learned, and what changed my perspective, my results, and those of my clients, is that top performers see things differently to other sellers. They behave differently or do different things and they get very different results.

These enlightened few (probably about 5% of sellers) out-perform their peers by a significant margin – hence my description ‘Enlightened Selling’.

Selling is no longer just about getting on your soap box and spouting features, benefits and functionality. He or she who shouts loudest doesn’t necessarily win the business. Today’s selling is about helping your clients succeed.

I wanted to mention one more thing that I experienced when working inside Accenture, the win/loss review process. Whenever we won or lost a large strategic opportunity, we’d conduct a face-to-face review with the client executives that were involved in the decision process to understand the facts behind their decision. As a senior Accenture executive, I had a Quality Assurance Director role on large deals, and my mission was to understand the reality, the truth of the situation as an objective ‘third-party’ i.e. separate from the deal team. 

What I found was a revealing difference between what the client told the sales team, and what the client told me. In most cases, the client didn’t always tell the sales team the truth. When asked why we lost, the most common client answer to the salesperson or bid-lead (in order to avoid confrontation or take the easiest route) was that the price was too high. This is good and bad for the salesperson to hear. It’s bad because it’s difficult to refute or defend for fear of damaging the relationship, and it’s good (for the salesperson, not the organisation) as it gives a simple rationale with which to explain to leaders that “we did our best, but it really came down to price”.

My experience in doing these reviews as a third party, detached from the sales team, is that the client’s rationale is rarely based primarily on price. I’ll share more on price in subsequent articles.

To appreciate the power of Enlightened Selling (compared to the weaknesses associated with traditional selling) we need to understand the motivations of both buyer and seller and some of the psychology involved on both sides.

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