I remind sales teams of these facts: “Are you not in the business of asking your clients to make major changes? If you are unwilling to make a change, how can you ask your clients to?”
After a few moments, as this sinks in, not only do they agree with me, it never comes up again.
Change begets change and, along the way, bumps in
the road will appear. Resistance happens and the question becomes, “Do you have the will to overcome the bumps and the support needed to get the objective met?”
If you do, success is yours; if not, projects, goals and objectives are subject to setbacks and changes from the original intent or failure.
Bottom Line:
You must be motivated to change,
have the resources to get it done,
and the support and will to reach the goal.
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The three things needed to buy are:
WANT WAY WILL
Let’s explore the three fundamental business objectives a company has.
■ Client retention and acquisition
How can I keep the clients I have and get new ones?
Clients are the life support system for a business and this question is discussed in meeting rooms around the world.
Concerns facing a business are:
➻ What services or products do our clients need?
➻ What new trend is coming that will impact my base?
➻ What new threats do we need to be aware of?
➻ What companies are entering into my marketplace?
➻ What keeps my clients up at night?
➻ What new products or services can we bring to our clients?
➻ What do our competitors have that we do not?
This abbreviated list brings to light a few of the many challenges facing a business today.
Bottom Line:
Remember it gets back to one thing: “The only
purpose of the business is to get and keep clients.” 88
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■ Profitability
You cannot pay your bills, make payroll, or sign commission checks with revenue! It takes cash, and cash comes from a simple formula.
A. If revenue is greater than expenses, you have a profit.
Yeah! You are doing a great job and probably are
looking at ways to increase your numbers.
B. If expenses are greater than revenue, you have a loss.
Sorry to hear the news. Life at your organization is not fun. The heat is on to get clients and cut back on expenses.
C. If you do not receive cash from your clients on a timely basis, you have a cash problem.
Hug your CFO, because they need it. They are
getting the threatening phone calls from suppliers, who are getting ready to cut the company off if
they do not get paid soon.
D. If you make a profit and get paid in a reasonable timeframe!
Congratulations, you must be using the Sales
Mapping System or you figured a system out on your own and want to improve on an already
successful business.
Profitability is pretty simple to explain… very difficult to maintain.
Bottom Line:
Companies want to make money.
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■ Productivity
“Time is money” is a true statement. Look at the some of the examples we use everyday.
• Snail mail versus overnight delivery
• Snail mail versus email
• Office phone versus cell phone
• Desktop PC versus laptop
• Desktop PC email versus wireless PDA
• 35 mm camera with film versus digital camera
I used these examples because, in today’s selling environ-ment, it is pretty common to see salespeople with a handheld device that combines wireless, cell phone, email, sales force automation programs, calendar, digital camera and other tools into a single device.
Why? Because it allows you to be more productive,
leaving more time to spend with existing or new clients and ultimately bring in more business.
Your clients are looking for the same thing – ways to increase their productivity in supporting the basic mission of the business:
“Getting and keeping clients.”
Bottom Line:
Businesses want to save money.
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Personal
WIIFM – “What’s In It For Me?” – an old saying with a strong meaning. There has to be a personal or emotional payoff.
After having a heart attack, you may change your lifestyle because you want to live longer. Maybe you want to see your children grow up, or maybe the experience scared you into living.
What would happen if you headed up a team chosen to select an accounting system replacement that cost millions, took months to implement and involved training hundreds of people to use, and it is a failure? What would happen if it exceeded everyone’s expectations?
You stand to gain or lose personally. There is some “skin in the game,” as the saying goes, and it is your skin. Raises, bonuses, promotions, recognition, and stock options are all examples of types of personal payoff.
Emotions can and will play into the buying process. I have seen committees, charged with making a buying recommendation to the executive team, get close to fist fighting in meetings.
People are sometimes making career-make or career-
break decisions. It is important to understand what the personal issues are and the problems facing the individuals.
We all like to reach goals, eliminate problems, gain feedback on a job well done, or just know that we accomplished the objective. It is part of human nature.
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Troubleshooting
I want to take you through a hypothetical situation. Let’s say that an application running on your computer develops a problem. While it is annoying, you can live with it. Until one day, your computer finally quits.
Being in sales, you realize how important it is to have your PC working. What happens if you can’t get to your email or send out proposals due the next day? It just keeps getting worse. You need your computer to work.
You call the help desk and the representative says, “What is the problem?” You reply, “My computer is not working.” Is this enough information to solve your problem? Hardly...
more information is needed, for example:
✔ The kind of computer.
✔ The application you are having problems with.
✔ The length of time you have had these problems.
✔ Whether or not you are running other programs
at the same time.
The representative will ask you to perform a task with the following question, “What happened?” You tell them and they make a suggestion. If this does not solve the problem, then:
✔ The next task is given and you answer the same
question until the problem is fixed.
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This process is called an algorithm. Some of you who are computer-programming savvy are wondering if I am talking about the same thing that is used in developing software designs. Yes, I am. An algorithm is “A set of instructions or procedures for solving a problem.”
Let’s review what happened with this situation: The problem with the application had been there
for a while, but it was not bad enough to fix it
sooner. It was annoying, but we could still get the job done.
That is, until it stopped working. Now we quickly
became motivated to get the problem fixed.
Why do we want to get it fixed? It is vital to be able to communicate with clients and to get proposals
out to your client on time.
Problem, motivation to get it fixed, productivity, and personal, all exist.
We then talk to an expert who did not start off with selling a solution but asked for the problem. Was
“My application doesn’t work” enough information
to provide a solution?
How did the representative get to the problem?
It took an algorithm “A set of instructions or
procedures for solving a problem.”
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Just the facts - Developing a Problem Statement
Defining the problem is probably the most difficult phase of the Sales Mapping system.
This phase is the one most overlooked by salespeople and not enough time is dedicated to ensure the problem is clearly defined and understood.
Get the problem right and you will succeed in understanding the first part of consultative selling and getting a happy client.
Sales Mapping uses an algorithm in working with your client to get to a problem statement. Algorithms are step-by-step processes with decision points, giving you options as you complete the worksheet.
The parts of the “Sales Mapping Problem Statement Worksheet” are:
1) What problems are you (organization, company, department) having?
You would think that you would get the answer to the question, but you usually do not! What you do get is the solution or answer to the problem.
Let me explain with some examples of what you might hear when you ask what the problem is.
“We need a new system”
This is the answer, not the problem.
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“We need teamwork”
This is the answer, not the problem.
“We need more sales”
This is the answer, not the problem.
“We need to save money”
This is the answer, not the problem.
“We need sales training”
This is the answer, not the problem.
This happens because the client has been so close to the problem, they actually know what they need.
I was given the best question to ask when this happens.
It came from Shelle Rose Charvet, an exceptional trainer and mentor. Her company is named Success Strategies and she is discussed in chapter three of this book.
Here is what Shelle said to ask: “So what problem will (the word your client used) solve?” Get ready to start taking notes because they will start telling you the problems.
2) Who else is impacted by this problem?
It is not unusual for a problem to overlap with other problems. “Follow the money” is one of the phrases we often hear and, in this case, it’s “Follow the problem.” Follow the problem the same way the technical representative did in locating the source of the problem in our hypothetical PC application problem.
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Often, people within the company have conflicting
answers to the problem. Sales are lost because salespeople fail to find out all of the problems in all of the areas.
Think back in your own experiences to what caused you a problem because the other department had not fixed their problem.
What happens if the Sales Force Automation tool is not working correctly and you are unable to update your forecast?
a. The problem is in the software, and the information technology (IT) department is working with the
vendor to get it fixed. Meanwhile;
b. Because you are unable to get your update done, the sales manger cannot get the forecast to the
regional sales VP.
c. The regional sales VP cannot get the forecast update to the CEO.
d. The CEO cannot update the board.
e. The Chairman of the Board says, “Unacceptable, we need a forecast.”
f. The President goes back down the chain asking for an update, even if has to be compiled manually.
Finally it gets back to you to stop whatever you are doing so you can get the forecast submitted.
You get the idea. The problem may be the software, but this is causing problems for different people in different areas and this is impacting productivity, etc.
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Why is this important? A complex sale can be defined by
“How many yes’s” and by “whom will it take to close the business?”
3) How does this problem impact your customer?
Find out how each of these problems impact the service or product you deliver to your client. You must also determine how this problem impacts the delivery of their service or product to their client.
4) What caused or contributed to this problem?
Find out as much as you can about the source of the problem.
5) How long have you had the problem?
This could reveal an unwillingness to allocate resources or the lack of a “Way” or the “Will” to get it fixed.
6) What will happen if this problem continues?
How bad is it going to have to get?
The question is: “Has the event occurred that has motivated the person or organization to change?” Are they ready to take action?
7) What have you already done to solve the problem?
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reflects on how they attempt to solve it. How many ways can you solve a problem? Depends on how many people you talked to. Knowing what has already been tried helps in developing a solution.
8) Are we fixing the right problem?
Ask this question: “Is there anything we have not discussed that could become an obstacle?” I almost always get information about the problem that turns out to be vital in understanding the scope of the problem.
The above list is not suggested to be complete, but it should be added to your specific list.
Creating the problem statement
Failure comes from the problem being poorly defined and lacking specifics. Until you get a problem statement and your client agrees with your assessment, you could be solving the wrong problem, delivering the wrong solution, and spending the client’s money, without getting the core problem fixed.
Bottom Line:
Unhappy clients do not
get you references or more clients.
Begin developing the problem statement with the following template.
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The problem we are having is _____________
__________________________ and this causes
these problems __________________________
________________________________________
for ____________________________________.
If the problem continues, this will happen:
_______________________________________.
In fact, this problem has already limited us
from getting ____________________________
_______________________________________.
Only when your client agrees with this statement, are you able to move on to the next step.
SUMMARY
Buyers must have a:
✔ Want to buy because they are motivated to taking action.
✔ Way to succeed by having the resources
committed to the objectives.
✔ Will to get over obstacles put in the way of achieving the goals.
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Businesses are looking to:
✔ Get more clients.
✔ Keep their clients.
✔ Make money.
✔ Save money.
✔ Be more productive.
But, first they must:
✔ Accept that change is difficult, but it has a
personal payoff.
✔ Spend the time to get to the source of the
problem.
✔ Realize that, until the client agrees with the
problem statement, it is not right.
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~ CHAPTER SEVEN ~
Getting to the Results
In Chapter Six, we learned a Sales Mapping formula –
P + R = S . P for Problem, R for Results and S for Solution.
In this chapter, we will focus on getting to the R - Result.
How could a software architect design a program without completely understanding the results the user desires?
They wouldn’t. Part of the requirement’s analysis phase is to document the end result meaning, “What will the software do?”
How do you know if the design will meet the results?
Before the designer provides the specifications to the programmer who is building the software code, an important component is needed. What will this program do? How will I, as the programmer, know that I am solving the problem or meeting the requirement?
This is answered with the development of a test plan that is given to the programmer so they can make sure the program will meet each function as they develop the program code.
It provides the evidence needed, so everyone involved is 100 percent in agreement of what is needed, why it is needed, and how it is known that the results will solve the problem.
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up to the individual salesperson. Many fail to document the end result in detail and do not know how the client will measure success.
Salespeople tell me that in order to win: “We need to discount our price to x amount of dollars,” “We need to deliver these additional services,” or “We need to throw that service in for nothing.”
I ask one question “How do you know?” Number One
answer – they don’t. Unless the buyer has told you, it is a hallucination.
What is the point of proposing a solution if you do not know the problem and the result? We can learn the problem by following the Sales Mapping method and, to get the results, we have two distinct avenues to pursue:
1. “What” are the expected results?
2. “How” will you know?
This may be one of the easiest parts of the system to learn.
Simply take the problem statement worksheet and ask the opposite questions.
Here is how the “What” works:
A. What specifically do you want instead of ( use the name of the problem)?
When you ask this question, it generally gives the person permission to answer with their expectations, as opposed to the party line.
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B. How will you know that you have achieved the results?
This question will give you their critical success factors.
I am surprised when I sometimes get important metrics that, until now, had not been discussed.
C. When you get the results you want, what else will change or improve?
This is the carrot and stick of how people are
motivated, which we will review in this chapter.
D. What, if anything, will be at risk by getting these results?
This question may raise a roadblock that could get in the way, if not dealt with.
The next area we are going to move into is the “How” and what you will learn to shorten the sales cycle, get your client’s specific needs met, and develop the right action plans.
Did you know you have a built-in algorithm in your brain for making decisions?
A good example of an algorithm comes with your new PC. As soon as you open the box, you will find a poster size, one-page document with pictures and numbered steps to follow. It is an easy way to get your new PC up and running.
You could go to the documentation and read about 20
pages or so to get to the same result, but why would you want to do that?
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This one-page, step-by-step instructional sheet with pictures is an algorithm. It takes you through a process flow and you come to decision points. The decision point asks: Did you complete this step and get the results? If you did not, you are instructed to go to the previous step. It works just like a decision tree would, if you were designing a program to solve a particular problem.
If you have observed a software designer or have worked with them, you already know they ask a lot of questions.
They need to understand the process flow, especially when, and under what conditions, a decision is made.
Our decision-making process has multiple aspects and, what if I told you, there is a way to get to them all? With the use of the following questions, you can find out what you need to know:
• What is important to you in making a decision
and in priority order?
• Are you motivated by the stick or carrot?
• Why is this decision important to you?
• Who else, if anyone, is needed to make the
buying decision?
Would the information from the answers to these questions be beneficial to you and your client? The answer is yes! Let me show you how this works by asking: “How did you decide to buy this book?”
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There are three sets of answers and you should pick one from each set. The answers will provide you with “How” you made a decision when buying this book.
Please review the two answers and select one of them in answering the question: “Why did you buy this book?” A. I felt the information contained in this book
would help me obtain my goals.
Or
B. I believed the information in this book would
help me get away from some problems I had in
the past or might potentially have in the future.
Check the box: ■ A ■ B
Please review the next two answers and select one of them in answering the question: “Why did you buy this book?” C. Because this book gives detailed steps in the
consultative selling process.
Or
D. Because this book give alternatives or options to include in the way I sell.
Check the box: ■ C ■ D
Please review the next two answers and select one of them in answering the question: “Why did you buy this book?” E. I just knew this was the right book for me.
Or
F. Other people told me about the book and that is why I bought it.
Check the box: ■ E ■ F
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Now discover your decision tree algorithm for buying this book:
A. You are the kind of person who is motivated by
the Carrot and move towards pleasure and
possibility. You want to obtain goals and
objectives.
B. The stick motivates you because you want to
move away from pain or possible pain. “Away
from” people want to eliminate and avoid
problems from happening.
C. You like to follow the rules. If there is a procedure to follow … you follow it.
D. There is always a better way and you like finding it. Option people like being innovative and trying alternative ways of accomplishing the objectives.
E. You just know when a decision is right. Internal people rely on their own internal criteria and
focus on what they want.
F. Feedback from other people helps you in the
decision-making process. Externals can be overly
concerned with what others will think.
Does this make sense to you?
Does the explanation fit?
Is this how you come up with other like decisions?
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Circle your preferences in the following statements to better understand your decision-making algorithm for buying this book:
I bought this book to:
(A) help me achieve my goals, or
(B) get away from problems I have been having.
Because it gave me:
(C) procedures and st