Manage the sale, don’t just make it

The sales model does needs assessment and solution placement. It does not manage the entire sale. Buyers go inside, privately, and do whatever it is they do amonst themselves, and then…. and then… and then they either return or they go somewhere else or they do nothing. Of course we have absolutely no idea what they do.

The statistics I’ve heard say that 20% of buyers who are already in the pipeline ‘make no decision’ and 30% chose another vendor. How we know those numbers I don’t know and I suspect someone made them up. But there is no such thing as ‘making no decision.’ No decision is a decision. Or a decision that isn’t the one you were hoping for. I’m also suspect that sellers close as many as 50% of those in the pipeline. We’re not even going to get into how many prospects they went through just to get to their pipeline!

Here are a few questions for you to think about when you consider the possibility of managing the entire sale, and remember: using the sales model, you cannot be inside with the buyer when they go through their internal shenanigans, have their meetings and fights, talk with regular vendors, discuss with business partners. So given you can’t sell while they are doing their thing (that’s what we sit and wait for, remember?), I’d like you to have a think about what you CAN do (Of course, Buying Facilitation® is the answer, so let’s see if you can get there with just a little help :) from me…):

What would you need to know or believe differently to be willing to use ’selling’ as your second step and first direct traffic to the change issues buyers must address on their way to deciding anything?

For those who believe you’re  ’in control’, how would you know that you are not managing the entire sale now and are at risk of losing each sale because you have no control over the off-line issues buyers manage privately?

As buyers must do this stuff anyway (and they don’t know what they are going to do until it hits them in the face – they really, really need your help), what’s stopping you from being willing to add a different/new skill set to the one you’re already using? I mean really, really different.

What would you need to know to believe that you could bring about 3x more prospect who close in half the time is very viable (tested and proven) when Buying Facilitation® is added as a skill to the front end of sales? And how would you know before you decide to learn it that you would be able to have that success?

What is it about the sales model that creates money objections, closing problems, and differentiation issues? And what would you need to do differently to have your prospects behave differently – with no objections, closing in half the time, and no other vendors being considered?

How would you know that it is very very possible to manage the buying decision from the first moment of consideration, through the internal shenanigans, through the buy-in issues and change management issues, to the solution and vendor choice – and not be in the dark while waiting for your pipeline to close? And not sell at all?

How much would your manager love you if you were able to tell him/her exactly when your prospect will close – and not lose any to ‘no decision’ or other vendor choice?

Just asking.

sd

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