Let me say something you’re not going to like: If a buyer truly needed
your solution they would have either bought it already or resolved their
problem already.
David Sandler called the buyer’s need ‘Pain.’ But think about it:
If you broke your arm, would you wait weeks/months/years to get it fixed?
Of course not. So how can buyers wait to resolve their need when it’s so
obvious (to us, of course) that using our solution would create a state of
excellence that they are not experiencing?
Because of their system. The system that has created the ‘need’ is
the same system that is holding it in place. Think about any extra weight
you might have, or your inability to stop smoking, or your reluctance to
work out as much as you know you should, or eat healthier. You’ve been
talking about managing those issues for…for how long?? SOOO why aren’t
you? You have the need, right? You have the “pain,” right? What’s the
deal?
You will change – just like your buyer – when the system you live in
(your work hours, your family issues, your identity and ego issues) is
willing to be or do something different. Having a great gym near-by, having
great clothes a size smaller, having a doc tell you you must shape up –
none of those things are enough to get you to change (or you would have).
Unfortunately, sales only manages the need/solution part of a buyer’s
buying decision, and has no tool kit to help the buyer recognize and manage
the off-line, behind-the-scenes issues that must be addressed before the
system is willing to make a change. Is the other department ready to bring
in a new X? What about the old vendor? How will the team know how to choose
between resolving This problem or That?
Sales doesn’t manage those issues. But decision facilitation does:
Buying Facilitation® is a change management, decision facilitation model
that is NOT SALES but is a model sellers can use to help buyers recognize
and manage their internal issues in order to insure buy-in for change. Just
like you won’t lose weight, or work out more, or eat healthier unless you
have internal buy-in (we don’t make decisions to change based on good
data, or someone else’s opinion), so buyers won’t buy until they know
that their system will remain intact and healthy after the addition of the
new solution.
Buyers will buy when the team buys-in to adding something new and getting
rid of the old, when it’s clear the regular vendor can’t do the fix,
when the other departments know how they are going to work alongside of the
new solution. Sales doesn’t handle these issues, causing us to wait
forever for buyers to decide, or to lose really good prospects that seemed
a good fit.
Have a look at some chapters in my new book
[http://newsalesparadigm.com/salepage/dirty-little-secret.php] Dirty Little
Secrets coming out October 15. I hope you like them. In addition, I’ll be
doing a book launch for the entire week, with podcasts, radio shows, guest
bloggers, etc. and wonderful freebies from good friends like
[http://www.vitoselling.com/] Tony Parinello,
[http://www.sellingtobigcompanies.com/] Jill Konrath,
[https://crm.hr.com//en?i=1116423256281&s=&t=/Default/openExternalURL&url=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbGVubWFqZXIuY29tLw%3D%3D"] Alen Majer, [http://www.annemiller.com/] Anne
Miller, and [http://www.speakingcircles.com/] Lee Glickstein.
How would you know that adding a new skill set would help you get the
results you deserve? Stay tuned!
