Impact Advantage Sales Navigator by Impact Advantage

SALES

NAVIGATOR

NAVIGATING CUSTOMER MOTIVES - Both Obvious and Hidden REPORT FROM THE FIELD:

“Our investment in training sales people has produced increased sales, increased deal size and happier customers. I feel like we have just scratched the surface.”

THE BUYER SELLER TRAP

- Bill Simmons, Distinguished Business Leader and Community Advocate, Billings, MT

Dealing with Challenging Situations

Joe Thomas Founding Partner

BUYERS AND SELLERS Advanced Sellers and Sales Leaders have placed a high value on what you are about to discover by reading the very Sales Navigator you have in your hands now. • Sales Leaders have shared stories of immediate positive impact on top line sales results after implementing the new Sales Star™ Approach. • Sellers say the Sales Star™ Approach is both different and highly intuitive. • Participants have raved that the methods are very easy to use and memorable long after the sessions have ended and the retention tools are superb. • Organizations have pivoted and committed to raising their FOCUS in every aspect of communications. They’ve seen results immediately. • Virtually every adopter has said that engaging with Impact Advantage for sales communication training was hands down, a great investment for their teams and their own clients. Keep reading and it is likely that you will also experience the same immediate and powerful results.

The Buyer/Seller Dysfunction Collectively, Buyers are 60% down their buying cycle before they engage a sales professional. In addition, 60% of THOSE opportunities end in the dreaded “No Decision”. Today’s informed Buyers often think they know enough on their own to make a good buying decision. To be fair, they are, in fact, more informed than ever before. When they do engage with a sales person, they often limit the conversation to “Give me the quick summary and your best price.”

Sound familiar? They find little value when Sellers try to tell them why their offering is better or different. They think it’s just sales ‘puffery’ and let’s face it, everybody tells them pretty much the same thing. Because of their false confidence in their ability to buy well (because they searched online), the only differentiator the Buyer sees between you and your competitors is price. With price as the only target, some Buyers have professional teams that do nothing but drive price down. You might know

these teams as the Procurement Department, aka the Sales Prevention Department.

What is the Seller to do? Sellers feel more pressure than ever to begin with a promise of price competitiveness. Some even ask their clients, “Where do we need to price this to win the deal?” Yikes! Many companies are trapped in an endless loop attempting to develop the perfect USP or performing never-ending marketing promotions hoping to squeeze out even a trickle of new leads. Still others are scouring the web and social media for personal tidbits about their Buyers and filling out forms and action plans. These Sellers can then tell their bosses just how busy they are (and they have the proof, lots of data). Even when this flurry of activity generates a chance meeting, Sellers are inevitably faced with Buyers as described above. I don’t have to tell you that Professional Selling is hard work. Here’s the question: What are you going to do differently? Not, what are you going to do more of? What are you going to do differently?

TODAY’S BUYER REALITY Today’s informed Buyers want value from everything. Product expertise is not enough and worse than that, it’s not what they’re after. Buyers can get loads of product details online and that’s what most do. Buyers want domain expertise. Buyers value Sellers that understand their business, their industry, the markets that they serve and trends that impact that space. According to recent research from Sales Benchmark Index, 87% of meetings with buying executives don’t result in a follow-up meeting. Your numbers may vary. Even if you’re doing better than average, odds are that it’s harder today than in previous years. What does that mean for your business? Here’s a shocker. Buyers don’t crave discussions about your products even if they often start the conversation with some variant of “tell me what it is you do” or “why is your product different or better” or “what’s your best price.” Even when they ask you about you they don’t really want to know about you. Find this hard to believe? Read on. Most Buyers have Low FOCUS. To illustrate, suppose a Buyer is shopping for drill bits. What would they ask the sales person to help them buy? Drill bits. Buyers don’t want drill bits. They want holes. More importantly, they want a hole for a reason. The reasons are usually far removed from the drill bits and rarely discovered by the untrained sales person. Sellers have conditioned Buyers to focus on products, features and benefits. Buyers, in turn, have been conditioned to discuss the same. This is dysfunctional Buying and Selling.

There’s a place in the Buyer’s Decision Cycle™ where the Information Exchange transitions to a Financial Exchange. This is the place that Sellers dream of getting to and for many, a challenging place to arrive. This place is called The Altar™. At The Altar™, relationships are formed that you hope will last a lifetime or offerings (and the sales people that brought them) get sacrificed. The key is to arrive at The Altar™ not be placed upon The Altar™. Sales is not a race and yet many sales people try to get to The Altar™ as quickly as possible. This is evidenced when the Seller talks about price, product or proposals far too early and in way too much detail. Watch out! This is exactly what will get you and your offering placed on The Altar™! Pre-mature Altar talk produces: • Runaway Brides and Grooms (no decision). • Lots of Prayer and Hope (not an effective strategy). • Sacrifice (Sellers and their Offerings lost forever). • Sales dialogue that sounds like other sales dialogue (price becomes the only differentiator). Sellers and customers must earn the right to be at The Altar™ (discussing terms and/or placing the order). That means an information exchange that supports a Buying Decision™ has to take place first. The right to proceed to The Altar™ is earned when the Buyer recognizes a value greater than the price and has confidence that the Seller can deliver this value. This is a challenge for most because during a great Information Exchange, both Buyer and Seller tend to get excited and then they rush to The Altar™ prematurely. Effective Professional Sellers guide the conversation at the right pace for the right sale vs. the wrong pace for the quick and often missed sale.

To get the most value, Buyers should be FOCUSED on their desired outcomes. Understanding and FOCUSING on their reasons for buying would be even better. Most Buyers don’t. Instead, they have been conditioned to focus on the drill bit. Customers also don’t want discussions with Sellers about “pain points.” Deeply engaging in that type of discussion is simply covering ground the Buyer has already covered – with your competition. Buyers want to cover new ground. They want mature, balanced conversations that educate, challenge and help them make informed decisions without the fear of being “closed”.

THE BUYER SELLER TRAP Too many Sellers sound like too many other Sellers in their space. They talk non-stop about product, proposals and price. Because these patterns are so common, Buyers fall into a pattern that matches. The repetitive nature of these sales conversations leave many Buyers reluctant to have any sales conversations at all. Instead they say “Just send us your price”. Recently, some Sellers told us they were asked to “Just text the price”. Ouch!

There is a better way.

Think of a large, considered purchase you have made in the past. It may have been a home, a car, or a service for your business. As you think back to your buying experience, would you say that you bought because a great sales person Targeted you, Qualified you, Closed you and now Manages you? You would hardly describe your experience like this and you’re not alone. No one ever describes their buying experience this way. So, if that’s the case, why are most sales people taught to sell this way?

Sellers can rise above the fray and their Buyers can have meaningful conversations that add value. Not down the road, not in a little while, now!

Think of your own CRM system or the sales training you’ve been through. Don’t they describe sales stages in this way? These are the very steps in the classic “Sales Cycle”.

Sellers can expect: • An increase in win rates. • Accelerated Buyer Decision Cycles™. • Increased confidence that both Seller and Buyer will have an effective business conversation that leads to action.

Here’s the kicker. The way most sales people, including you and I, have been taught to sell is outdated, problematic and in some instances, just plain wrong.

I like being Targeted, Qualified, Closed and Managed… Said No One… EVER!!! copyright Joe Thomas

TRUE CUSTOMER FOCUS The Illusion of Customer FOCUS The great enemy of Customer FOCUS is the illusion of Customer FOCUS. Our research shows that sales leaders and sales persons rate their level of Customer FOCUS very high. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who rates their Customer FOCUS lower than a 7 on a 10 point scale. How would you rate your own or your company’s Customer FOCUS? For clarity, let’s define Customer FOCUS as the desire to measurably improve your customers’ business condition. Isn’t that what you’re in business to do? Consider the drill bit metaphor discussed earlier. There are millions of ¼ inch drill bits sold every year to Buyers that don’t want drill bits. What do they really want? Buyers really want ¼ inch holes. The drill bit is just a tool to achieve a specific outcome – the hole in this instance. Knowing that the outcome your customer wants is a ¼ inch hole is higher Customer FOCUS than thinking they want to buy a ¼ inch drill bit. And yet, isn’t the drill bit what most sales people spend their limited time talking about? Let’s go further. The customer wants the ¼ inch hole for a

reason. What’s the reason (the motive) for creating the hole? Why do they want a ¼ inch hole? To hang a picture, to assemble furniture; a host of reasons. Most sales people never understand their customers’ motives; their reasons. Sellers have traditionally been taught to look at sales from their own perspective (Target, Qualify, Close, Manage). Most sales on-boarding programs focus on products, services and solutions (aka the ¼ inch drill bits) and why theirs is better, different, faster or otherwise unique. What about your own sales people? Where’s their FOCUS? What do they sell? • High FOCUS = Reason, motives of the Buyer. • Medium FOCUS = ¼ inch hole. • Low FOCUS = ¼ inch drill bit. Think about your response to the following question for a moment. When asked by a potential Buyer, “Why should I do business with you?” What is the first response that pops into your head? Got your response? Was the response about the client or did it include the word “We” or “I”? If your response was self-referencing, you might have lower Customer FOCUS than you think.

A BETTER WAY A New and Highly Effective Alternative Ask yourself, in the mind of the customer, whose opinions and beliefs carry the most weight, the sales person’s or the customer’s own? Conversations that guide customers to uncover THEIR motives - expressed or otherwise, is where the sales person and their client will enjoy a competitively distinct experience. What comes out of Sellers’ mouths is critical. What comes out of the Buyers’ mouths is even more critical. Effective Sellers guide conversations to positive outcomes. All your investments in brand, marketing, quality and customer service become secondary to the Human to Human (H2H™) experience. Many forward-thinking sales teams are turning to a new and highly effective sales communication and conversation approach that aligns all your company resources - marketing, sales, product management, engineering, delivery, etc.

These progressive teams are moving to a Higher Customer FOCUS. When your organization increases customer, industry, and trend FOCUS, AMAZING happens. In a High FOCUS conversation, your customers will quickly engage with your sales people to discover value that they may have never even been aware of. Discovering insights into customer buying motives is the new, cutting edge communication framework and methodology that will allow you to focus on crucial mindsets, conversations, discovery (inquiry and understanding), writing and presentation skills. Discovering motive helps your Sellers and your employees to understand your customers and their stakeholders’ needs and beliefs. Once motive is ascertained, you will be well equipped to deliver in a way that exceeds the customer’s expressed and unexpressed needs. This is true differentiation.

NAVIGATING CUSTOMER MOTIVE Sales leaders are raising the FOCUS and shifting their sales people’s mindsets away from selling drill bits to uncovering and selling to customer outcomes and motives. They are exposing their sales people to a powerful new communication skill that helps Sellers effectively navigate the “tell me how you’re different” or “what’s your best price” traps. A2-I2 ™ stands for “Answer or Advise Appropriately (A2), Inquire Immediately (I2)”, A2-I2™ helps sales people guide

Low FOCUS communication to a Higher state. For Example:

Customer: “What’s your best price?” Sales person (A2-I2™): [A2] “You could invest as little as X and as much as Y. [I2] Help me to understand what you’re trying to achieve with this initiative.” A2-I2™ helps the sales person to guide the conversation

and keep the FOCUS High for the duration of the dialogue. In fact, salespeople tell us this simple tool is different and highly effective. A2-I2™ is a powerful tool that you can

use to immediately increase your Buyer’s engagement. To see how quickly and easily you can do this today, visit this link– http://goo.gl/cHGPBS or simply scan the QR Code to see a short video. “Pain and Gain” are over-used and underperforming. It’s not enough. 8 Lines of Inquiry™ are required to fully expose Buyer Motive.

It’s true that customers are motivated to move away from Pain and towards Gain. If your sales people are still using some variant of “So, tell me your pain points?” or “What keeps you up at night?”, they’re likely being labeled “Vendor” or “Sales” and then treated accordingly (shields up). It can also be tough for sales people in a new relationship to begin with a pain-based conversation since the relationship is not mature enough for the Buyer to feel safe openly sharing all of their challenges. In that case, many Sellers turn to Gain and ask: “What are your goals?” What happens when a prospective customer shares that they have no pains and that they’re on track to achieve their goals? Most sales people assume there is ‘no opportunity’ and give up since they have nowhere else to go. What if Sellers had an additional 6 lines of motive to pursue? Motives that your competitor’s sales people don’t explore and motives that the Buyer has probably not even considered. Having an additional 6 lines of inquiry to explore provides sales people and customers with more options to uncover customer motive and value. It’s a conversation that customers and executives want, appreciate and reward. Buyers will see your sales people as Trusted Advisors and recognize additional desired outcomes. This naturally connects your customers’ business desires to you and your company’s offerings. Your client wins more and so do you.

IMPACT ADVANTAGE PROGRAMS Sales Stars™ - The Art of Discovering Customer Motives Impact Advantage™ is a Sales Communications Provider. You will receive highly interactive learning and coaching experiences for your Professional Sellers. The goal and intent is to help advanced Sellers communicate consciously, deliberately, and with purpose.

1. Participants are challenged with the importance of High FOCUS. 2. With a change in FOCUS comes a change in language. 3. Participants will use relevant examples from interactions with their Buyers. The results: • Increased sales effectiveness and top line revenue growth. • Increased customer satisfaction. • Improved employee morale and engagement. • Increased alignment and accelerated execution of corporate goals and projects through reduced guesswork, roadblocks and politics.

FOCUS Model™ • •

Introduce The FOCUS Model™ and raise awareness of the importance of High FOCUS. Set the stage for the High FOCUS Challenge and give participants a first look at the 8 possible motives/ incentives that a Buyer might have.

A2-I2™ • •

Introduce A2-I2™, the tool that allows Sellers to sustain High FOCUS conversations with the Buyer. Introduce Directive Statements™ and apply the tool to real responses Sellers receive from Buyers.

Email Advantage™ •

Introduce Email Advantage™ utilizing BOOSTS™, Credible Voices™, sentence and word order, and a call to action. Participants use their own REAL emails to practice and apply this new learning.

Decision Cycle™ Participants are introduced to the Decision Cycle™ and are provided further evidence that the old Sales Cycle is outdated and Low Focus. Participants learn to identify their biggest competitor.

C.E.O.™ •

C.E.O.™ stands for Clarify, Explore, and Outcome. These are types of inquiry that expose the Buyer’s world. Effective inquiry allows both Buyer and Seller to discover the wants and needs of the Buyer.

Sales Stars™ •

•

The Sales Star™ Model illustrates the eight possible motives of Buyers. This is the ultimate tool that enables participants to move from Inquiry to Insight to Incentive! Participants are challenged to take real responses from their Buyers and guide the discussion (using A2-I2™ and C.E.O.™) into all 8 lines of the Sales Stars™. Handling objections, especially price objections, is a common topic that participants are eager to talk about. Multiple techniques are introduced and then practiced using real Buyer objections that the participants commonly face.

Conclusion and Q&A •

A quick overview of the session followed by Questions and Answers. Follow-up support to reinforce the learning is discussed.

YOUR RESULTS At the end of the day, there’s nothing new under the sun in sales…or is there? Sales Professionals who have adopted this new and unique approach would share that it makes them hyper-aware of their own communication behavior and that of their customers. This awareness provides them with new choices and the opportunity to apply skills that create competitively distinct value for their customers and the enterprise. Their sales people don’t sound like everyone else. They sound line no one else. They stand out.

Does this approach work? Ask our clients. • • • • • •

One company experienced an 8 x increase in executive appointments within 1 month. A client services team went from contributing 12% of sales to 46% in 8 months. After 1 meeting, a new sales person won a $250,000 order, beating out the entrenched incumbent. During one course a participant received a rejection letter from their client. They successfully saved the lost sale. One Seller shared that he had sent multiple emails over multiple months into what he described as a black hole client. Within 60 minutes he had an appointment with that client. A client in a very competitive situation was awarded a sole-source deal at an investment nearly 4X the RFP.

These stories amazed their owners and us too. Stories like these are on the rise and yours should be among them.

So, what if… •

You already have a sales method or sales training provider. Many of our clients use traditionally popular sales methods from many sales training companies. They choose Impact Advantage to supplement an existing approach because it allows them to maximize their ongoing investment and turbo charge the effectiveness of their current methods.

•

You’re waiting to see if the sales training you just did starts producing results. If you haven’t seen immediate results from the trainning you’ve done, something is wrong. If the results aren’t significant, something is wrong. Waiting a few more months won’t suddenly make it better. You will have wasted the potential to improve top-line results and enhance customer engagement.

•

Your Sales Kick-off isn’t for another few months. If you’re experiencing under-performance in your sales team, now is the time to do something about it. Waiting several months for the official sales kick-off could mean that you miss your number. Can you afford to wait?

WORK WITH US Everybody Sells

This stuff works!

Teachers, Artists, Engineers, Musicians, Bankers, everyone (including, of course, Sales Professionals). Some do it better than others.

Applying the Sales Star™ approach, makes your team different. Most sales training programs are more concerned with process activities such as planning sales calls and doing follow up; what one might call busy work. With Impact Advantage, your team will learn to employ Advanced Sales Communication to have an effective sales conversation via the spoken and written word. These advanced communications techniques will expand beyond the borders of the sales realm.

You’re here for a reason. You want to improve. The best in any field of endeavor do something that the average do not. They work at their craft, they practice, they learn and keep working at it. Opportunities are endless and most can’t recognize them as such because the opportunity is dressed in work clothes. Albert Gray, in the Common Denominator of Success said, “The secret of success of every person who has ever been successful --- lies in the fact that they formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.” He said that in 1940 and it’s worth repeating. OK, we have some work to do. Let me paraphrase an old idea. The ability to work is a blessing, the opportunity to work is a privilege and the love of work is success. So let’s get at it. We’re serious about effective communication and our clients tell us they’re succeeding because the Impact Advantage™ approach is different. Our competitors promise “different” while our customers are capitalizing on it. Engage, and you will never communicate the same again with your clients. They will see you as different because you will, in fact, communicate differently. Your meetings, your emails even your voice messages will change and all of this will produce improved outcomes. Don’t take our word for it, don’t take our clients’ word for it. Put our promise to the test, hold our feet to the fire and you’ll be the one saying it.

Sales Star™ Participants Learn: • How to precisely FOCUS on client needs vs. just being told to be “consumer focused”. • How to GUIDE a business conversation even at the C-Suite level so that clients (Buyers) discover greater motive and value. • 8 primary lines of MOTIVE vs. standard Pain or Gain questions that most sales courses teach. • Specific skill sets that are easily implemented and proven to be immediately effective – in session (once mastered the positive effects only grow). • NEW sales skills that are not just a another spin on old ones. In addition, participants are able to recall and use specifics from the course long after the event. Participants and leaders see and report results immediately – in session. • The Sales Star™ approach offers more real measurable value than other methods. • Participants report getting meetings with executives who had previously not engaged, turning No Contact RFP’s into conversations, re-shaping deals, winning back lost deals, and closing “stuck” and “no decision” deals – in session! • Participants and leaders consistently say it is more real than other sales training. • Participants report that the tools are easier to learn and apply than other methods. • Leaders see that participants love using the tools to prepare for client conversations – they’re “sticky”.

If you would like to take a look at what may be possible for you and your organization, follow this link http://goo.gl/maJ5IZ or call us directly at 888-308-4804.

YOU TOO MAY SAY… “This approach has elevated the conversations between my sales team and our clients. These higher value conversations have caused our clients to see greater value in our offerings. The result: a structured, teachable process that has led to larger deal sizes and a faster path to yes/no. Most importantly, the approach has created happier, more engaged clients and sales people.”

– Brett Buras, Executive Vice President Sales, iDatix

“I will definitely leverage this e-mail and the tool cards moving forward. In fact, I was able to secure both a conference call and an on-site meeting in the last two days – with a customer who has been so reluctant to meet with us directly because of their ties with one of our partners. On the call, the buyer spoke so much (because of Direct Statements™) – he wanted to talk much more… in person. Looking forward to seeing you back soon!”

– Nikki M., Inside Sales, Fortune 100 company

“I have a specific customer who had been a real challenge for me and although I continued to provide what I thought was quality service, competitive pricing and great support. The problem was it was all based on my thinking. by using the IA approach I discovered what my client was thinking and that made all the

difference. I broke through the barrier and have been his only call ever since.”

– Matthew Kittel - Account Manager, McNaughton-McKay

“Having been through many different sales strategies/sales training methodologies over the years I felt compelled to speak out. Having been selling complex business solutions to large enterprises for almost a decade in North America (and many years prior to that in Europe and APAC) I had slipped into somewhat of a rut and felt on the fringe of a burn out. The Impact Advantage methodology has completely reinvigorated my career and creative passion in my approach to business that had waned significantly over the years. I want to extend my gratitude to you and your team for the IMPACT your training has had on me personally (not forgetting the value it will bring to my clients and their businesses). Kind regards, Dean.”

– Dean Bearman - Account Executive, ESKER

“Impact Advantage exceeded expectations. Many of the team members commented on how excited they are to implement the content to improve their results. I look forward to putting them into practice myself and turning the behaviors into habits.”

– Mike Hand - VP Sales, NN Inc.

TAKE A LOOK Today’s customers are more informed than ever before. They don’t want to talk with product sales people. They want to work with domain experts and trusted business advisors who are outcome-focused and who can make a measurable and positive impact. Traditional sales methods are failing to bridge this conversation chasm. The Sales Star™ method exceeds customer expectations and elevates Buyer/Seller conversations to a new level – generating a competitive advantage for sales organizations who practice and master it. The Sales Star™ method is the only sales communication system that deepens customer intimacy without using stale methods and so-called “sales tactics” that your customers have learned to see coming a mile away.

You will achieve an IMMEDIATE improvement in sales behaviors and an increase in sales results within 30 days or you pay us nothing!

Founder’s Message

I’m passionate about sales. For years, as a trainer, I have kept notebooks of experiences and challenges expressed by countless sales professionals from some of the world’s top organizations. I’ve always had the tendency to drift beyond the syllabus and test new selling ideas and methods. I firmly believe all selling methods that do not evolve become obsolete at some point. Today, a great deal of Sales Training is old and tired. Even though many are still using age-old methods, much of it has become obsolete. I must admit, I am what you might call a Content Junkie. I love the intellectual challenge of the Buyer/Seller dance. During a particular late-night review of one of my many notebooks, a peculiar pattern appeared that I had not noticed before. Unlike other times, the insight was bigger and more profound than anything I had previously observed. As I began to play with this new thinking, ideas of models, tools, methods and applications flooded my mind. I began to question and to rethink everything I’d ever learned about sales (literally EVERYTHING). The Sales Star approach was born. I began to share what I was learning. Participants reacted. Professional Sellers loved it; something clicked immediately with them. The feedback was instantly better than ever before. Then the success stories began to come in. They were quick to appear and they were far more than “closing a deal”. People were winning business AND their clients were getting more! Impact Advantage was created when I reached out to a Team that could help me share these disruptive ideas with the world. The teaching and our own application has improved dramatically thanks to the countless Sales Professionals that have adopted this process and shared their numerous success stories and insights. I’ve been a Sales Trainer, Sales Practitioner, and entrepreneur for decades. Never before have I experienced the level of positive results that I am seeing now from my clients and in my own company. This content has attracted top talent and top clients and continues to do so. If you’re just getting to know us, we are glad you’re here. Buckle up and let’s go for a fantastic ride! Even if we don’t do business, we may become friends. Let’s find out. Meet the Team at http://goo.gl/maJ5IZ or call me at 888-308-4804. To Your Success! Joe Thomas Founding Partner

info@ImpactAdvantage.com http://ImpactAdvantage.com