How to succeed in a disruptive landscape

TONY HUGHES explains how agile selling is the key to succeeding in a new disruptive landscape

Agility in business has become a buzzword in recent years. Increased disruption – driven by technology, stronger competition and cost cutting – is fuelling the need for organisations to become agile in all areas. Against this backdrop, agility in sales may seem like a new, trendy concept. In reality, effective sales professionals have always been agile, not least when it comes to winning complex sales.

Why? Fundamentally, because no two customers are alike. Customers’ needs are wide and varied, influenced by their own goals and those of their colleagues in the decision-making unit (DMU) and the organisation at large. And the product or service requirements a customer started out with can change as they progress through the buying cycle. To be persuasive and engaging from customer to customer, to be able to create and articulate value – not just for the person in front of you but for everyone involved in the DMU – while always keeping tabs on shifting ground, requires agility. Here are the key skills you need, and drills to adopt, to stay agile. Active listening Every customer’s perception of what agile looks like can be different. Finding this out is essential if the salesperson is to respond effectively. It’s not something that can be asked. And it’s not something most customers would think about in depth either, so may find hard to explain. The salesperson has to work it out. The first essential skill in sales agility is therefore listening. It means really digesting the words the customer uses and how they choose to communicate their thoughts.

Years ago, a not-for-profit organisation had problems with its fundraising team. It talked about having poor performers, average performers and “primadonnas”, using a pejorative term to describe the high performers. It became clear that the charity had no culture of working with commercially successful people, so had difficulty communicating with its own high performers. That one piece of active listening, and the insight it gave, was all it took to find the right solution. Flexible verbal behaviour As well as deeply understanding how the customer is using language, skilled salespeople are equally careful when choosing the words they use. It’s often unconscious. Many effective salespeople can’t tell you what it is that makes them successful or they ascribe their success to something that, on closer inspection, isn’t actually what they do. It’s what we call the perception gap or unconscious competence. Research shows us that perception gaps are much narrower for skilled salespeople, as they are fully aware of the language they use.

The good news is you can train people to

become more aware of their language and narrow that gap themselves. Even better, as people become more self-aware, they can make choices and adapt their verbal behaviour to become more effective. We call it flexible verbal behaviour and it’s the key to success in every verbal business interaction. Questioning skills Salespeople cannot be agile in meeting their customer’s precise needs, concerns and desired outcomes without an in-depth understanding of what these are. Gaining that understanding needs rigour. When it comes to questioning, a seller must develop a systematic, consistent, structured approach. Our own SPIN Selling model is an example of such a methodology.

Value and risk are important considerations in the decision to buy, but they are perceptions first and foremost. The customer’s perception is what counts. They have to work it out and know it for themselves, but the seller can help them reach a conclusion by asking insightful questions about the problems they face, the consequences of not solving them, and the benefits of using the seller’s solution. That enables the customer to communicate the value of the product or service to the rest of the DMU in a much more compelling way. There’s a huge difference between “The salesperson told me we’d save…” and “I’ve worked out we’d save…” Knowledge Before a sales professional asks more questions, it’s crucial to know what to ask. Knowing the right background information on the customer will help. Information such as the problems the customer may be experiencing that your product can solve, and particularly where you know you can solve it better than the competition, is useful. So are general trends or industry developments that may be driving the purchase decision. Confidence There is little that impresses potential customers more than the calm, assured demeanour of a genuinely confident salesperson. A confident seller develops trust, provides reassurance and enhances their and their company’s reputation as well as the customer’s experience. Confidence enables the salesperson to explore the customer’s needs and offer ideas in the most persuasive manner. Confidence cannot be learned, but has to be gained, and there is no better way of gaining it than by being fluent in a sales methodology that works. Investing in high quality sales training is usually wise. Understanding the customer’s strategy Customer organisations can be complicated things, with any number of challenges that need addressing and invariably not enough resources. Whatever is closest to the customer’s strategic

TONY HUGHES is CEO of Huthwaite International, a leading global provider of sales, negotiation and communication skills development. Visit www. huthwaiteinternational.com priorities is what matters most. If the client company has a defined and universally accepted business strategy that lies at the heart of every decision it makes – and all good companies do – it’s vital sellers understand it too. They must have the skills and knowledge to uncover and understand their customer’s business strategy. By aligning solutions to strategy, sellers will maximise the chances of their project being allocated the resources to close the deal. Considering the whole customer DMU Current research suggests that, on average, there are at least six people involved in a B2B buying decision – with varying, and possibly conflicting, needs, decision criteria, and enthusiasm about the project and each of the potential suppliers. How does the salesperson manage that? It requires a deep understanding of the role each person has in making the decision (which, incidentally, may have nothing to do with their job title) and a clear strategy to address each one (even if you don’t meet them all in person). Negotiating So, you invest in sales training, develop your team’s skills, strategies and confidence and give them the knowledge they need to do an outstanding job. And they do. They accurately assess the customer’s view of agility, build both value and clear competitive differentiation, present a persuasive case for your solution and effectively manage the complexities of the buying organisation. You’ve ticked all the boxes – the users love your proposal and your company has signed it off. So the deal’s yours, right?

Wrong. Now you must face procurement – the professional buyer. It’s time to negotiate. It’s procurement’s job to tell you they like your proposal but they can get the same thing 20% cheaper elsewhere, and what can you do? Of course, what they’ve told you isn’t always true. If they can really get it 20% cheaper, and it really is the same thing, they’d have bought it from someone else. They want to do a deal with you but they want better terms. They claim it’s a buyer’s market and they have all the power, but that’s not true either. Unless it’s an entirely frivolous purchase they have to buy from someone. But that won’t stop them from doing everything they can to get the cost down, even to the point of devaluing your proposition.

They are experienced negotiators. Are your sellers equally familiar with the process? If not, they should be. Negotiation skills are the final weapon in the agile salesperson’s armoury. And don’t think you can cut corners by just training the sales managers to negotiate and sending in these big guns at the close. Buyers love that – because the only thing a manager can do that a salesperson can’t is give more concessions.