John Holland, Chief Content Officer, CustomerCentric Selling® – The Sales Training Company
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As sellers become competent they realize that to do their jobs, beyond selling to prospects and customers they also have selling that needs to be done within their organizations. Rather than hoping a buyer will choose to spend money, sellers may instead be hoping someone in their management team will provide something needed to realize favorable outcomes in account situations. It could be support, resources, terms, conditions, pricing concessions, etc.
After sales executives attend CCS® public sales training workshops to evaluate our process, I’m been surprised more than a few times by people that wanted to move forward. They’d just spent 3+ days being shown techniques to ask buyers questions because most people don’t want to be told what to do. With all that behind them, many say: “I’m going to tell the CEO/CFO we need to do this.” My suggestion is that they try to determine what benefits implementing sales process can be realized and relate potential value before asking for funding.
Competent sellers often get sloppy when “selling” within their organizations by just telling what they want. A potentially better way is to start by supplying background information and gaining agreement that the points raised are valid. It allows the person you’re talking with to evaluate the impact/value of granting your request and can empower them to do so.
As competing sellers vie for budget/funding with prospects, so it is that sellers compete for internal resources. Those that express their needs in ways that show how revenue can be impacted will have a better chance of getting what they want. In doing so, they also arm managers to explain/defend their decisions to give you resources.
Help the person making the decision realize what’s at stake and the potential benefit of agreeing to your request.
