Burn baby burn

Prospect confused premium services with a process they need to invest in, which will address their pain and impact the big cost in their business in a positive way. “We don’t charge more than others because we offer extra things they don’t need,…we charge what is required to lower noise and risk to increase productivity and lower cost.” “That is what our value is.” We sell the right size of air conditioner to meet their needs, the problem is they have been so sweaty for such a long time they don’t know what cool and comfortable looks likes. It’s our job to show them what the business could be, what it could look like and to unleash your knowledge and experience. To realize and to share the benefits our other clients enjoy and what it means in being your client. You have to take the prospect into the future…to get them to visualize the benefits of your partnership. To visualize the gain in productivity, gain in competitiveness, the gain in being compliance. They got to feel the burn. Not necessarily ROI…While the rhetoric has cooled a bit, the ROI is still a clear topic of interest, the question still remains, “What return can I expect on my investment?” ROI has always been over stated and much less compelling and important to the decision making process than originally thought. Here’s the proof, when channel partners are asked “why they beat the competition?” Channel partners rating it easy to present an ROI business case ranked this capability ninth out of a dozen choices! So much for ROI sales training! Am I turning heads yet?? Does anyone really care? It doesn’t seem so. When the same group of channel partners were asked why they LOSE to competitors, ROI business case ranked even lower. Twelfth of twelve! Yet the momentum of the firms still planning to move further in this direction is great. Instead of being a differentiator, the ability to present a solid business case has become another of the increased standards routinely applied to all channel partners. Everyone does it. Thus there is no clear differentiator from one partner to the other. Value is defined well… the customer defines value. There may be a list of attributes that are important to the prospect other than ROI. It is the job of the sales person to discover what those are for each person involved in the decision making process. Part of the value may be undiscovered purchases criteria which the competitors have not discovered or recognized. May be much more than ROI.

A much more compelling conversation than ROI is needed. Of course if the value as defined by the prospect is the bottom line financial impact, you will need to discover that too. When looking at the winners in this area, they operate at a consultative level or above while the losers do not. Is it reasonable to think that the ease with which a rep can justify the purchase of the solution would help establish value in the mind of the prospect while establishing a more consultative dialogue? More importantly, are these attributes and abilities you’d like to see strengthened in your team? When asked about the areas in which improvement could increase the rep effectiveness in the coming year, proposal templates and business case samples came in eight place. My opinion, it’s easy to understand. The amount of discounting is a direct reflection of the business value the rep is able to build as defined by the prospect. If the sales rep cannot have the right business discussion with the right people within the business, the more discounting will be needed. Your rep forces the prospect to buy on price. There is no other recognized value for the prospect to make a decision with. If your only value is low price and good delivery, your market position isn’t good now and will get worse.

The missing link for the losers is the lack of a consultative sale model. The problem is however, the vast majority of channel partners don’t even know that looks like. So are you wondering if the defining, moving to, reinforcing, enforcing and continuously improving on a consultative sales process worth it? Let’s look at it this way,..think about other highly completive high pay off environments. How about sports and acting. There are millions of actors, how many make $20M per movie? Thousands of professional athletes, how many earn more than $20M per year? Your business is like that. This is a winner take most model. This is the vision of what the future holds for the selling profession. Firms will either ascend to a much high level as demanded by the market or be left to scrap in a race of the bottom with discounted pricing, lower customer loyalty and higher turnover. This has been going on for a long time. So how does a channel partner move up the ladder and continue to attain excellence? The consultative sales process is a major puzzle piece. Your sales force is your differentiator, both good and bad. The only way to add value is through your people and the only way to add value to your people is the right training. Remember each day your sales team skills are going either up or down relative to the competition. So what are you doing today to make sure your sales team is going up and not down? The bottom line…it doesn’t matter how many competitors you have in your area. What matters is that you don’t operate the same way as they do. If your sales effort is a true and powerful consultative model, you will grow and prosper while the others will come and go. Your value proposition will be different and more powerful, your business design will be better and your overall customer experience will be exponentially better.

Things to do now: Take the last couple of deals you lost, have your team bring them to your very next sales meeting. Ask questions with the LSP as your coaching guide. Why did you lose the opportunity? Were you talking to the right person, compelling IBS, effective questioning, able to separate yourself from the all competitors? Were you able to paint the picture for the prospect? Did you take them into the future? Use this as a learning opportunity for all. Look here’s the bottom line…you can stomp on the brakes and floor the gas pedal and you will burn the tires right to the rim (makes a lot of smoke, but not much forward motion will happen) (burn baby burn) or learn how to take your foot of the brakes and increase sales productivity. You want your total sales productivity to growth overnight; evaluate why you lost deals you should have earned. It can be just that easy.

Burn baby Burn! Today!