Selling strategically - summary of the open plan selling process

Selling strategically, using an open plan approach requires a lot of thought and expertise. The rewards are well worth the effort though - the sales person is seen more as an advisor, and the selling process becomes more of a co-operation and partnership, which is altogether much more of a professional and civilised way of doing business. Sales management methods which are aimed at increasing a sales team's strategic business development responsibilities, opportunities and capabilities (as entailed within the process of selling strategically), generally have good motivational effects on the sales people, because they enable personal growth, extra responsibility, and higher level achievements.

1. research and plan - market sector, prospect, and decide initial approach

2. make the appointment

3. attend appointment to build rapport and credibility, gather information about business needs, aims and process, and develop/agree a project/product/service specification

4. agree survey/audit proposal (normally applicable)

5. carry out survey/audit (normally applicable)

6. write product/service proposal

7. present proposal

8. negotiate/refine/adapt/conclude agreement

9. oversee fulfilment/completion

10. feedback/review/maintain ongoing relationship

collaboration, partnership selling and Buying Facilitation®

Selling through true collaboration, partnership and particularly Buying Facilitation® (Sharon Drew Morgen's excellent methodology) enables and assists the buying processes, and creates a sustainable platform for supplier and customer to work together. These new theories - and particularly Shaoron Drew Morgen's concept, represent the most advanced, effective and sustainable selling methodology today. This approach represents a selling philosophy, beyond skills and techniques, that is quite different to Seven Steps Of The Sale and other persuasive seller-oriented models. This modern sales ideology - particularly for large accounts and business-to-business - extends the open plan selling or strategically-based selling approaches, and to it adds organizational, facilitative and relationship elements that take selling to new heights of sophistication and competitive advantage.

Essential components of the new collaborative partnership selling model are:

· The sales person and selling organization possesses huge strategic understanding customer's business priorities, needs and market-place, and obviously how the product or service relates to these issues to produce or enable significant strategic benefit for the customer organization.

· The sales person is likely to be a specialist in, and with huge knowledge of, a chosen market sector, vertical or horizontal.

· The selling organization is able to offer and manage multiple peer-to-peer relationships between selling organization and customer, covering all relevant functions and levels.

· The sales person will be able to use modern facilitative skills (notably 'Buying Facilitation®', as developed by Sharon Drew Morgen, the leading thinker and advocate of modern facilitative selling methods) in order to help the customer assess and react to the selling/buying process at all stages.

For more details about 'Buying Facilitation®' refer to the work of selling skills and sales training guru Sharon Drew Morgen, whose books on facilitative selling are essential reading for all modern professional sales people, managers and company directors. Morgen's 'Buying Facilitation®' methods dramatically change and improve key stages of the open plan selling and strategically-based selling methods, notably at qualifying stage (establishing early whether the opportunity is a real potential fit for customer and supplier); at rapport-building stage (genuinely helping the customer to find vital answers for him/herself, which becomes a massive competitive advantage), and throughout the questioning phase (during which the sales person becomes a facilitator and enabler for the customer - arguably an organizational development consultant - helping the buying process). Facilitative methods can also be reintroduced (as is often necessary) at any time during the later selling processes if the situation begins to drift from the agreed purpose, or if communications or understanding are interrupted or obstacles are encountered. These techniques - pioneered by sales guru Sharon Drew Morgen - are subtle and yet fundamental. Learn more about Sharon Drew Morgen and buy her new book called Buying Facilitation® at her website. You can also see and download three sample chapters from her Buying Facilitation® e-book free. (Buying Facilitation® is a trademark of Sharon Drew Morgen.)

The 'facilitative' process (notably that associated with Sharon Drew Morgen's methodology) typically occurs during the early stages of whatever organisational sales process that the sales person uses or the sales training conventionally teaches, however the principles can be revisited and used at any time necessary during the selling engagement.

It must be noted however that Sharon Drew's Morgen's Buying Facilitation® is not a technique to add to conventional selling methods for the purpose of 'persuading' or 'influencing' the other person.

The integration of 'facilitative' methods within the traditional selling process must be accompanied by the appropriate change in philosophy and 'mind-set'.

Modern selling should not focus on persuasion and influence. Modern selling should focus on helping the other person (and other people involved with the buying decision) to identify their decision-making criteria, and to align the relevant elements within their organisation or system or network, so as to assess options, actions, outcomes, etc., so as then to decide and implement the best way forward.

Please bear this in mind when considering the following, which seeks to incorporate modern 'facilitative' selling ideas within traditional selling frameworks.

The planning and preparation stage (step 1 in the 'seven steps) would then logically include planning and preparation of the facilitative approach - particularly the preparation of carefully constructed 'facilitative questions', aimed mainly at helping the buyer to assess the situation, understand the issues, opportunities, viability of proceeding further, internal priorities, communications and decision-making aspects, etc.

In this way, according to Morgen (and she is absolutely correct), the sales person is acting as a 'trusted advisor'. It's a significant change of mind-set for the sales person, and for all those involved in sales training: genuinely helping people, rather than seeing the 'sale' as the priority. The sale becomes an outcome of helping the other person, instead of being a course of action that results from influence or persuasion.

The 'facilitative' process can be re-introduced by the sales-person whenever the subsequent selling processes falters or threatens to go off track.

As such these modern ideas - of facilitation especially - are not extra stages to be 'bolted-on' or added to traditional earlier selling or sales training structures; they are instead a methodology or philosophy which can be woven into traditional processes.

For example, the traditional 'seven steps of the sale', updated for the 21st century, with facilitative methodology added, might nowadays look like:

the (seven) steps of the sale augmented with 'facilitative' methods:

1. Planning and/or preparation - Preparation of facilitative questions is crucial. So is doing some related research, to avoid wasting time asking about things that can be discovered before the introduction (and which would waste your prospect's valuable time).

2. Introduction or opening - Importantly use facilitative questions, and/or refer to facilitative principles where possible, instead of using old-style 'pushy' statements.

3. Questioning - Obviously use facilitative questions - help to reveal the buying criteria, the buying system, what's missing, obstacles, decision-making factors, etc - to help the buyer, not to gain 'leverage' the sales-person. Crucially questioning must aim to help the buyer understand his/her own issues and way forward.

4. Presentation or proposition - The approach must be to explain and convey helpful information, rather than 'pushing' benefits. Crucially ensure that information/explanation is provided in the different formats/ways that meet the needs of the buying system, which means considering carefully the type of material, level of detail, language, etc., so that communications are offered in ways that the buying system can easily absorb and understand it, and its various implications

5. Overcoming objections/negotiating - Use facilitative questioning and assist where required to shape the proposition to meet the needs of the buyer and buying system. Look for ways to help the buyer and buying system assess and adopt the proposition. If you find yourself having to overcome objections and persuade and influence at this stage then something has been done wrong earlier in the process (typically old-style 'push' methods have been used).

6. Close or closing - This must not be old style persuasive 'closing'. This should be modern collaborative and cooperative agreement, using facilitative help where appropriate. Complex buying systems often need a lot of help in arriving at good decisions. Rushing to a traditional sales close is to be avoided. Seek to enable a convergence of different interests within the buying system, in support of the buyer, rather than targeting and working for a single-point 'close'.

7. After-sales follow-up - Facilitate (and for large contracts 'project-manage' if necessary) the supply or fulfilment/delivery of products/services. Manage client-side and supplier-side people and systems. Assist the client's adoption of the sales solution. Continue to ask facilitative questions in solving problems arising, rather than 're-selling' or justifying issues that are not working properly. This involves plenty of internal selling (to your own organization) and ideally good project management skills. Good sales-people should continue to take full and ultimate responsibility for checking and ensuring proper sales follow-up in every respect, regardless of the fact that typically many supply issues are in theory outside of the sales-person's control.

The above sales process obviously entails a big investment on the part of the sales person, and the selling organisation. Deciding what opportunities warrant such investment is therefore an important part of the process - initially at preparation stage in understanding the depth and breadth and complexity and value of the opportunity, and also at the level of sales strategy in determining relevant prospect identification and qualification criteria, with particular reference to likelihood of success.

The amount of research conducted prior to contact with prospective customer should reflect the value of the opportunity, which is normally related to the size of the prospect organisation, and the typical sales or contract order value. The bigger the opportunity and complexity, the more research is warranted and necessary. Research should be confined to the clear available facts and background information and should not lead the sales person to making assumptions, which defeats the point of using facilitative methods.

This selling and sales training model is more appropriate for business-to-business selling (B2B) than consumer markets because of the higher values and greater complexities involved with B2B selling. However, some aspects of these ideas and methods are certainly applicable to 'consumer' selling (B2C) and will be more so where order values are significant, and where buying decisions are more complex and protracted, for example in selling property and large financial products.

As implied in points 5 and 7 particularly, the sales person should possess strong 'internal selling' capabilities, since much of the facilitative process involves shaping responses and communications and services from the supplier organisation. Significantly, facilitative processes and methods can be used to excellent effect in achieving these things - inside the sales person's organisation, as well as in the customer's organisation. In many situations, especially large-scale B2B selling, the sales-person's facilitative involvement and 'reach' must necessarily extend to partner organisations of the customer, since these are all part of the system that needs to be able to assimilate the eventual solution.

The modern sales person's role is one of coordinating and facilitating an effective sustainable 'fit' between two very complex systems: the supplier's and the customer's. Sales people who can do this possess the greatest selling ability of all. It's useful therefore to incorporate this principle within sales training if you are seeking to build - or help someone else build - a truly effective and sustainable sales organisation.

"Always the beautiful answer which asks a more beautiful question."
(Edward Estlin Cummings, 1894-1962, poet, written in 1938, adapted for modern times - Cummings originally used the word 'who' instead of 'which'.)

Again, please remember - Sharon Drew's Morgen's Buying Facilitation® is not a technique to add to conventional selling methods for the purpose of 'persuading' or 'influencing' the other person. The integration of 'facilitative' methods within the traditional selling process must be accompanied by the appropriate change in philosophy and 'mind-set'.

The aim is to help people, instead of trying to persuade and influence them.

tips for gaining selling experience and learning sales skills (for people new to selling or seeking to teach themselves sales skills for a career in selling)

If you want to learn selling skills for your own personal purposes, especially if you want to start a career in selling, here are some tips on how best to acquire and teach yourself selling skills, and gain valuable sales experience that will help you in interviews for sales jobs, or perhaps to start your own business.

First improve your understanding of which type(s) of learning and communications styles that you find most effective - look at the Gardner's Multiple Intelligence theory, and the VAK learning styles and Kolb model to get an idea of your own preferred thinking, communicating and learning styles. This will give you good indications as to your most effective selling style as well. Do you prefer to watch (films, videos, other people demonstrating sales and selling)? Do you prefer to experience it, hands on? Do you prefer to read about it (books, online learning and training like the articles above)? Do you prefer to listen (attend talks, lectures, listen to audio-tapes or CD/DVD sales courses)? Do you prefer for example: system and process, numbers and logic, people and feelings, facts and figures, concepts and ideas? Understand your own personality and strengths.

The understanding of thinking and learning styles is also a very useful sales skill in its own right. In learning about your own style, you will appreciate that other people each have their own preferred styles for learning and communicating and receiving information. This relates strongly to the style in which people prefer to receive sales information from a sales person. By learning about this, you have already begun to increase your selling capability - because you are increasing your appreciation of how and why people prefer to make decisions and to buy.

Then consider cost and feasibility of sales training and learning options that meet your most ideal method(s). Research what is available. Much is free or very low cost. Research is also a very important part of the selling skill set.

If you like to read about selling there is a wealth of sales training, selling techniques and related theory information on the internet for free. Books are actually very inexpensive given all that they contain, especially if second-hand, borrowed from friends or from a library. Read all you can about behaviour and communications. Subscribe to sales and selling newsletters, especially to the many good free e-newsletters available from sales and selling websites, and other websites relating to behaviour, business, marketing and communications.

Read the newspapers and business supplements which contain articles about sales and selling. Sales is not just about selling. Sales is about people and relationships, business and marketing, psychology and communications, self-confidence and attitude, belief, ethics and trust, information, quality, equipment, processes, and all of life. Learning opportunities for improving your understanding of selling are all around you, everywhere, on the internet, in books, magazines and articles.

If you like to listen and watch: observe sales people in selling roles - in stores, at exhibitions, and especially when they call at your door, or call you on the phone. Give them time to show you how they sell. Learn from the good and less good things that you see other sales people exhibiting. It's easy to judge whether selling is good or not: did it result in a positive experience or a sale? Or did it result in a negative experience and a feeling that the prospective customer and the seller will never speak again?

Get yourself onto the mailing lists of the sales training organisations. Business and training exhibitions and magazines are very useful for identifying relevant providers and for adding your name to their mailing lists. Look out for free seminars which they use to promote their courses. Attending business and training exhibitions is a good way to meet people in the sales community, to observe sales people a work, and to add your name to their mailing lists.

Attend talks and lectures or courses about selling - many are very low cost - some are free. You will hear about them if you are on the mailings lists of organisations providing them. Also contact your local business chamber or local government business support unit for information about such events.

Observe politicians and business people being interviewed on TV; they demonstrate good and not so good sales techniques when they attempt to persuade, build credibility, answer questions, overcome objections, etc.

Join a debating society. Observe how people 'sell' their ideas and propositions - again you will be able to judge what is effective and what is not. Give yourself experience in public speaking and debating.

Offer to give presentations to local voluntary groups, schools, anywhere that you can practice, learn and get experience of giving presentations. Capability to speak and give sales presentations to groups is largely a question of experience and confidence. This comes from having done it. So start now.

If you like to listen and learn, especially while driving, buy or borrow sales training and communications audio-tapes and CDs and DVDs. Sales and selling learning is not limited to sales techniques - listen to anything about communications and behaviour, personal development and confidence, goals and aims, relationships and psychology, ethics and philosophy, process and systems, equipment and ICT (information and communications technology), marketing and business. All these areas directly relate to and give depth to your sales and selling capabilities.

Aside from all this there is no substitute for experience - actually selling something..

And you do not need anyone to give you a sales job in order to start. Do it for yourself.

This type of learning is the most valuable and well-respected (by future potential employers) of all. And it's free.

Start your own modest sales business - working from home. You'll even make some money from the activity. Start a home business and sell to local consumers and/or business people, depending on your chosen product service. It doesn't matter what it is as long as you have an interest in it and enjoy it, and preferably that it has a reasonable demand and competitive advantage. Of course avoid ridiculous pyramid investment schemes - many exist that exploit people's inexperience and people's desire to get into selling - so be on your guard against these outrageous scams. Do not be persuaded to part with money for stock or the purchase of a franchise or territory, unless you are absolutely sure about what you are doing, and even then, get advice from someone older and wiser.

If you decide to start your own small sales business - which I urge you to do if you cannot get the experience elsewhere - think carefully about what you want to sell, to whom, and how. Start simply and modestly. Choice of what product/service to sell, and what market to sell to, are also important parts of the selling capability, and so this will also give you valuable experience in choosing good products or services that are worthy of your sales efforts and personal endorsement. You must believe in what you are selling. Look at the marketing section to help you decide what to sell and to whom. Perhaps become an agent for a door to door sales organisation. Perhaps do some telesales work. Start modestly, start learning, and you will have started selling. You will soon develop skills, experience, and confidence that will be desirable to many sales employers, although you might quickly decide that you like the feeling of running your own sales business, and from then on you will never need to find a sales job with an employer, since you have created one of your own. To be successful in selling does not necessarily require an employed sales position. You can do it for yourself if you want to.

Selling is after all mostly how you feel about yourself, and making things happen for yourself. So feel good, and go make something happen.

successful selling goes beyond 'sales training'

Selling and sales training ideas, courses, programmes, products, etc., are just part of the picture.

Modern selling requires understanding and capabilities that extend way beyond traditional 'sales training' skills.

Modern selling is about life, people, business (and increasingly ethical business and corporate responsibility), communications, behaviour, personality and psychology, self-awareness, attitude and belief. Selling is about understanding how people and systems work, and enabling good outcomes. (By 'systems' I mean organisations and processes and relationships, not just systems in the sense of tools and IT.)

Sales training of course addresses some of these issues, but not all of them.

So consider and learn about other aspects of modern business, management, and self-development that interest you, and extend this principle to your people if you are a sales manager or coach.

Develop your experience and understanding of organisations, management and business - beyond sales training alone - and you will greatly increase your value and effectiveness to employers and clients, and to the organisational and business world generally.

The more you understand about how people think, how organisations work and how they are managed, the more effective you will be.

Look beyond sales training and selling, and strive to become an enabler and a facilitator of good outcomes. This is the role of the modern sales-person. It's a highly valuable, sought-after and transferable capability.

selecting sales training providers and sales training programs

There are many different ways to obtain sales training, for yourself, for your sales team and for sales managers.

The template below will help you create a specification and selection process to find the right training methods and providers, and to maximise the agreement and commitment among your team and others involved.

The material above provides useful explanation about different methods of sales and selling, which reflects the many different sales training methods, courses, providers and programs available.

See also the theory, tips and examples for training development, teambuilding, and motivation.

When you select your sales training methods and providers it helps to follow a process - and ideally to create a training specification - rather than working purely from instinct. Here are some simple training selection guidelines, in the form of a checklist template, for specifying and choosing sales training courses, sales training programs, methods and providers.

You can of course adapt this template as a checklist and process for selecting any other training providers or support outside of sales training. These principles apply for selecting any sort of team development, training or support.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 1049