In our Power-Prospecting for New Business workshop, we talk about the importance of proactively prospecting for new business opportunities. When we initiate communication with a prospective customer, we can call at any level we want. We may not start off, for some very specific reasons, by calling the CEO directly, but we can start as high up in the organization as we choose. Using this approach, we can learn about the goals, objectives, and initiatives that are already on the minds of executives and align our sales campaign to support the achievement of those goals.
When a prospect contacts us-by visiting our website, stopping by our booth at a tradeshow, or circling our number on an ‘information request’ card in a magazine-at what level do those inquiries usually originate? Is it usually the chairman of the board? The CFO? How about the executive vice president of sales and marketing? No, it’s usually the procurement manager, or an individual contributor of some kind. There’s nothing wrong with that. I want all the inquiries I can get, but let’s recognize them for what they are.
When someone at a lower level in our prospect’s organization contacts us, we know that we are probably dealing with one of two situations: it’s either a bottom-up initiative in its early stages, or a top-down initiative in its late stages.
If, when we ‘get a lead,’ we immediately react by positioning our products and services as superior to our competition, explaining the many unique advantages and benefits, and working to become the vendor of choice, it could turn out to be a complete waste of our time. The most important takeaway from this discussion is that we can’t afford to expend all of our resources to win the source battle, only to find out later that we lost the overall war.
One of the most frustrating experiences for any sales professional is to win the Source Decision, but find out later that:
- They don’t have the resources to buy, or at least not right now.
- Management decided to ‘go in a different direction,’ or pursue a different course of action.
- Management decided not to take action, or at least not at this time.
Please notice on both A Top-Down Initiative and A Bottom-Up Initiative the vertical arrow on the far left-hand side. At the top it says ‘Strategic’ and at the bottom, ‘Tactical.’ We should remember that the Source Decision is actually the least important decision from our customer’s point of view. They may well believe that any one of several sources will suffice.
We can’t afford to wallow around in the Source Decision with the misconception that if we can just win that, we’ve won the deal. Here’s a truth we should all take to heart . . .
Using our sales resources to try to win the Source Decision is useless, and in fact irresponsible, unless we have strong evidence or reasons to believe that we can win the Resource, Course, and Action Decisions, as well.
We have to learn how to engage our clients on a different level. We should have an approach to our territory that involves calling them and calling higher within the company so we can discover top-down initiatives earlier in the overall buying process. The earlier we call, the more likely we can help to influence and shape their vision of the ideal solution. But when they call us, we should be asking questions about the Resource, Course, and Action Decisions so that we can put together a solid plan and strategy for how to win. Learning to work our way up from the Source Decision to start engaging our customers in the more strategic decisions they will make is one of the most valuable skills we could possibly develop. To get there, and to be effective, we will need to better understand how those higher-level, more strategic decisions are made.