Too often, when a prospect contacts us and says, ‘We’re going to buy,’ we lead with our solution and focus on trying to win the Source Decision. Please take a closer look, or the list of buying hurdles above. We should take the time to understand what critical decisions may or may not have already been resolved before the customer started ‘Researching options and vendors’ at hurdle number five. Some of these critical strategic decisions-appearing before the first dotted line-may include:
- C-Make vs. Buy = Buy
- R-Project oversight established
- C-Feasibility study completed
- R-Funds allocated
The first big mistake we should avoid is jumping in at the point where our customer has conducted some research and contacted a few vendors, without finding out what has already been done or decided. Until we find out what has already happened before they contacted us, we simply don’t know enough to properly qualify the opportunity, let alone put together an effective strategy and plan to ensure a successful sales campaign.
If they have not yet explored the make vs. buy question, for example, we might spend months winning the source battle, only to watch them decide to craft some sort of homemade solution on their own. Likewise, if project oversight has not been established, or funds have not yet been allocated for the project, there may never actually be a project at all.
Beginning with the fifth hurdle, there are six Source hurdles in a row:
- S-Research on options and vendors
- S-Solution overview approved
- S-Technical validation completed
- S-Implementation plan agreed to
- S-References checked
- S-Vendor on approved list
- A-Committee recommendation
Assuming we help our client clear these hurdles, we could win the Source Decision. But that’s not all it’s going to take to win this deal.
The second big mistake we can make is working our heart out to help our customer clear hurdles five through eleven so we can win the ‘Committee recommendation,’ and then hoping they can figure out how to clear the rest of the hurdles (appearing after the second dotted line) on their own. If we spend all of our time and attention on winning the source battle, without preparing to-and helping our customer to prepare to-get over the hurdles that come after, our customer could stumble on one of these later hurdles, as we watch all of our time and effort go right down the drain. We have to know exactly what it’s going to take-and be ready and willing to do whatever we need to do-to make sure our customer gets over every hurdle, including ‘Board of directors approval’ and ‘Contract executed.’
- R-Project staffed
- R-ROI justification approved
- R-Funding secured
- S-Contract approved by Legal
- C-Proof-of-concept successful
- A-Board of directors approval
- A-Contract executed
In the Reverse-Engineering the Buying Process, I will show you how to use the framework that has been presented here to sort out the various steps and stages your customer will have to go through to be successful in their overall buying process. Once you understand the specific hurdles your customer has to get past in order to buy, and then to achieve the business results they want to achieve, you’ll be ready to develop a rock-solid sales strategy and a plan to help them get there.