As salespeople, and especially as managers, we tend to ask the wrong question. We ask, ‘What do we need to do to close this deal?’ Unfortunately, that’s not the right question because we could do three dozen different things and still not get the deal done. What we should be asking is, ‘What does the customer need to do in order to buy?’ Only when we can answer that question are we ready to ask the follow-up question, which is, ‘What do we need to do to get them to do those things?’
If fully embraced, this attitude will result in a major shift in how we think about the job of selling. We should look at each opportunity in our sales pipeline, and instead of starting with, ‘What have we already done, and what do we need to do next?’ we should be asking these four critical questions:
1. What Does This Particular Buying Process Look Like?
Buying and approval processes vary based on a whole host of factors. We need to learn the specifics of exactly what it would take for our particular customer to make a purchase of the shape and scope we are planning to propose. Here are just a few of the things we might need to learn:
- What is involved in getting funds released for a budgeted expenditure? Who has to be involved in that approval process?
- What would it take to get approval for an unbudgeted expenditure? Who would likely be involved in that process?
- Are they a small, privately held firm with one owner who makes all the big decisions?
- Are they a division of a huge corporation, which will have to look to corporate for final approval?
- What is the signing authority of the vice president (or whomever) we are selling to? At what point would she need to get the CFO involved in executing a contract?
- How and when does their legal department need to get involved?
2. Where Is This Customer in Their Buying Process?
Is your customer a day or two away from signing a contract? Or are they still ‘kicking tires’ and thinking about buying something? Most of our active sales campaigns are probably somewhere in between. Our mission is to figure out where they are in their process, what they’ve already done or decided, and what they still need to do or decide before they can buy.
I want to emphasize here that we should never take any one person’s ‘word’ for what needs to happen before their company will be ready, willing, and able to buy. I have learned that every person I meet within a given company seems to have their own version or opinion of how decisions are made, how projects get approved, and what stage of a particular buying process they are currently in. Get as many different perspectives, views, and opinions as you possibly can and blend them into your own composite view of what their process is like and where they are within their process.
3. What Is the Next Reasonable Step They Need to Take?
If we can figure out where they are, and what still has to happen before they can buy, then we may be able to ascertain what would be a logical and reasonable next step for them to take. Years ago I heard a sales trainer say, ‘You should ask for the order on every sales call.’ Well, that’s just silly! If we are selling a complex solution to a major business problem that costs $100,000 or $1,000,000 or more, it would be ludicrous to expect our customer to ‘sign’ on our first visit, or even the second or third. The question is what is the next ‘reasonable’ step that we could ask our customer to take that will move them toward point ‘B’ on their way to point ‘C.’
4. What Can We Do to Get Them to Take That Step?
If we can get an idea of what our customer needs to do next in their buying process, that helps us figure out what we need to do next in our selling process. Things don’t happen in the same sequence, or on the same schedule, in every sales engagement. We have to be flexible enough to do what we need to do based on any particular customer’s buying process, and where they are within that process. Only after we under- stand that, should our focus shift to ‘What are we going to do?’ based on that information.