Customer burden…

I recently met with the top salesperson for Workday’s mid-market financial planning and analysis software.  Matt’s been  #1 for two years in a row and is tracking towards a threepeat.  I think he thinks the old guy can still hunt so he buys me lunch periodically.

We like debating sales tools, tactics, and techniques.  This time we agreed.  Salespeople get tangled up in their sales process; their bureaucracy; their CRM; their manager updates.  It’s like telling their prospect, “Don’t buy yet, until I update my forecast!”  In the Challenger Sale©:Adamson and Dixon wrote: 

The Customer Burden of Solutions 

… complicated and often rather protracted process requires a huge amount of customer involvement at each stage, placing two kinds of burden on the customer:  The first is time, and the second is timing.  Not only does this dance entail significant customer commitment across a wide range of different stakeholders... but from the customer's point of view, most of this effort comes early, before they see any value.  Really, it's an act of faith on their part that they're going to get anything in return for all of their trouble. 

This has led to something we call “solution fatigue”. 

Matt had just closed a deal; fast; same day fast.  His prospect was ready buy.  He was smart enough to avoid “solution fatigue” and let her.  He updated his CRM, forecast, and manager afterward.  He told me his colleagues would likely have missed the opportunity; slowed things down; consulted their manager; burdened the customer.  To Matt following a structured selling process and speed are not mutually exclusive.  I agreed.

I remember an ADP National Account deal I sold to a mining company in Denver.  I completed every selling process step; “Intro Meeting”; “Analysis”; “Demo”; “Price/Proposal”; “Close”; “Order Placement”, all in a single day.  It wasn’t a “One Call Close” but it was a “One Day Close”. 

My prospect was ready to buy.  Even though I didn’t fully understand why, I was willing to follow their lead; their speed; and avoid fatigue!  I updated my CRM, forecast, and manager afterward. 

Lesson learned:  Salespeople can cause delays in deals all on their own.  Be ready!  When the customer is prepared to buy, let them. 

                                                            GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.