Stunningly
Awful Sales Tactics – The Future-Sales Prevention Team
Or
The Curse of
the Hunter-Farmer Model
Are your
sales teams traditional, better or truly great?
Contemplate the following (ugly) scenario:
A customer
calls his sales person to ask for help implementing software he purchased
recently – there seems to be a mismatch regarding the capabilities delivered vs.
what he expected…
He leaves a
voicemail message, but hears nothing back from the sales rep. He then calls customer service and describes
his problem (again) to them. Customer
service promises to look into it – but can find no information in the CRM
system beyond that the order was received by purchasing a few weeks back. The customer service people send an email to
the sales person and receive a curt response, “I brought in the business; your
job is implement it!”
Customer
service ultimately tells the customer “Sorry, the software you licensed didn’t
include the capabilities you are asking about…”
Frustrated,
the customer reduces the scope of his implementation – and has to tell his
management that “The ROI for this purchase may take longer than expected…”
A month
later, our customer receives a call from an account manager (“Farmer”) at the
same vendor. She asks how things are
going… Our customer replies, “Not as
well as I’d wanted – we had to scale back our planned implementation. I’m a bit frustrated, actually…!”
On the other
end of the line, the account manager sighs deeply and says (to herself), “Looks
like yet another uphill struggle with yet another customer. I’ll never make quota this way…!”
Contemplate
a second (ugly) scenario:
This time
the customer is talking with the vendor’s professional services team. A similar conversation takes place, with the
professional services folks ultimately saying either:
1. “Sorry, you didn’t license what you need –
you’ll have to scale back your implementation…”
2. “Darn it, that
sales person promised the customer those
capabilities, now we’ll have to implement them for free…!”
Overall,
there are several unhappy parties in these scenarios: the account manager, the professional
services team and – most important – the customer!
Traditional Sales People…
Many
traditional sales people – and especially those who are designated and
compensated solely as “Hunters” – are interested in the relationship with the
customer up through what point in time?
That’s right, the moment the PO is received – then these traditional
sales people run, not walk, to the
next opportunity! This results in
serious disconnects between a bevy of the vendor’s individuals and departments:
-
Farmer to Hunter: What did
we sell? What do they need? What are their expectations? What can I
sell? Arrgh!
-
Professional Services to Sales:
What implementation was promised?
What was paid for? When do they
expect it? Errrgh!
-
Customer Services to Sales:
What did they buy? What was
promised? What mess do we have to deal
with this time? Ack!
But wait – what goes around,
comes around:
-
Marketing to Sales: Who of
your customers can we contact to capture some good reference stories? None of your accounts…? Darn…
-
Sales to Marketing: How
come we don’t have any reference stories available? How can I sell to new customers without good
references? Arrrgh!
Sales people
that simply sell and run are active members of the Future-Sales Prevention Team
– helping to ensure that their competition will get the next rounds of
business!
Better Sales People…
Better Sales
People (and Sales Teams) uncover customers’ Critical Dates – dates by when the customer needs to have a solution in
place – and then walk backwards from those dates to map out the major steps
that need to take place to ensure that implementation will be completed
successfully, in time for the desired “Go Live” date.
This particular
conversation with the customer can also have some delightful consequences:
Customer: “So we need to have your system in operation
by September 15, in order to meet our project deadlines…”
Vendor: “Understood.
Well, based on the capabilities you need, we should map out a rough
time-line to get you up and going.”
Customer: “Sounds good…”
Vendor: “OK, for an implementation like yours, based
on our experiences with other customers in similar situations, we should plan
on a few days of final end-user training, preceded by pre-roll-out testing;
before that is configuration, implementation, and admin training… Hmmm, looks like in order for you to meet
your target date we need to get contracts to legal tomorrow!”
With a rough
plan in place, the profession services team can be brought in to discuss the
details. And these Better Sales People
and (and Better Sales Teams) then track progress against the final plan to help
resolve challenges and ensure that implementation can take plan on time, on
spec, and on budget. (Note that the
Sales Team here can include a Hunter and corresponding Farmer, in addition to
profession services folks).
But
wait: there’s more!
Truly Great Sales Teams…
What happens
when an individual makes a substantial software purchase on behalf of his
company – from his perspective? A huge
weight descends onto his shoulders – the responsibility associated with the
size of the investment. And that weight is
not lifted until that investment shows some tangible return.
Truly Great
Sales People and Sales Teams map out and track the process of implementation with
the customer from Discovery, through purchase, through roll-out and deployment,
all the way to that point in time when the customer enjoys a Value Realization
event – a small victory that can be announced internally to peers and
management.
“We completed
this last cycle in one day vs. what previously took us a month – hooray!” And that’s the point in time when the weight is
lifted from the buyer’s (virtual) aching shoulders.
Value
Realization events don’t necessarily require a full year of ROI. They may simply be an early win or small victory
– representing a small, but tangible portion of overall ROI desired.
Truly Great
Sales People and Teams identify Value Realization events in early conversations
with the customer. Often, these
discussions take place towards the end of Discovery – once the customer sees
that a solution is possible, he wants to understand how to put that solution into
place. This vendor and customer can then
rough-out a mutual plan of the steps to achieve the desired Value Realization
event.
An example
Discovery question might be, “How will you define an initial success for this
project? Not the full ROI, but just an
early success or victory – what would that look like?”
This also
enables the vendor’s professional services teams to focus implementation and
training on achieving the Value Realization event, in particular. Importantly, the customer sees that the
vendor is truly interested in the customer’s success – not just selling and
running to the next opportunity.
Transition Vision
This process
has a name: it’s called “Transition
Vision”. It’s the process of helping the
customer see how he will move from his current painful situation through deployment all the way to the
point in time when victory (for him) can be declared.
The vendor
that executes this process well vs. the vendor that ignores it has a
significant competitive advantage.
Consider the following story:
You’ve
decided to trade-in your old Honda and get a new SUV. You visit Car Dealership #1 and, as you walk
towards the show-room, you see exactly
the car you want – the right color, the right options and you are entirely
comfortable with the price posted on the car [Editor’s note: this is the less-than-believable part of the
story…!]. A salesperson comes up and you
say, “I’d like to buy this car. I’ve
brought my current Honda to trade-in to help pay the balance of the purchase
price.”
Salesperson
says, “Great! Go ahead and sell your
Honda, and when you have the full amount come back and we’ll get you into that
shiny new SUV…!”
You walk
away, disgruntled, and decide to try Car Dealership #2 across town.
You arrive
at Car Dealership #2 and, as you are heading to the show-room, you once again
see exactly the car you want – and
again, with the right color, the right options and the price is exactly the
same as at Dealership #1. A salesperson
comes up and you once again say, “I’d like to buy this car. I’ve brought my current Honda to trade-in to
help pay the balance of the purchase price.”
Salesperson
says, “Great! Did you bring the
registration and ownership papers for your Honda?”
You indicate
that you have the papers with you.
Salesperson
says, “Very good – if you’ll give me those documents we’ll take care of all the
transfer-of-ownership paperwork and filing – and we’ll make sure that the
paperwork is all done correctly. You
should be able to drive away with your new SUV in about 45 minutes…”
Who will get
the order and why? Two (really valuable)
observations:
1. The vendor that
builds a Transition Vision with customer – a vision of how the customer can move from his current, painful situation to
that glorious future with the solution in place and yielding the desired
results – is in a competitively advantageous position vs. vendors who simply
present a solution.
2. The point in
time when a customer achieves a Value Realization event is also the point in
time when the customer becomes – a reference!
(I’ve seen sales compensation plans include harvesting customer
references as a key component. What a
terrific idea…)
Truly Great
Sales People and Sales Teams become partners to their customers – and those
customers will preferentially buy
from those vendors again. Wouldn’t you?
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The Second Derivative – All Rights Reserved.
