Defining dynamic sales process playbooks within a CRM system can also accelerate sellers' mastery of the three personae of The Collaborative Sale. If sellers find it difficult to apply new learning to real-world scenarios, the value of that learning is greatly diminished. Dynamic sales process playbooks, linking to tools, job aids, and learning assets relevant to each stage, enable sellers to reinforce their understanding of the buyer's current state. For example, if a seller is about to enter negotiations with a buyer, the process map could provide useful links to negotiation planning tools, online training about effective negotiations, examples of job aids for negotiation execution, and so on. Dynamic sales process playbooks provide a readily understood context for access to the most relevant continual learning and sales enablement assets, as shown in Figure 9.8.
Figure 9.8 Reinforcing Methodology by Linking Dynamic Sales Process Playbooks to Learning and Enablement Assets
In a practical way, this approach closes gaps between learning and application of effective sales methodology. By providing the most relevant information in the context of the process, sellers are also able to access specifically what they need from collateral templates, cheat sheets, and other job aids when it is most needed. Most sales operations managers can relate to the constant battle of ensuring that their sellers have access to the latest version of presentations, contracts, proposals, and other selling resources. By linking this information within the context of the process, sellers not only know what to use, but also begin to understand when to use these tools most appropriately to collaborate more effectively with Buyer 2.0.
Leveraging Sales Intelligence and Social Media
In order to facilitate the Micro-Marketing persona, sellers should have access to information to keep them informed about customers, prospects, markets—and ongoing conversations involving all of them. As shown in Figure 9.9, contextual sales intelligence applications and social media tools can help sellers with sales planning, buyer research, stimulating buyer interest, establishing and tracking buyers' business triggers, participating in networking and community groups, and other activities that are essential for successful execution of the personae of The Collaborative Sale.
Figure 9.9 Contextual Sales Intelligence
Utilizing Collaborative Value Estimation Tools
To facilitate a seller's mastery of the Value Driver persona, collaborative online value estimation tools, such as VisualizeROI, SharkFinesse, and ROI4Sales, can also help buyers and sellers to jointly develop and agree on the value of a vision of a potential solution. The most useful value estimation tools extend beyond simply providing a return on investment (ROI) calculation. They are also platforms for communicating value throughout the buying process and fostering collaboration with Buyer 2.0. A value analysis is best determined in collaboration with a buyer.
Visualization of the quantity of value helps buyers understand the cost of the status quo. A collaborative value estimation tool that provides a graphic picture of the amount of value potential, as illustrated in Figure 9.10, enables buyers to more easily develop an accurate vision of a solution, and therefore find compelling reasons to take action.
Figure 9.10 Example of a Collaborative Value Estimation Tool
Explore Big Data Opportunities
Big data refers to the collection and analysis of large sets of information. New tools for finding relevant insights from big data have become available, providing sales operations with potentially useful ways to identify the most effective sales practices and other untapped selling opportunities. Sales and marketing teams are now using big data for applications such as:
Improving sales talent assessment and hiring practices, as previously described
Refining Micro-Marketer targeting by identifying select peer groups that share buying characteristics
Improving market coverage by adapting sales resource assignments to highest-potential buyer types
Refining sales playbooks by testing selling methods applied in certain situations and linking them to empirical results
Big data analysis provides a wealth of potential competitive advantages to sales organizations that compete in markets where large collections of buyer information exist.
Committing to Success—Individually and Organizationally
Implementing The Collaborative Sale requires commitment. However, the business results achieved from its implementation make the effort worthwhile. There are benefits to be gained at both the individual seller level as well as organizationally. In the short term, sellers can see sales improvement through the use of specific ideas or tools in The Collaborative Sale. This individual effort does not require an organizational-level change.
An organizational commitment to using The Collaborative Sale by developing the right process, the right people, and the right tools will maximize adoption and application and thereby produce sustainable improvements in business results.
1 Peter Ostrow, “Sales Performance Optimization 2013: Aligning the Right People, Processes, and Tools,” Research Brief, AberdeenGroup, February 2, 2013. Accessed December 1, 2013, at www.aberdeen.com/Aberdeen-Library/8347/RB-sales-performance-optimization.aspx.
2 Scott Santucci, “Getting Zen about Sales Enablement,” Forrester Blogs, Forrester Research, February 6, 2013. Accessed December 1, 2013, at http://blogs.forrester.com/scott_santucci/13-02-06-getting_zen_about_sales_enablement.
3 Anneke Seley and Brent Holloway, Sales 2.0: Improve Business Results Using Innovative Sales Practices and Technology (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
4 “…[T]here are over 2,000 Sales 2.0 solutions on the market,” from “Sales Productivity: The Quick Guide to Sales Technology You Can Buy with Your Credit Card,” TOPO HQ Blog, TOPO HQ, August 12, 2013. Accessed December 6, 2013.
Epilogue
“The Story” Continues…
Jon's plane landed in San Francisco. As it was taxiing to the gate, he switched his phone from airplane mode. It jingled as a series of voice mails, texts, and e-mails loaded.
A text from Nancy shouldn't have surprised him. Those directors watched the pipeline like hawks. He'd wait until he had more privacy than a whole plane of business travelers could provide before calling her. Scrolling through his e-mails, he was shocked to see this e-mail from the insurance broker:
Attached is the executed letter of intent to license ExyRisk. I believe we've captured our mutual intent here, with a hat tip to your collaborative approach throughout the process, which certainly greased the skids. Now the fun begins as the lawyers attempt to ruin the deal for both of us. Let's not let that happen.
Jon forwarded the e-mail to Nancy with a cover note:
Wow. He's had this for only three days and got the CEO's signature. I hope this is an omen for many deals to come. Thanks for the kick in the pants. Call at your first opportunity to debrief.
His phone rang before he reached the Mascone convention center. He answered, “Hey, Nancy, sweet deal, huh?”
“Great job, Jon,” she said. “So great, as a matter of fact, that I've got a lead on a Brazilian company with a similar need. I assume your passport is current?”
Jon smiled. “How soon do I leave?”
Afterword
Thanks for reading The Collaborative Sale. We sincerely want to know what you thought of the book and the concepts. Please send your feedback or any questions to: www.thecollaborativesale.com or www.spisales.com.
A dear friend recently gave me a book that I fell in love with. Don't laugh, but it is an illustrated children's book—The Spyglass by Richard Paul Evans with illustrations by Jonathan Linton.1 In addition to the wonderful story line and illustrations, what also made it special was the personal handwritten sentiment inside. It said, “To a wonderful friend and visionary.”
My friend wrote the inscription before she read The Collaborative Sale, and it touched me deeply. The connection she was making has to do with the story of The Spyglass and how she sees me as the founder and CEO of Sales Performanc
e International. You see, in the book, an entire kingdom fell into ruin because neither the king nor the people had a vision for their lives. The people of the kingdom were not just poor in terms of material possessions; they were also poor of spirit.
To make things worse, to the east of this unhappy land was a beautiful kingdom with great farms, glorious gardens, cathedrals, and castles. Night and day, the breeze from the east blew the sounds and smells of this glorious kingdom to their land, reminding them of just how poor they actually were. The king did not want to leave his castle because he didn't want to hear the complaints.
Then one day there was a knock on the king's door from a man carrying nothing but a spyglass. The man was a Visualizer and through the spyglass he helped the king see great farms, glorious gardens, cathedrals, and castles once again in his own kingdom. “Is this a trick?” the king asked. “No,” said the Visualizer, “you have seen what might be; now go make it so.”
The king rode throughout the kingdom sharing the spyglass, each time saying, “You have seen what might be; now go make it so.” Though there were some who would not believe what they saw through the spyglass, the majority of the people did. That same year there was a plentiful harvest, and the gardens and a majestic cathedral were once again raised.
After the second year, the Visualizer returned and said, “You have done well. I cannot tarry—I only came back for my spyglass.” At this the king frowned and asked the Visualizer to leave the spyglass in exchange for all of the king's gold. “You have spoken wisely,” said the Visualizer, “for the gift of the spyglass is worth more than all the gold in the royal coffers. But keep your gold; you no longer need the spyglass. You are now a Visualizer; you can see without it.” The king was in disbelief and asked, “How is this possible?” The Visualizer placed his hand on the king's shoulder and said with a smile, “You have seen what might be. Now go make it so.”
In The Collaborative Sale, you have seen what might be. It's now up to you. Go make it so!
Keith Eades
CEO and Founder
Sales Performance International
1 Richard Paul Evans and Jonathan Linton, The Spyglass: A Story of Faith (New York: Simon & Schuster for Young Readers, 2000).
Appendix
Essential Competencies for The Collaborative Sale
The three personae of The Collaborative Sale require sellers to possess or develop a number of key competencies—knowledge, skills, or abilities that enable them to perform the required behaviors for each persona. Managers implementing The Collaborative Sale should look for evidence of these competencies in any potential new hire, and examine what competencies need to be developed in existing sellers on staff.
Some of these competencies overlap, especially those required for situational fluency (see Chapter 3), which is the foundation of each of the three personae.
Sales Performance International (SPI) offers assessments that measure sellers' levels of these competencies. For more information, go to www.spisales.com.
Micro-Marketer Competencies
In order to execute successfully the actions needed to fulfill the Micro-Marketer persona, a seller must possess the following essential characteristics, knowledge, skills, and abilities:
Situational knowledge—understands the buyer's industry, job roles, areas of responsibility, and common business issues.
Capability knowledge—understands product and service solutions, and how they address customer business issues or capitalize on potential opportunities.
Demand creation—creates and uses business development messaging for generating demand, providing thought leadership, and stimulating buyer interest.
Problem needs identification—identifies buyers' business drivers for change within a targeted market, organization, prospect, or opportunity.
Communication skills—has ability to express points of view clearly, both orally and in written form.
Networking and relationship-building skills—is able to build productive social bonds with customers and buyers; builds, maintains, and leverages mutually beneficial business relationships.
Social media utilization—uses social media tools to expand seller's knowledge and to interact with and influence buyers.
Technical skills—is able to use appropriate technology to participate in social web and online customer conversations, as well as any supporting Micro-Marketer technologies, such as a marketing automation system.
Planning and organizational skills—can use structured processes and methods to identify a logical sequence of events and activities required to achieve an intended goal or result.
Visualizer Competencies
In order to execute successfully the actions needed to fulfill the Visualizer persona, a seller must possess the following essential characteristics, knowledge, skills, and abilities:
Situational knowledge—understands the buyer's industry, job roles, areas of responsibility, and common business issues.
Capability knowledge—understands product and service solutions, and how they address customer business issues or capitalize on potential opportunities.
Communication skills—has ability to express points of view clearly, both orally and in written form.
Sales conversation skills—collaboratively diagnoses buyer problems or potential opportunities; creates, expands, or reengineers visions of solutions; develops mutual agreement with buyers on capabilities needed.
Opportunity qualification—applies guiding standards to assess the correct buyer state, strength of buyer vision, and quality of a sales opportunity, and then make engagement and prioritization decisions.
Competitive skills—evaluates competitive positions and executes appropriate strategies and tactics to win.
Relationship-building skills—is able to build productive social bonds with customers and buyers; builds, maintains, and leverages mutually beneficial business relationships.
Customer focus—keeps the customer foremost in mind; advocates for the customer's best interests.
Value Driver Competencies
In order to execute successfully the actions needed to fulfill the Value Driver persona, a seller must possess the following essential characteristics, knowledge, skills, and abilities:
Situational knowledge—understands the buyer's industry, job roles, areas of responsibility, and common business issues.
Capability knowledge—understands product and service solutions, and how they address customer business issues or capitalize on potential opportunities.
Value identification and articulation—determines scope and impact of buyer problems or potential opportunities; identifies, quantifies, and communicates the tangible results of proposed solutions; can identify or create compelling reasons to act based on value.
Financial acumen—understands buyers' financial statements, key performance measures, and how their decisions will affect value creation.
Risk management skills—can relate to and understand buyers' risks at both the individual level and the organizational level; can take appropriate actions to mitigate buyer risks.
Technical skills—is able to use appropriate technology to operate business impact and value analysis estimation tools, such as online collaborative value calculators and specialized Excel worksheets.
Customer focus—keeps the customer foremost in mind; advocates for the customer's best interests; can anticipate potential solution transition and implementation issues for specific customers and recommend appropriate actions and resources to address those issues.
Communication skills—has ability to express points of view clearly, both orally and in written form.
Additional Collaborative Selling Tools
The Collaborative Sale describes several tools and job aids to help sellers collaborate with Buyer 2.0 to progress to a buying decision. In addition to those tools described in earlier chapters, we show some additional tools that may be helpful here. Readers can find downloadable templates for these tools at w
ww.thecollaborativesale.com or at www.spisales.com.
Results Story
A story that describes a situation similar to that of the buyer and expresses the results for solving the problem or capitalizing on an otherwise missed opportunity (e.g., the potential “pain” of the buyer) enables Buyer 2.0 to envision how they might realize the same kind of benefits. It is a very good tool for helping the Micro-Marketer persona to stimulate the curiosity of a targeted buyer. The story does not have to name a specific customer or reference; a general job title and industry are sufficient. The key is to share specific, quantitative results for addressing the buyer. Figure A.1 shows the format for a good results story.
Figure A.1 Results Story Format
Target Buyer Profile
When a seller identifies a potential buyer, the seller should develop the right level of situational fluency before trying to engage. This means understanding that buyer's organization, critical business issues or potential opportunities (possible pains), business drivers, and related factors (reasons for the pains), key players (who owns the pains), and a hypothesis of the capabilities that may help the buyer to address the issues or capitalize on an opportunity (a prospective vision of a solution). This tool can be used by a Micro-Marketer persona to help develop sufficient situational fluency to approach a target buyer, or by a Visualizer persona to help formulate an initial vision of a potential solution. Figure A.2 shows the format for a useful target buyer profile.
The Collaborative Sale Page 15