| About the Author: Michael
Bosworth, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of CustomerCentric
Systems LLC, has been a consultant to TMCA and
spoke at 2004 TMCA Annual Conference in Palm Springs,
Calif.
If we want to get Sales and Marketing both to
enable the selling process, we should come up
with a definition of selling on which both agree.
The one I’d like to propose is that selling
is: facilitating the buying process. In a good
sales call, a great salesperson rarely has to
close because the buyer volunteers to buy, which
means that the seller was able to facilitate the
buying process and be tuned into where the buyer
is, and lead them to the point where they volunteer
to buy.
Marketing can facilitate the selling process
through structure and messaging and content. But,
here are two things to consider:
First is the product and product marketing. The
product marketing mission is to talk about what
“it” will do—“it”
being the product. I would like to suggest that
a customer asks not what “it” will
do for him, but asks what he can do with “it.”
What we really want to do is think about usage,
not features.
The other little hot button I have is this term
“value proposition.” Salespeople are
known for being too presumptuous, and the whole
concept of having a value proposition—for
a salesperson to walk in and say, “We believe
that if you were using our technology you would
be saving money”—is very presumptuous.
Value propositions belong in business plans.
But for salespeople, in a dialogue, I think it
should be a value confirmation. We should provide
the seller with content and structure that will
allow the seller to lead the buyer to the conclusion
that he or she could achieve their goal—thereby
receiving value.
Marketing should facilitate the selling process
by laying out a list of decision-makers or decision-influencers
by job titles, and what goals each of those decision-makers
or decision-influencers have with respect to using
their product. Then map out for every job title
and goal a structured prompter, so our 28-year-old
salespeople can call on those 50-year-old job
titles and help them see a way to achieve their
goal.
Now, it goes beyond the solution development
prompter. There might be phone scripts just to
get in the door in the first place. Then competitive
positioning, cost versus benefit examples, samples
of how to write good follow-up letters, and others.
Because it’s not what happens between the
seller and the first person that counts, it’s
when the salesperson leaves, where we’re
relying on that middle manager who had that one-hour
experience with this salesperson.
How well is that middle manager going to do taking
what he learned from the salesperson upstairs
to management? Letters and e-mail templates have
to be part of the structure to be communicating
back to the first person so that they can now
spread the word through the organization.
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