MKTG 3130 Week 5
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Wk_5_Outline1.pdf
UMASS Lowell Sales and Customer Relations Management
Week 5
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Sales and Customer Relations Management – Week 5
Win-Win…It’s not what you sell…it’s how you sell.
Companies invest considerable time and resources in building brands,
products and services. They do extensive customer research on wants and
needs in order to hopefully establish elements of differentiation that will
meet or exceed customer expectations and give them a competitive edge.
But the disappointing fact is that – from the customers’ perspective
suppliers don’t look all that different from each other. And while suppliers
tend to focus on the distinctions that they believe will matter in a
comparison, customers tend to focus first on the general similarities.
Does this mean that suppliers shouldn’t invest in brands, products and
value added services? Certainly not! Those things are quite important. It
just means that investments made to achieve elements of differentiation
are not the final step to winning a deal, but simply the first step. It’s the
price of entry to deserve a customer’s loyalty…not the clinching factor.
So then…what does matter when everyone is “innovative”, “world class”,
solutions-focused” and “environmentally responsible”? What tilts the
balance from perceived parity to a situation where you and your company
become the preferred supplier (without having to be the cheapest
supplier)?
Well, research shows that the selling engagement can make that
difference. One study indicated that 38% of customer loyalty was
attributable to a supplier’s ability to outperform competitors on brand,
product and services, while another 9% was due to outperformance on the
attribute of price-to-value. A major portion of the remaining 53% came
down to the selling engagement itself.
Buyers often found much more differentiation among the sales experiences
they had with suppliers’ sales reps. Some reps were maddeningly single-
minded in pushing their own canned presentations, products and party
lines. This was perceived as a huge waste of time by customers.
UMASS Lowell Sales and Customer Relations Management
Week 5
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Other reps, however, were eager to share knowledge, to achieve a deep
understanding of the customers’ challenges, and even to contribute the
perspective identified by Daniel Pink – problem-finding.
The result of this, more satisfying sales engagement is what Strategic
Selling refers to as a Win-Win outcome.
The matrix above in graphic form shows four combinations of outcomes that define the possibilities associated with an economic exchange.
Achieving a Win-Win outcome is ultimately dependent on the perceptions
of each Buying Influence, because while Results are general to an
organization, Wins are personal, and often will vary by individual.
Every party enters an economic exchange with the desire to “Win”. But
often that’s not how it all works out. Often, one party feels taken advantage
of. The buyer may experience “buyer’s remorse” and feel that the seller
pursued a short term perspective and a one-sale “victory”. This usually
I Win
You Win
I Win You Lose
I Lose You Win
I Lose You Lose
UMASS Lowell Sales and Customer Relations Management
Week 5
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leads to “buyer’s revenge”, where the customer, wreaks havoc with your
service organization by demanding numerous service visits, refuses to buy
anything else from you, and gives your company “bad press” whenever an
industry peer asks for feedback on your performance. While the sales rep
who orchestrated this train wreck might have thought he/she was on the
right side of a Win-Lose situation, this combination is inherently unstable,
will eventually evolve to a Lose-Lose outcome as described above (and
shown below)..
Image of a very dissatisfied customer
While we emphasize a “Single Sales Objective” in order to maintain
discipline and focus around a well-defined goal, we also define a
“successful sale” as having distinct characteristics that meet a Win-Win
situation:
1. Results in a satisfied customer
2. Initiates or extends a long term relationship
3. Paves the way for repeat business from this customer
4. Sets the stage for strong referrals to this customer’s peers
“I’ll never spend another red cent with
that company after they used deceptive
sales practices and false claims to sell me
a product that is a poor fit with our needs.
Fool me once…shame on you…I’ll make
sure my counterparts in peer companies
are well aware of their Win/Lose approach
to dealing with customers. “
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Week 5
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Why are these characteristics so important? Why do thay matter more to
me as a sales rep than simply making a quick sale and moving on?
A Satisfied Customer – customers who feel like they were taken
advantage of can subsequently be a nightmare to serve. They will be
demanding, and easily disappointed. Conversely, customers who feel
they received good value and benefited from a creative problem-
solving sales rep will be more understanding of the inevitable hiccups
of a new relationship.
A Long-term Relationship – not a one-time transaction, but the
beginning of an ongoing business relationship that is mutually-
beneficial
Repeat Business – the economics of an initial sale are often
unattractive. Long sales cycles, extensive product training, warranty
services at no charge, marketing and selling expenses, all conspire to
reduce the margin on that first sale. So the ROI on new customer
acquisition depends on repeat business from an installed base of
satisfied customers
Good Referrals – nothing is more powerful than having your
customers serve as advocates for you! Acquiring new customers is
very difficult in the B2B world without references from existing
satisfied customers.
The Importance of Winning – this relates not to your success, but rather
to uncovering and delivering “Wins” to the key customer decision makers.
Wins are personal, so close engagement with each Buying Influence is
necessary to identify what personal Win would matter to each of them.
Delivering Results – at its most elemental, every B2B proposal has to
show a customer how they will achieve either lower cost or increased
revenue from buying your product. Results are corporate. They are
UMASS Lowell Sales and Customer Relations Management
Week 5
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tangible, measurable and often articulated in terms of return on investment
or payback period.
Results
Key concept – Results are a precondition to a Win
What are the specific business Results I need to produce for this Buying Influence to personally Win?
Result – the impact your product/service can have on the buyer’s organization
Win – a personal gain that satisfies one of the buying influence’s perceived self-interest
Win – Result – a result that gives one of your influences a Win (the whole enchilada!)
Below are the key elements that are utilized by a Selling firm to provide
results to their customers:
o Products and Services – designed to improve of fix a customer’s
business processes
o Knowledge- embodied in sales, technical and support personnel
o Tools – software, hardware or technical documentation
o Customer Processes – examples often targeted for improvement
o Product design
o Operations
o Quality control
o Communications
o Results – how will the buying firm benefit from the purchase
o Impact of the product on a process (easier, faster, lower cost, etc)
o Tangible, measurable, quantifiable outcomes
o What a customer buys…
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Week 5
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What types of Results might an Economic Buying Influence look for?
Economic Buying Influence Role: final approval, releases funds
Focus: bottom line, impact on organization
o ROI
o Increased sales
o Reduces costs
o Increased productivity
o Low total cost of ownership
o Profitability and cash flow
o Flexibility
o Low risk
And Technical Buying Influences -what might be their hot buttons?
Technical Buying Influence Role: judge match to specs, screens out
Focus: assess vs. specs in areas of expertise
o Meet specifications and compliance reqs.
o Best technical solution
o Terms and conditions
o Meet legal requirements
o Low price, discounts
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Week 5
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What types of Results would be of interest to a User Buyer?
User Buying Influence Role: judge product impact on the job
Focus: the job to be done
o Reliability
o Increased efficiency
o Upgrading of skills
o Fulfill performance requirements
o Best problem solution
o Do job, easier, faster
o Ease of use, standardization
What about the Coach?
Coaches Role: give data, guide to other buying influences
Focus: your success with this proposal
No specific Results for Coaches…only Wins
Wins Wins – what’s different about them? Wins embody emotional impact. It isn’t about the numbers…it’s about the narrative. And that narrative needs to put the decision maker into the story. They have to see how selecting you and your company as their solution provider will benefit them personally.
Your personal Win is different for each Buying Influence’s
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Week 5
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Wins – intangible, not measurable or quantifiable
Wins Reference Sheet
Achieving a Gain:
o Remain in power
o Achieve control over others
o Get more done in less time
o Increase skill development
o Be an instrument of change
o Perceived as a problem solver
o Tangible contribution to organization
o Recognition and respect
o Increase growth potential…fast track
o Increase self-esteem
o Feel more secure
o Perceived as a leader
o Uniqueness – standing out from the pack
o Financial payoff – higher bonus from improvements
o Get promoted
o Get more control and autonomy
o Opportunity for education or career development
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Week 5
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Avoiding a Loss:
o Loss of credibility
o Loss of stature
o Loss of role or job
o Demotion
o Required to exit the business
o Make an upper level manager angry
o Ego deflation
Summary
So what are our key takeaways?
Seller/suppliers aren’t as unique and differentiated as they think
Buyers tend to notice the similarities first (“they all have much the
same products and are fairly equal in capabilities”)
Once products and price are factored out, the selling engagement
can make a big difference in how a customer perceives alternative
suppliers (i.e. the Clarity and Attunement of the sales rep)
Sales efforts must target Win-Win outcomes or risk creating Buyer’s
Remorse, which may morph into Buyer’s Revenge
Win-Win outcomes depend on producing tangible Results that are
measurable improvements in an organizations’ processes which
produce quantifiable outcomes (often measured in terms of ROI,
sales growth, productivity improvements or cost reductions).
But humans are essentially self-actualizing beings who are motivated
by intangible personal benefits and sources of satisfaction. So linking
corporate Results to personal Wins is critical to motivating decision
makers to choose your company and solution.
UMASS Lowell Sales and Customer Relations Management
Week 5
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Next week:
Ideal Customers –Demographics & Psychographics
Not every customer is a good fit for your products or services. Applying
sophisticated targeting and assessment techniques can improve your
success rate by developing a profile of the “ideal customer”.
Demographics – size, geographic location, technical compatibility,
proximity to service centers, buying practices
Psychographics – how they value their reputation, treat their
employees, long vs. short term perspective, innovation, commitment
to quality, etc.
Competition – how much to focus on them and their products
Sales reps often spend too much time denigrating their competition
and not enough time on Results and Wins
Boise Automation Case – Read and prepare this case for discussion AND
as the basis for completing a Deal Sheet assessment in Week 6.
Points to Ponder: To increase your Probability of Sales Success…
• Know your Buying Influences! Who they are and what makes them tick…
• Learn how your Buying Influences Win • Don’t focus solely on business Results • Tie the two together to ensure your proposal delivers
the personal Win
