When selling into enterprises we have to convince multiple people to come to our camp. We need internal allies who are selling for us even after we have left the building.
Often our best allies are people who start as our most ardent foes. The first time we engage them, if they will meet with us at all, we get nothing but negative feedback. Their body language is cold and they spread their negative impressions, after we have left the building. How do we turn these detractors into enthusiastic supporters?
Mine their motivations – Mining motivations is about discovering what makes our detractors tick. What excites them? What threatens them? When people oppose us even before meeting us it tells us that we represent a potential threat for them. We are challenging one of the five personal motivations that drive people. Their desire for safety, simplicity, reward, recognition or revolution, is at risk based on assumptions about what we represent. (See my blog on personal motivations.) https://www.thefiveabilities.com/five-things-people-buy-that-are-not-on-the-invoice/
The good news is that just the simple action of caring enough to mine motivations begins to show detractors that our intentions are noble and not negatively disruptive. By understanding their motivations, we can begin to work with detractors to figure out how our win becomes their win.
Understand their history – What has made our detractors successful in the past and what role, if any, has our competitor played in that success? Are our detractors playing for the other team or are they just comfortable with the other team? The distinction is important because someone who is just comfortable with the current situation is ready to be convinced that things can be even better with our product or service.
Those decision-makers who are actively selling against us are another story. We find two main behaviors in these situations. We find decision-makers who will aggressively seek us out because they want to keep us under control. The good news is we at least are meeting with the decision-maker. We have a direct opportunity to change the perception of our VISABILITY, CREDABILITY, VIABILITY, CAPABILITY or RELIABILITY.
The other behavior is when decision-makers avoid meeting with us. The problem is their vote counts so we need to get to them. These people will assign a gatekeeper whose job it is to keep the real-decision maker informed while making us believe we are talking to the real decision-maker. Gatekeepers have done their job when they keep us from getting insight from the real decision-maker. However, gatekeepers do not become heroes just by keeping us at bay. Like any other business contributor the way gatekeepers become heroes is by making an impact that brings positive change.
Help them win – Our goal with gatekeepers and the decision-makers they work for is to help them become heroes by enhancing their true involvement in the proposal and decision making process. This is at the core of incredibly successful selling, since we are focusing our efforts on how we can help a detractor win when we win.
One of the first big sales I made at Boeing started with a bidder’s conference where the Director of Procurement told us, and our competitors, that we were not to meet with any business owners without going through him. Our competitors were already incumbents with most of the business owners so they immediately and overtly ignored the instructions from that Director. In fact, during that session our competitors were actively scheduling meetings with business owners while the Director was talking.
I took another approach, out of necessity, that helped me really understand the power of helping detractors win. When the meeting dismissed the incumbents immediately went to their respective business owners and struck up conversations. I went to the Director of Procurement and pointed out the few business owners I knew and asked him to join our conversations. It turned out that this Director had never met some of these business owners and I was the only sales person in the room who invited him to join business discussions.
This procurement director was very smart, as are most directors at Boeing, and he wanted to be more involved in the business. I could see that in how he approached those first introductions. I also learned that while the director had not met all the business owners he definitely knew who they all were. When he realized I intended to include him and not go around him, he became an ally because we were helping each other win.
We ended up getting that business which led to more wins. More importantly I developed a life-long friendship that far outlasted my time at HP and Boeing. When I started The Five Abilities, that former Director of Procurement was one of the first people to reach out and ask how he could help. Help them win and you will win.
©2014 Rick Wong – The Five Abilities LLC
