What could Marty have done differently? Marty should not have used car (product) selections to uncover Rich’s preferences. Marty should have reassured Rich that most people, with so many choices, are not sure which car they want.
However, ranking what is most important to them (goals) about a sports car helps narrow their choices. For instance, is it comfort, image, efficiency, or costs? Marty further tells Rich that if he understands a little more about his background (driving habits, occupation, past cars, family status, and the like) he can provide him with the reasons why other people in his situation (market segment) selected their sports cars.
Avoiding the “What Do They Do for You?” Trap
When you find out about customers’ alternatives, do not end up in wars over features or price. If customers compare your features with competitors’ features, their goals get lost in the shuffle. When customers do not evaluate features of products on how they achieve their goals, they are less likely to change their current supplier. When customers consider products to be commodities, comparing the number of features becomes their system of evaluation.
Example
Rebecca Hoffman sells accounting services. Dennis Ketchum, a neutral customer, tells her that he is using XYZ Company to do his accounting services. Rebecca resists the urge to ask Dennis the product-focused question: “What do they do for you?”
Instead, she asks: “What do you see as the major goals you want to accomplish with an accounting service?” This question is customer oriented not product focused, and it is one that Dennis has never heard. As expected, he does not know what she means by “goals” and looks like he is trying out a new pair of eyes. No problem. Before their meeting, Rebecca reviewed the Market Profile sheet for this type of customer, and she is ready to suggest pertinent goals, such as ensuring tax record-keeping compliance or providing access to lending institutions.
Which type of question do your customers hear more often: “What do they do for you?” or “What are you trying to accomplish?”
You want customers to use goals, filters, and measurable value as their yardsticks to compare products. If possible, your proposals should look like a modified Market Profile sheet by listing how their specific goals and measurable benefits connect to your features and benefits. Customers can use this list to check off how many of their goals you achieve versus competitors and the value of each one. You vividly illustrate to customers how your products achieve their goals. You learn how to create these checklists in Chapter 7.
Again, if you choose market segments correctly, your unique strengths win the sales. In the interim, you can hope that competitors focus on your products and try to figure out how their features compare with yours. Let them suffer the fate of ignoring customers’ goals.
Handling Customers Satisfied with Their Existing Supplier
Without a doubt, you will contact satisfied negative or neutral customers. They feel their current suppliers (competitors) do a good job of achieving their goals. While subsequent chapters show how to convert them to positive customers, sometimes, regardless of what you offer, customers are not ready to make changes. You cannot move them forward in the sales process. In these situations, use the create-and-wait strategy. Slowly create opportunities and then wait for the right time to seize them. Think of this strategy as a means of last resort or your best walk-away position. The strategy works as follows:
If possible, walk away from these potential sales opportunities only after learning their goals (measurable ones, if possible), not what they like about their current suppliers.
Position yourself as a customer expert, a conduit of industry information. Offer to keep them updated about innovations and trends relevant to achieving their goals. Send them any new articles on systems of evaluation that reflect the goals they are seeking to achieve and favor your unique strengths. Do not send sales literature. Do keyword searches and look for articles on the Internet that are relevant to their market segments and goals.
Find out if the company has a Web site. If so, visit the company’s news sections monthly to see whether it is making any changes that might favor your products. Research the company’s products and services, stated corporate goals, financial performance, acquisitions, changes in personnel, and the like for potential opportunities. Understand how the company sells value to its customers, so that you can highlight similar value to the company, if possible. Check employment listings to see whether its hiring requirements might offer you sales opportunities. Who knows? You might find your completely satisfied contact has left his or her position. (New hires are excellent sales opportunities. Companies give them more latitude during their honeymoon stage; and new hires are more open to change. The fact that they changed jobs proves it.)
Ask your satisfied customers for the best way to correspond with them. Send letters, faxes, or, preferably, e-mails, with telephone follow-ups every three to six months. If possible, set up your reminders electronically in software programs like Outlook. Ask your positive customers in the same market segments whether they know these satisfied customers. If they do, confirm that you can use their names in your correspondence.
Ask positive customers whether they see these “create and waits” at trade or association meetings. If they do, find out whether they would mention how you achieve the same or similar goals for them. A word of warning: Ensure that your products are measurably better than those of their current suppliers. Otherwise, this tactic could backfire on you. Your goal is to have positive customers win over negative customers—not the other way around.
After a few months, offer “create and waits” the opportunity to attend training seminars relevant to their goals. Again, proceed with caution for the reasons mentioned in the previous step. In addition, start sending case studies on your company’s successes in their market segments.
Try this strategy for one year (hopefully less). If there are no sales, decide whether it is worthwhile to go one position higher (more on this strategy in the next filter). However, if you have the patience, continue to wait for stumbles by existing suppliers. Just make sure the company considers you to be its second choice. Check periodically so that you can be the first one on the scene if the contact leaves his or her position or company.
Note The create-and-wait strategy also works with customers who find their current methods of achieving their goals (filter of current situation) satisfactory.
Gatekeepers, Advocates, and the Final Decision Maker (Prerequisite)
Three people stand between you and a successful sale: the customer’s gatekeeper, advocate, and final decision maker (FDM).In smaller, decentralized, and less-bureaucratic companies, the same person might assume two or three of these roles. Sometimes, people pretend to assume roles they do not really play. Your challenge is to find out what role each person really plays. You need to know, not assume, who gives the final yes to buy your products.
Note Most sales theories break contacts into two groups, the C level and the D level. The C level comprises the chief executive officer (CEO), chief operating officer (COO), chief financial officer (CFO), chief information/technology officer, and so forth. The D level is composed of directors and heads of departments such as operations, finance, engineering, accounting, and customer service. Ensure that you understand both C and D level goals to gain support throughout the organization.
The roles, in order of their ability to issue purchase orders if they are three different people, are as follows.
Gatekeepers
Gatekeepers play an interesting role. They either open or close the gates on your efforts to get to the advocates or final decision makers. They can say an initial no to your pursuing sales opportunities but not a final yes to purchasing your products. Yet, if they feel you take their goals seriously, gatekeepers provide invaluable information. They know what goals interest the advocates and FDMs most—and details of the filters. They can also tell you what the best way is to build rapport with them.
Gatekeepers’ areas of expertise are mostly technical or operational in nature. Their goals often look more like requirements or specifications. Purchasing agents use gatekeepers to help them insert technical language into requests for proposals (RFPs). Advocates and FDMs view gatekeepers as inside consultants. If your products fall within their field of expertise, your products must satisfy their technical requirements. Because of their technical nature, gatekeepers tend to discuss specific products and features rather than broad goals.
Companies often use outside consultants as external gatekeepers. They provide guidance on how best to achieve their goals. Like gatekeepers, they too can give you an initial no but not a final yes. The role of consultants surfaces when you discuss the filters of plans or alternatives. When gatekeepers show uncertainty about their goals or filters, do not be surprised if outside consultants appear. Companies hire consultants to help them clarify their goals, make them measurable, and eliminate uncertainty.