Olivia: Make our decision by August 1, begin the project no later than November 1, and complete by fourth quarter. (Steven uses his next question to link Olivia’s detailed response to the filter of funding.)
Steven: In October, how would the project be funded to meet your deadlines?
Olivia: Out of our capital budget.
Steven: How much has been allocated for this project?
Olivia: We have set aside $1,080,000.
Steven: How did you establish that figure? (He wants to see if she used a competitor’s estimate to arrive at a dollar amount.)
Olivia: Ron feels that we need at least a three-year payback to proceed. Being good with numbers, you have probably figured out that it’s the potential $360,000 savings times three years. (Steven will use his next question to link Olivia’s measurable response to the filter of past keys.)
Steven: What is the major reason why you approved or abandoned projects involving reducing downtime in the past?
Olivia: We stopped pursuing a project last year with one of your competitors because we didn’t feel confident that their products would work in our situation.
Steven: What does it take for you to feel assured that a solution will work in your circumstances? (Again, Steven does not want to get into a negative sale. Rather, he wants to find out what it will take to avoid his competitor’s mistake and make sure that Olivia knows the reasons. If she doesn’t, Steven will need to rethink and question what her role really is, and her importance in the decision-making process.)
Olivia: We want to make sure they understand the nuances of our operations and demonstrate where their products work in similar situations. (Olivia’s answer, while clearer, still needs further clarification.)
Steven: What would meet those requirements? (This question requires Olivia to provide specific details.)
Olivia: We would want a company to conduct an engineering survey of our equipment operations and provide documented results they achieved over a two-year period with one of our competitors. (Steven will use his next question to link Olivia’s measurable response to the most important filter, which is attainment measurement. With all the details discussed, Steven asks Olivia to review his summary on how she knows if she achieves her goal of reducing downtime. He wants to make sure nothing major is missing. Steven looks at his notes and begins.)
Steven: Let me see if I understand what you said it will take to achieve your goal of minimizing downtime. You want to reduce your costs of $40,000 per downtime hour to no more than nine hours annually, save $360,000, begin in November and finish by December, not exceed $1,080,000 budget, get at least a three-year payback, and any solution must have proven performance. Is there anything that we missed? (I’m glad that I took notes.)
Olivia: If we can accomplish all that, there will be a lot of happy people here. Do you think you have any products that can do what we want to do?
Steven: Before I say a definite yes, I’d like to take everything we discussed today and run it past my engineering group to get their thoughts. Does that sound like a good plan to you? (Steven is positive that he can help Olivia. However, he sticks to his MP 2 strategy. His objective is to gather details about goals and filters, review them with his sales and engineering team, and see if he needs more information. Furthermore, he wants to obtain MPC 2: Potential Confirmed via a conditional commitment, match features to measurable benefits in MP 3: Cement Solution, and only then make his presentation. Discipline will have its rewards.)
Step Four: Yellow Light
Do a summary of the measurable benefits of the customer’s goals to build momentum. Get her head nodding in approval. You are ready to have the customer separate the serious car buyers from the tire kickers.
Conditional Commitments
When you confirm a customer’s attainment measurements, they become conditional commitments. Only customers who are serious about achieving their goals make these commitments. Conditional commitments are not trial closes used to flush out customers’ receptiveness through specific product commitments. You know the product-focused approach of “If I can prove that I can do this, will you buy that?” You do not need trial closes when you have MPCs. The customers who acknowledge sales opportunities are moving forward when they proceed to the next MP. Conditional commitments ensure that there are no moving targets and that both you and customers can manage expectations.
Whether customers want to achieve their goals versus whether they want to buy your products are two separate and distinct issues. If you try to lump them together, you are a product advocate, not a customer advocate.
These commitments customers make aloud to themselves. They commit to achieving their goals, although a huge if exists: If they can achieve their goals within the constraints of their attainment measurements. These commitments are only valid if your yet-to-be determined products meet those requirements. Do not view these commitments as green lights, but rather as proceed-with-caution yellow lights.
Note Often salespeople use a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to signify a customer’s commitment level. A MOU outlines the investments (usually more time and labor than direct dollar costs) both organizations need to make to find out whether the customer’s goals can be achieved within the conditional commitments. A signed time line outlining what steps need to be taken, by whom, and when goes a long way toward helping everyone manage expectations. If one date slips, everyone understands why subsequent dates might also slip.
Case Study
Steven uses the measurable specifics of Olivia’s attainment measurement to create her conditional commitment. Making conditional commitments measurable requires calculations that competitors do not know how to do, but you do. Your sales approach just gave you another competitive advantage.
Continuing from Step Three: Eliminate Unknowns, Steven confirms Olivia’s attainment measurement to turn it into the conditional commitment as follows:
Steven: In other words, if you could meet all those requirements, you would feel that you achieved your goal of reducing down-time?
Olivia: Yes. (Note that Steven did not ask Olivia to commit to a specific product through trial closes, but rather commit to achieving her goals if the conditional commitment is met. As stated earlier, Steven would now take this information back to his sales team and use the full resources of his company to choose the right combination of products and services to meet Olivia’s conditional commitment. The target of downtime is no longer a moving abstract concept but a static, well-defined one. Now, Steven needs to see if any products can hit it.)
Measurable Phase Change 2: Potential Confirmed
MPC 2: Potential Confirmed ends this phase. Customers confirm that the potential for achieving their goals is qualified and warrants your call for action.
Case Study
Steven’s next call for action is to conduct a paid survey of Positron’s manufacturing facility. The cost of the survey reinforces Olivia’s commitment, and addresses her concerns over the selected supplier’s knowledge of their nuances. Steven will credit its cost to any subsequent work by FutureTech.
A survey benefits both parties because it eliminates unknowns. The fewer the unknowns, the fewer the risks, and the more accurately Steven can identify the project’s costs.
Note When you end MP 2 with trial closes and not conditional commitments, you are forced to start MP 3 with a product, not a goal focus.
Skipping the Order to Get the Order
Sometimes, it makes sense to skip or rush through one or more of the MPs. You might need to do so in any one of the following situations:
Costly sales expenses to conduct MP 2: Measure Potential in person. Therefore, conduct MP 1: Spark Interest and as much of MP 2 as possible simultaneously via phone or e-mail to qualify long-distance prospects.
Customer emergency requires an immediate proposal; you go straight to MP 3: Cement Solution. Again, try to establish customers’ long-term goals, so short-term emergency solutions are consistent with them.
A strong MPC 3: Solution Confirmed leads you right into MP 4: Implement Agreement. MP 4 becomes the logical conclusion to the previous MPC commitments. The stronger the measurable benefits, the greater the chances that MPC 3 and MPC 4 will occur at the same time.
With multiple decision makers, conduct MP 2 to MP 4 with gatekeepers. Their MPC 4: Agreement Confirmed is their endorsement for you to meet with the advocates or final decision makers.
To Take Notes or Not to Take Notes, That Is the Question
What you record is what you build your sales strategies around. Therefore, a question that often comes up is whether to take notes in front of customers. The main reason customers react adversely to note taking is that they do not know what you are writing. They usually suspect the worst. Are you jotting down, “This person is a waste of time,” or “Add $10,000 to price, sounds like he’s in a jam.”