Strategic sales management

Strategic Sales Management
designed for

B to B Sales Situations

By

Direction One Consulting

Strategic Sales Management Process

Develop a
1. Mission
& 2.
Vision.

3. Drill
down to
Territory
action
plan for
month.

4. Develop
an Account
KYC Identify
challenges
for business
& key
people.

5. Do Invmt
Benefits
Analysis Present proof
of financial
impact of
product /
service .

Follow up
& close.

Document
activities &
best
practices.


The Four Mistakes of my Sales Life!!

1.
2.
3.
4.

Spray & pray.
Buffet Counter.
Sir – we have this great product.
Beggar.

Lets develop a sales process that avoids these mistakes
and produces consistent sales growth.

Tool 1 – Discovering the Mission for the Business

1. Our most satisfying, best effort.
2. The impact we had on our customer.

Our mission – to consistently deliver this impact to our
customers……


Tool 2 – Developing a Vision for the Business

1. The state of the business today? Sales / Margins / cash
flows / risks – product, customer, geography, people…….
2. The desired state in the future.
Our vision – where do we want to go…….


Tool 3 – Drill down to a Territory Action plan
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

My current year financial target……..
The business I can expect from current customers…….
The business I need to develop from new customers (a – b)……..
The average ticket size of the business today……..
The number of new customers I need to develop this year (c divided by
d)………

My territory action plan: Calls / meetings I need to do……

Tool 4 – Developing a Key account map for each
customer – KYC.

A. Understanding my customer’s business today? Financials,
operations, pain areas, business challenges…….
B. Understanding the customer’s buying process & people.
C. Opportunity Assessment:
1. Which of my products & services can address this pain, assist
the customer in this business challenge…..
2. Potential business, opportunity analysis…….

How does an institution buy?
• Is the only one

who can say YES.
• Usually a owner or
Business Head.
• Has profit center /
SBU responsibilities.
• Is & behaves like a
King. Decides on his
own, sets scope for
others.
• Looks at both sides
of the menu card.

F – King decides.

King
C – King
initiates action
to address the
pain

B – king
acknowledges
the pain

E – Evaluator
shortlists
proposals.

Evaluator
E – Evaluator gets
D – Evaluator
proposals.
takes action.
• Evaluates and shortlists. Issues RFPs
•Is like a filter, can say No
but cannot say yes.
•Looks at only right side.
•Works within boundaries
defined by others.

A – User
experiences
pain

User
• Uses the service on the job.

•Has good influencing power.
• Looks at the left side of menu card.
• Has boundaries to work within, though
occasionally thinks beyond.


King
Evaluator

User

What is our probability of success if we talk only
to Evaluators?
• Most price sensitive person in the company.
• Comes into buying process late, when requirements have already
been set.
• May operate on his own without any need established.
• Unlikely to recommend any vendor, because of risk in role.

• Not very influential with King, high need to impress, tends to be
therefore unreasonable & aggressive.
• Going bottom – up is difficult.

King
Evaluator

User

How does an institution buy?
• Where does the buying process start? Where is the need for
the service felt first?
• How does the buying process advance?
• When does Evaluator enter the picture?
• How long does this process take for the institution?

How are the needs of these buyers different?

King

Evaluator –
Purchase /
Commercial
- Price.
-Reliability of
supplies.
- Convenience
of doing
business.
- dependency,
share of
business

- Business impact
on total costs,
quality and time.

Evaluator –
Technical
- Quality of
product.
- Meets specs
- Technical
knowledge
provided.

User
-Total operating
costs.
- Service
response.
-Business growth
linked to targets.


King
Evaluator

User

Why does an institution buy?
Why do people of an institution buy?
•To address pain
•To solve business challenges.


How does the King decide?

King


Who takes the decision?

• Mostly - the King.
• In consultation with the other buyers.
• Difficult to figure out power equations.
• So best to pitch to all.


Strategic Sales Management: Becoming a Great
Sales Professional
• The difference between servicing demand & creating demand.
• Great salespeople create demand for their products & services.

• What exactly is Selling?
It is not spray and pray, buffet counter, just talking about product or
begging for business.
It is creating demand for our products and services.

What is strategic sales management / creating demand?
It is creating awareness of areas for improvement in our customer’s way of
doing business & positioning our products / services as a means of doing
that.

• Any fool can sell at a discount / any fool can bribe …….. and most fools do
exactly that!!!!

Typical pain areas / business challenges?

• Cost – High.
• Risk – High dependency on customers / vendors /
people.
• Performance - Low process performance.
• Quality - Poor.
• Customer / Business Issues: Low growth of business,
poor customer loyalty, low ticket size.
The sales process has to identify which of these issues
exist in our prospect?


Focus of Strategy?

• What are you going to sell?
• Who are your target customers?
• How are you going to avoid or beat competition?
•
•
•
•

What markets?
Who are your competitors?
What are you good at?
Do a SWOT.


Becoming a Great Sales Professional –
selling to institutions.

• Mckinsey – quality of research about customer, Ideal
Customer.
• Xerox – KYC - tapping multiple buying influences.
• Infosys – account mapping process & probability of
sales / sales forecast & accountability.
• Johnson & Johnson Sales planning process.
• Voltas – forklifts – sales pitch to users also.


Justifying Price & Communicating Value
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Naukri.com.
Asian PPG Industries.
GE Medical Systems.
Voltas – Cost of operations, impact on business.
Asian Paints – lifetime value.
Everest roofing products.
Volkswagen Polo vs Indigo.

• Price is relative, it is not an absolute figure. Therefore
success depends on our ability to compare it to a Value
which is much larger than the price.
• That value is the financial benefit to the customer’s
business over the life of the product.

Too 5: Investment Benefits Analysis: What pain
areas / problems does our product solve for our customers?
Features

Benefits

Financial
benefits of
Solution to
the
Customer

1.
Does it increase investments but reduce “total costs” in the long run?
2.
Does it save time, speed up processes, enable things to be done faster?
3.
Does it improve the quality of the product or process?
4.
Does it help the customer manage his risk in the business?
5.
Does it help him attract more customers, increase ticket size per customer,
charge higher prices or increase customer loyalty?
6.
Does it simplify the business, making it easy to run?

And what is the financial impact of all the above? In Rs.
Refer to Worksheet

How do you Sell?

Good Salesperson
– sells on benefits

Great Sales person –
identifies pain areas,
provides solutions

Average Salesperson
– sells products &
services


The ACCESS Sales Process

A

C

Acquire
a
Capture
research a high
orientati position
on

C
Clarify
value
add
through
diagnost
ics

E

S

Educate
about
Settle
service object
features ions
and
benefits

S

Summarize
& close on
winning
note


Acquire a research orientation

• Our company knowledge

• Product knowledge.
• Research target industry.
• Research target customer.
• Research competition.
• Where do we quickly get all this
information from?
•How do we know we have done this well?


Tool 6: Using a Catalyst

• Acquiring information about an institution is a
complex activity & too difficult to be done alone.
• Need a Catalyst who:
– knows the account.
– wants you to succeed in that account.
– does not gain financially from your success.


The Concept of the Catalyst
• Who can be a catalyst:
– Existing Kings.
– Friends.
– Non-competitive suppliers to the same customer.
– Ex-employees / colleagues at the account.
– Consultants.
– Press / PR professionals.


Capture a high position

• Use catalysts to approach the King.

• However, DO NOT SELL TO KING.
• Use king to only gain access to the
institution.
• Move to next stage - Seek to Clarify
value add through in-depth
diagnostics.
• How do we know we have done this
well?


Clarify value through diagnostics

• Study the business – Identify waste,

inefficiencies, areas for improvement.
• Learn current business challenges for King
(through KRAs).
• Learn growth plans for company.
• Anticipate future challenges.
• Understand our competitive position.
• How do we know we have done this well?
• Derive Business Value Added.
• Clarify personal value add for each buyer.


Energize by educating about service
features and benefits

Present to different buyers as follows:
• Your understanding of the current situation.
• Your assessment of the future challenges likely
to be faced & the risks.
• Your solution.
• Your BVA & PVA



Settle objections

• Note – If ACCE of ACCESS is done well, this stage
would be skipped by customer altogether.
• Anticipate likely objections.
• Prepare responses.



Objections
• You are highly unlikely to ever meet a customer who says –
wow, where were you, I was waiting for you, what amount
do I write on the cheque?…….

Just fishing for
discounts – be
prepared.

Drawback – if
true, admit the
drawback,
refocus attention
on plus points.

Why do
customers
object?

Doubt – offer
proof, data,
references.

Misunderstanding –
clarify.


Handling objections

• Look at them as a buying signal - think of what would
happen if your customer said nothing!!!.
• Probe – use open questions
• The power of knowledge!
• Never argue – agree with feeling, not necessarily with
the statement.


Give discounts / your price is high

• Good things are not cheap, cheap things aren’t good.
• Nobody gives discounts because their products are
selling too well.
• Are they so desperate?
• What would be more important to you - price or cost?
Then elaborate on cost.
• Give examples of other premium products where the
customer has paid more – eg for men / women.


Give discounts / your price is high

• “Maybe I did not explain the value of my product well!”
• People who give discounts generally cut corners
elsewhere in areas where customers do not notice
(especially in service).
• Reduce the excess price over life of the product.
• Reduce the profile of product being offered.
• Actually our product is not meant for everybody….
• “xxxx” customers cannot be wrong (give national sales
data).

Let me think over it

• Is there something about my product or company that
you are unsure of?
• Is there something about me that you are unsure of?
• Quite simply, your business is important to me & you will
not regret your decision to purchase this product. Could
we start the paperwork now?


(You come to know) I am not the
decision-maker

•
•
•
•

Stop selling immediately.
Besides you, who else would be involved in the decision?
Do not sell through, use relationship to map account.
Plan to meet the King directly – going top-down is faster.


I’m happy with my service provider

• Definitely, lots of xxx owners……
• Share examples from similar profile.
• The best time to look for a new supplier / job is when you
are happy with your old job.
• Single supplier relationships sometimes lead to
complacency from the supplier’s side. Give us 20% of the
business, both of us would stay alert to providing good
service.


Previous bad experience with your
service

• Find out why. Then tell the truth to customer. Show you are
sweating.
• Say – “thanks, your feedback helped us…………”.
• Explain how things are different now.
• Close.


On the phone – I’m not interested

• The worst that would happen is that both of us
would have made a new acquaintance.
• Ask for references.
• Ask for permission to call later.


Summarize & close on a winning note

•Ask for PO / close.
• Ask for cheq?
• Use closing techniques.



Win with Closing Skills

• Ask for the order.
• Balance Sheet Close


Ask for the Order

• The ABC of sales.
• The simplest most effective way to close.
• And the most powerful.


Balance Sheet Close
To be used during competitive sales pitches.
Take a blank sheet of paper, draw a line down the center.
On the left, list down advantages of yr product. Atleast 7.
On the right side, put ONLY the heading – advantages of
“competition product”.
• Pass sheet to customer. Ask customer to fill up the right
column. DO NOT HELP THE CUSTOMER AT THIS POINT.
• Customer will most likely struggle. After some time say “Our
product really would be the most suitable for your
needs………”
•
•
•
•


You never close a sale, you always begin a
relationship
1. Not spray & pray – a customized pitch
2. Not Buffet Counter – only a few products
recommended.
3. Some conversations on the product – yes, but a
greater emphasis on pain areas, business challenges
& what the product / service can do for the
customer.
4. No Beggar – just a matured satisfying way to work.


Maneesh Konkar
Connect with me on

&

Twitter: youngldrs
Email: maneesh@directiononeonline.com
Blog: http://youngleadersateverylevel.blogspot.com/
Facebook: Young Leaders at Every Level
Tel: +91 – 98205 03710


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