*The following is an excerpt from Mark Bishop's book, The Trusted Seller; the foundation for the What Buyers Want sales training program. Contact us for Sales training consulting now!.
Top salespeople project FLEXIBILITY in their business dealings. The customer feels that the seller is EASY to work with, and tries to meet their business NEEDS.....People today are better educated and more informed than ever before. You know that just as well as I do. Furthermore, you probably also recognize that buyers, like everyone else in business today, simply expect more from their suppliers – they expect more than they did 10 years ago, 10 months ago or even 10 weeks ago. Buyers expect better prices, better parts, faster delivery, better customer service and more supplier risk. The intent isn't to piss off salespeople trying to make an honest living. In fact, it's anything but that. The same demands that keep me awake at night (do more with less money and do it faster!) likely steal your sleep as well. We're simply on different sides of the same fence.
But it can't be that way if you want a thriving buyer-supplier relationship. You've got to take the first step by meeting the buyer on his side of the fence and working to achieve common ground. Your best chance at accomplishing this (at least initially) is to do what's best for the buyer. Or, as one buyer delicately put it: "If you want my business, do things my way. If not, I'll find someone else who can!"
The very best reps adapt to buyer needs, which happens to be one of the two behaviors that ultimately help them earn buyer trust. Your ability to remain flexible, by adapting to buyer needs, is critically important on the front end of the sale. Why? Buyers recognize that salespeople who demonstrate flexibility before ever making a sale are far more apt to respond appropriately after the sale if and when problems arise.
You've got to be willing to change how you do business if you want to reap the rewards of a long-term, mutually beneficial buyer-supplier relationship. I'm not suggesting that you race into the buyer's office right now and begin changing everything you've worked so hard to accomplish. Instead, I want you to be painfully aware that this is the point in time when a buyer begins evaluating whether to place more trust in you and the company you work for. Your chances of earning this trust increase dramatically when you demonstrate that you can adapt to buyer needs. So, let's examine how to accomplish this.
Top-performing salespeople frequently adapt, or change how they do business, so they can better meet buyer needs. In some cases, the change may be as minor as redefining agreement terms; in other cases, the situation may warrant a more far-reaching change, such as stepping up internal production or even creating a new product just to make the customer happy.
Customers are "passionately loyal" about doing business with companies they trust will consistently act in their best interests (Hart and Johnson 1999, 3). The buyer must believe that you'll always put the needs of the buying organization first.
Putting buyer needs first – and adapting, if needed, to meet those buyer needs is a terrific way you can prove yourself before making the big sale. Show the buyer that you believe his organization is important enough that you'll make changes, if necessary, within your company to help the buying organization achieve its objectives – and then do it.
In fact, new research confirms this concept is among five key behaviors that promote trust and collaborative improvement. In one trust study, researchers found specifically that exhibiting behavior that "communicates the other party is a valued team member," helps you cultivate trust in the buyer-seller environment (Fawcett, Magnan and Williams 2004, 26).
Carl Snyder, executive managing director of procurement for Hewlett-Packard Company (which, incidentally, is known for its "exemplary partnering track record"), goes so far as to say this: "The moment you take unnecessary advantage [of the other party in a buyer-supplier relationship], things unravel a lot faster than they go together" (Edelman 1997, 6). Your motivation cannot be purely to benefit your own position; instead, you must put the buyer first in everything you do.
The top salespeople put buyer needs first, tending to put themselves in the buyer's shoes as they think proactively about how to best meet the needs of the buying organization. They make recommendations to the buying organization that can head off future problems; plus, they bring up solutions to problems beyond what a buyer has vocalized. They adapt their offering, terms of business or whatever in a manner that best serves the buyer.
I hope you've mastered this concept by now because you're going to need it. Regardless of whether you've made the big sale or are still working on trial orders, you've got to listen to your buyer and everyone else in the buying organization.
At a bare minimum, listening helps you identify opportunities that could enhance your value to the buyer. When you learn the buyer's systems engineers love the space-saving design of the new network enhancer they're testing, your wheels start turning:
Or, if things haven't gone well after your trial run, listening may provide the insight needed to get to the root of the problem. In many cases, buyers are upfront when providing negative feedback. There's no question as to what went wrong and where – the buyer tells you about it. LISTEN. Encourage the buyer to share his perception of what went wrong and what action, if any, would be welcomed to remedy the problem. The information you gain by listening carefully will prove very valuable as you attempt to rectify the problem and move on.
In other cases, buyers aren't as candid; instead, they invent objections or excuses for not furthering the business relationship. If the buyer stalls your efforts to land additional opportunities with reason after reason, and none of these reasons appear to have much substance, listen closely. Buyers who invent objections frequently do so because it's easier (at the time) to delay a proceeding indefinitely than it is to tell the salesperson the real reason, which could include any of the following. Perhaps the buyer is:
You should be able to gain some insight into the buyer's real reason for not proceeding if you listen carefully. If a buyer has stalled you multiple times by insisting that he cannot proceed until other decisions are made internally, you have little to lose by digging a bit further to identify the root of the problem. For example:
"Well, Steve, I'm torn here. Obviously, I'm interested in doing business with you. I certainly don't want to take up your time unnecessarily if there's no chance of us doing business together. But please hear me out for a minute. I don't know that your company is in a tight spot – but I'm beginning to suspect cash flow may be an issue. Am I getting warm?"
A volley such as this lands the ball completely in the buyer's court. This is the buyer's opportunity to come clean with the real reason for the delays – if, indeed, a reason exists beyond the one already specified. I simply want to emphasize that if you listen carefully to the buyer – as well as others within the buying organization, you're likely to gain insight that you can work to your advantage. Take whatever is wrong and fix it. Again, the critical issue is your ability to adapt.
When you demonstrate a willingness to listen to your buyer, gain an understanding of what's wrong and then adapt so the problem is corrected, the buyer gains confidence that you're not going to leave him stranded after the sale if and when problems arise.
The buyer needs confidence before granting you a large order that you'll respond appropriately afterwards if problems arise. And one of the best ways to gain insight into how you'll respond afterwards is to gauge your pre-sales behavior – especially how you respond when the buyer gives you feedback that something didn't go well.
Dr. Sandy Jap, professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management, explains "a partnership creates a context in which both parties can freely and frankly air ideas and grievances," with both parties being able to "hold each other up to tough, high standards that may not be possible without the relationship" (Edelman 1997, 4). Obviously, it's not in your best interests to tell a buyer to buzz off if you've been approached with constructive criticism. How you choose to respond tells the buyer everything he needs to know about how easy it will be to work with you in the future.
Another tactic employed by top sales reps who demonstrate their ability to adapt to buyer needs is this: They not only demonstrate a willingness to change how things are done, they make something happen!
Ideally, every time you're faced with a buyer problem, you'd not only come up with the very best solution that saves the day – you'd also (miraculously) have the resources available to pull it off. But that's not real life. What you can do (and should) is provide your own suggestions based on buyer feedback. Share new ideas, different approaches and ideas from other "like" accounts. As you and the buyer arrive at a possible solution through dialogue, do absolutely everything you can to make the proposed a reality.
Now, interestingly, the buyer's perception of your power greatly colors the effectiveness of this technique. (By salesperson power, I'm referring to the buyer's belief that you are capable of providing the outcomes you promise.) If you promise your company can or will do something, but the buyer does not believe you have control over the resources required to make good on the promise, the buyer may be skeptical (Swan and Nolan 1985, 45). For example, a buyer may doubt a sales rep who says he can expedite an order if the buyer believes the salesperson "lacks control over the organizational resources needed to fulfill the promise" (Doney and Cannon 1997, 8).
So, what does all this mean to you? Well, namely two important things:
In fact, one study conducted by a sales management consulting firm found word choice is important enough that it's one of 10 factors responsible for the success of top salespeople ("10 practices..." 1996, 1).
For starters, never promise something if you can't deliver it. It's far better to tell the buyer you can produce only 15,000 more connectors by the deadline instead of promising delivery of 25,000 more and then failing to deliver on your promise.
A second common mistake is snubbing small opportunities. Don't scoff at a small order. It's old news by now that you've got to prove yourself to the buyer. How are you going to manage that if you turn up your nose when given a chance to shine with a trial order?
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