Selling Articles- Harvard Business review

• In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers: March 2009

• Selling into Micro markets: July–August 2012

• The End of Solution Sales: July–August 2012

ARTICLES TO BE COVERED In a Downturn, Provoke your Customers Nidhi Ambavane – P20 Amit Nabriya - P03 Selling into Micro markets Hemant Telang – P10 Abhishek Bang– P01 The End of solution sales Komal Avhad– P15 Ashish Areekattel – P07

In a Downturn, Provoke your Customers

PROVOCATION BASED SELLING

• Product based selling – A solution selling

approach

• Helps customers see their competitive

challenge

LEARNING TO BE PROACTIVE

• Identify the problem

• Develop a provocative point of view

• Lodge the provocation with a decision maker

who can take the implied action

STEPS IN PROVOCATION BASED SELLING

• Identify a critical issue

• Formulate your provocation

• Lodge your provocation

DEVELOPING A PROVOCATIVE POINT OF VIEW

• Proving the Point

• Reaching the right ears

SUCCESS IN PROVOCATION BASED SELLING

• Lodge your provocation

• Capture reaction to the provocation

• Discuss war stories

• Offer to conduct a short diagnostic story

Selling into Micro markets

Find New pockets of growth

• Create an opportunity

• Identify the market

Make it Easy for the Sales team

• Courage and Imagination

• Future opportunity

Align sales coverage with opportunity

• Determine how to invest resources to capture anticipated demand

• Local sales manager should be trained on– How to use data– Spend time– Size the territory

Create sales plays for each type ofopportunity

• Identify groups of micro markets or peer groups

• Strategy called “Play” consist – Offer– Pricing– Communications– Materials

• Example: Cargo airlines

Support the sales force in executingthe plays

• Opportunity maps that reveal hot & cool

micro markets

• Training

Five Steps to Finding Pockets of Growth

• Define micro market size• Determine growth potential• Gauge market share• Identify the causes of differences in market

share• Prioritize growth pockets

The End of solution sales

Corporate Executive Board Study

1. Surveyed 6,000 reps from 83 companiesa) How they prioritize opportunitiesb) Target & engage stakeholdersc) Execute sales process

2. Examined complex purchasing scenariosa) Understand the structureb) Influences of formal & informal buying teams

3. 700 individual customer stakeholders in B2B purchases to determine impact on organizational buying decision.

High performing salespeople strategy

• Targeting agile organizations• Different set of stakeholders• Coach on How to Buy• Identifying customers who are ready to act• Learn to engage well before customers fully

understand their own needs

Top performers strategies

1. Avoid the trap of “Established demand”

2. Target Mobilizers, Not Advocates

3. Coach customers on How to Buy

1. Avoid the trap of “Established demand”

• Priority to customers whose senior management meets three criteria for making purchasing decisions– Need for change– Clear vision of goals– Well established processes

• Star performers emphasize on two non traditional criteria– Customer agility– Emerging need

New Selling Guide for Reps

2. Target Mobilizers, Not Advocates

• Conventional sales training reps are taught to find an advocate, or coach, within the customer organization to help them get the deal done.

• An ideal advocate– Is accessible & willing to meet when asked– Is good at influencing others– Speaks the truth– Is considered credible by colleagues– Delivers on commitments

Survey of customer stakeholders

• According to 135 attributes & perspectives revealed seven distinct stakeholder profiles1. Go-Getters – Looking for good ideas2. Teachers – Sharing insights3. Skeptics – Measured implementation4. Guides – Furnish information5. Friends – Happily help6. Climbers – Personal gain7. Blockers – Oriented towards status quo

How to upend your customers’ ways of thinking

• According to 6,000 salespeople In The Challenger Sale (Portfolio/Penguin, 2011), all reps fall into one of five profiles—– Relationship Builder– Reactive Problem Solver– Hard Worker– Lone Wolf– Challenger

• Star performers are far more likely to be Challengers than any other type. They’ve got a provocative point of view.

• Customers value the challenger approach; biggest driver of B2B customer loyalty is a suppliers ability to deliver new insights.

3. Coach Customers on How to Buy

• Automatic Data Processing (ADP), a global leader in business outsourcing solutions around its customers’ purchasing processes. It’s called Buying Made Easy.

• Steps represent a set of buying activities– Recognize need– Evaluate options– Validate and select a solution

• They may still be selling solutions—but more broadly, they’re selling insights.

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