Skills + Knowledge = Power

I read a sales newsletter by Shamus Brown. He sends a topic each day, which is pretty ambitious if he is writing all of his content himself.

On March 21st, he wrote about The 3 Biggest Assets of Your Sales Career

He lists Selling Skills, Industry Knowledge and Customer Contacts. I wouldn't dare argue with the value of any of those 3.

I would expand on the second point, Industry Knowledge. There are so many facets to this idea and you can't rely on yourself to explore them all. I mean, if you spent your time collecting all of the data that could be categorized as "useful for gaining an advantage, when would you sell?

Value selling makes the most sense to me. Identify a pain that is causing grief (or a benefit that would be VERY significant) and show the solution. Make your clients/prospects repeat back to you the benefit to be gained and the consequence of not using your solution.

And, if you really want to move ahead, make sure that your organization supports you with additional marketing data to tell you precisely how you can most effectively differentiate yourself.

If you are serious about improving your effectiveness, don't forget the benefit of intelligence.

(Primary Intelligence would be happy to help you)

The Wal-Mart Effect

So, you are selling a multi-million dollar health care plan covering nearly 100,000 lives and right in the middle of things, Wal-Mart throws a wrench in the works.

How can that be? Wal-Mart doesn’t sell health insurance. But, still Wal-Mart becomes the pivotal factor in a sales loss for Vision Care:

Primary Intelligence: What were the primary reasons you did not select Vision Care?
Vision Care: “We were impressed with Vision Care’s bid, but it just did not provide that much in addition to what we had with FocusCare. The costs and plans were very close, but we did not really see anything in the Vision Care plan or the Vision Care pricing that would compel us to make a move. We weren’t unhappy with FocusCare. One thing that was a bit of a concern with Vision Care was one of the major vendors that our employees use, Wal-Mart, was not in the Vision Care network.”

Everything else being nearly equal, Vision Care loses because it doesn’t have the right providers in its network. All other value propositions were met and the rates were competitive.

If Vision Care wants to be a serious contender, selling to multi-billion dollar enterprises, this information has to be pushed up to the executive boardroom immediately. This feedback, delivered in a timely fashion, will make a huge difference in the future.

What are you doing to consistently collect sales intelligence? How far does this information travel within your organization?

Let’s talk about Primary Intelligence’s ability to provide feedback on all of your sales opportunities. Your prospects are waiting to tell you how to win next time.

Call me – 801.838.9600 x5050

Performance and Results

A post-sales analysis, done consistently well, provides very useable competitive sales intelligence.

Yesterday’s post included dialogue between Primary Intelligence and CitiBank regarding an evaluation of vision care providers. The information told the story that the plan rate was not the only consideration. There were other perceptions of value proposition that caused this sale to be a loss for our client.

The chart below shows how Vision Care’s* product performance compared with the other two vendors in the deal:

*Vendor names were changed to maintain confidentiality

Vision Care was competitive in Value, but Size and Composition of Network and Levels of Coverage played a big part in the Fair Rates comparison.

Does Vision Care have to lower its rates? I wouldn’t recommend it. However, in future opportunities against Optical Focus and Regional Eye Plans, they need to have a strategy to proactively address these performance areas.

And, if these same performance areas continue to show weaknesses across many post-sales reviews, Vision Care has to address a problem that is consistently derailing its sales efforts.

By the way, if you want a sample post-sales review, give me a call at 801.838.9600 x5050. Let’s see if it makes sense for your company.

It Really Isn’t About Price

My wife took me shopping at the mall. As we passed Macy’s, I saw a display of men’s shoes, all very good looking. Later, we were picking up some household items from Wal-Mart and I saw the same styles of shoes sitting on top of boxes in the middle of their aisle and at least 70% less than Macy’s. At that price, only a fool would pay more for (more or less) the same product.

But, I went back and bought the shoes from Macy’s anyway.

Why did I spend the extra money? Because Macy’s provided me with an experience, perception of quality and personal attention that Wal-Mart couldn’t. If it were all about price, I would have made a different decision.

But, it wasn’t.

And it usually isn’t in B2B sales either.

Recently, Primary Intelligence interviewed a lost sales opportunity for one of our clients. They had battled it out with two other providers and in the end, they weren’t selected, but it wasn’t about price.

Primary Intelligence: What were the primary reasons you did not select Rare Gems?*
Prospect: “The program costs were high relative to the other finalists, especially under the subscription model. We looked at both scenarios because we weren’t sure we wanted to keep the subscription model. They were pricier either way, but especially pricier if you looked at the subscription scenario. The other thing was they made a business decision to withdraw from retail participation, and so that was going to be viewed negatively by our client base.”
Primary Intelligence: Would you say that Rare Gems' final price proposal was more than, less than, or about the same as the other short-listed vendors?
Prospect: “More.”
Primary Intelligence: Were you going to choose the lowest-priced vendor no matter what?
Prospect: “No.”
Primary Intelligence: Would you have selected Rare Gems if it had been less expensive?
Prospect: “No. That was not the only factor.”
Primary Intelligence: What could Rare Gems have done differently to win your business?
Prospect: “If you are going out to the marketplace and you are looking for a vendor, moving away from the retail thing—that whole business model—is a difficult approach for our population. They came with a great variety of products, but they were high-end products, which is not always what people are looking for in terms of product. I think there was a gap there that they weren’t filling. Their price was way off as well.”

*Vendor names were changed for confidentiality purposes

To be competitive, you have to understand the value that sells. Price will be a component in the value equation, but it won’t be the only one. And, from our experience, it isn’t even in the top two most of the time.

Don’t believe the price myth. Listen to your wins and losses. Find out what they value and how you can best meet those value needs. If you do, you will win more. Lots more. Otherwise, you’re hoping that your price is attractive enough to lure in the price shoppers and those clients are hard to keep around.

If you have thoughts on the subject, give me a call at 801.838.9600 x5050 and we’ll chat.

Do You Really Understand?

In sales, is there a more basic principle than listening to the client? And, yet, time, money and effort are wasted by ignoring the entire message and moving straight to the sales rep's agenda.

Which is a shame, because prospects usually know what they are looking for. Give them a chance and they will tell you.

Especially in B2B sales, the politics between evaluator and decision-maker are sensitive and must be accounted for. In the following example, Primary Intelligence interviewed a prospect to find out what happened in the deal. In this case, the sales rep didn't understand the deal:

Respondent: “Rapier Software was more interested, in my way of thinking, in selling a product than they were my needs. They were very elusive about a cost and then they wanted to meet with the city manager… So in order to sell us, they wanted to sell the payroll management, something for our risk management director and all sorts of things. It was really a total turn off. I was surprised the city manager didn’t get up and walk out. He was very glad that was the end our business with them.”

Primary Intelligence: “You rated Rapier a four (on a 1-10 scale) as far as understanding your business needs. What did they need to do to earn a higher rating or to show you their ability to understand your business needs?”

Respondent: “Well, I think it’s all the same thing. If they’re interested in my business needs, they need to focus on that and not the other departments. If they want my business, they need to give me what I need.”

You have been here before. What would you take away from this feedback? Was this the fault of the sales rep, or was this customer a poor fit from the start?

Let me know what you think.