Buying and Selling…the two are closely aligned and we go through a process in both.
Over the years I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend a number of different sales and pre-sales training courses as an employee of a company or as a business owner and one thing is consistent.
Every single training course is based on a methodology or set of steps that is designed to maximise your chances of success – whether it is Strategic Selling™, Targeted Account Selling™, SPIN Selling™ or even my own Sales Methodology, Alignment Selling– every approach has a set of steps based on a sound logical basis and what I have found is that they all have their advantages and occasionally, some disadvantages.
I want to focus on my sales methodology, Alignment Selling, which I have developed as a result of attending those trainings and putting them in to practice.
As a result of having gone through many different sales trainings and utilised a number of different tools, I believe that Alignment Selling , encompasses many of the best aspects of a sales methodology and when brought together with my recommended Pre-Sales approach (which I’ll cover in detail later) provides a great baseline for successful engagements with potential and existing customers.
Let’s get a little more detailed then.
Basic Principles – How People Buy
I am going to use an example that is part of our sales training that is so simple and commonplace its almost silly to reference it, but time and time again, I deliver training and it strikes me as a great way to illustrate the point of how people buy.
Imagine you are walking down the street and your stomach starts to rumble. Its not yet time for a full meal but you want something to tide you over until lunch time.
Your mind strays to an ad you saw the previous night, courtesy of the MARS™ confectionary company, reminding you that when you are hungry a “Snickers really satisfies”™ and like me you love chocolate.
Now you have determined that you want a Snickers but thanks to the wonderful workings of the human mind, you have converted that want in to a need…you need a chocolate bar to get you through the day.
So you immediately move to the next step…is it viable for you to get a chocolate bar?
You’ll need money so you check your pocket…yep, you have a pocket full of change, at least $5 worth so that’s taken care of.
You look around you, and across the street is 7-Eleven so there’s a place you can buy a Snickers bar.
So you are good to go and you can kickoff your project to buy a chocolate bar
So, you have a budget and you know what you need is available so you cross the road and walk in to the 7-Eleven and walk to the chocolate counter but now you are faced with a new challenge….there a bunch of other chocolate’s there so you now need to assess the choices…do you still want the Snickers or is there something that will better meet your need?
Nope, it’s a Snickers that you want so you resolve to purchase the chocolate bar..which is only $1.50 so you can authorise the decision on you own…no need to check with anyone else.
So you hand over your money, unwrap the chocolate bar and implement.
End result…your need is met and you can now wait until lunchtime for a full meal.
Of course, all this usually happens in the space of 5 minutes from need to implementation but you get the idea.
Now, think about every purchasing process you have ever gone through. Chances are the steps are the same.
So that’s the customer buying process…the more complex the purchase or the more expensive the purchase, the longer it takes and more people are involved but the process is made up of the same 7 steps.
So it stands to reason that if there is a need and it is feasible for your customer to engage in a project then your job as a salesperson looks easy right?
Maybe…maybe not.
Your job – do the right thing at the right time
Now we have defined our Customer Buying Cycle and it consists of these 7 steps
- Need
- Viability
- Project Kickoff
- Assessment
- Resolution
- Authorisation
- Implementation
So the name of Alignment Selling comes from our process – to align how we engage with the customer and do the right things each step of the way – it is a complete engagement and it has a lifecycle…each step follows the next and cannot logically take place until the previous one is complete. You job is to align the right sales activities you are doing with the customers stage in the buying cycle
Almost without exception, sales run off the rails when we are trying to do things at the wrong time and we are out of sync.
The first sales training course I ever went to however (back in the early 80’s) practised the mantra of ABC – always be closing – but of course you can’t close the deal if the customer hasn’t gone through their process.
There’s no point trying to ask for an order when the customer is in the middle of their evaluation….yet so many sales people do just this.
Your Sales Cycle
In order to get this sync happening, we also have 7 steps and the good news is that not only do we have these 7 steps but we also have a process and tools that help you to understand when you are ready to move from one step to the next.
2 more concepts I would like to introduce then that are linked to that process of moving forwards.
The first is the concept of Alignment Levelling …this is the point where your sales activities and the customers buying stage are aligned and you are both ready to move forwards.
But how do you know if you are at that level of alignment. Sometimes it’s very clear and if you are experienced at managing the sales process, you may even know, intuitively.
However, the more complex the sale and the more people involved the more likely it is that you’ll need some tools to help you validate that you are ready to move ahead.
We call these tools Progression Tools because they help you decide if you have done enough or know enough to progress to the next stage in our customer engagement.
A good tradesperson knows how to use the right tools for the right job. Using Alignment Selling is the same
WARNING: A criticism I have often heard from people who have been introduced to the Alignment Selling process is that there are too many tools, too many steps.
Consider this, when you call a tradesman to do a job for you – for example, a carpenter. They arrive in their truck with a toolbox jammed packed with all kinds of different tools.
You want them to build you a new set of cupboards. So do they bring in every single tool they have on to the job?
No, they assess what is needed and only bring in the tools they need. But you can be sure that if things get difficult and if they are a professional (there’s that word again) they know how to use the other tools on their truck and they know when to use them. Our Alignment Selling sales process and the Alignment Levelling Tools you have at your disposal are exactly the same.
In my next post we’ll look at the Sales Process in detail and map the 7 sales steps to the 7 Steps of the customers buying process.
