Back and in the mix again after a week in the beautiful pacific NW including a 4 day stay at the Lake Crescent Lodge. In a wired world I have put off getting any type of mobile email device. I did however get a customer call on Sunday (September 2) and took a conference call lakeside. The quiet was unsettling and I am sure the local wildlife now knows quite a bit about data discovery and recovery.
Now, one issue I dealt with last week relates to negotiation. I swear it is the fourth or fifth time I heard a potential customer say, “We need you be here (insert huge discount here)” as we do not have enough money in the budget.”
Being the Chief Perspective Officer I was asked to consult on this call (the lakeside call) and found an interesting customer behavior that appeared to be a mystery to many sales people. This customer is well described in the book, “The Wisdom of Wolves: Nature's Way to Organizational Success,” by Twyman Towery who obviously has a name that sounds like he is a Ph.D. in Wolf research. If you have not read the book it is a fascinating read on the importance of defining and executing roles in an organization to achieve success modeled after the unbelievably successful structure of a wolf pack. Originally recommended to me by; Al Shugart the founder of Seagate. Rather than test your endurance on a summary of the book (a quick and engrossing read) let me get to how this relates to complex account management.
First if you have not reviewed my Guidelines for a Successful Sales Career post please look it over. Now how do wolves and accounts relate? Simple, in most complex sales to large organizations (F500) the roles of the customer are clearly defined internally. In fact it is highly likely they have purchased more SW than you as a sales team will ever sell. So understand they are a distinct organizational advantage going into a negotiation. Their “buying pack” has clearly defined roles and is designed to select the weakest member of your sales team and prey on them. Even really great customers (like HP) do this. But HP has a very nice and professional wolf pack and sometime you do not even know your price is being disemboweled because of their overt professionalism. But I digress.
In a complex sale when the negotiation takes place the customer wolf pack will look for the weakest leader. It could be the sales person, Sales VP or (deity of choice here) forbid the CFO.
As soon as the customer smells weakness they (and I have confirmed this with many customers) will attempt to fracture the sales pack by carving out the weak leader and isolating him or her for, um, dinner.
This is very effective as often the higher the level of leader the customer pack carves out of the sales team pack the harder it is to for the sales pack to maintain teamwork and negotiating integrity. Oh, and a word of advice, do not talk numbers in emails (that is for another post).
What to do? When approaching a complex account know your roles. While having a “Captain Closer” role in the sales team pack is a cool job, if often becomes very lonely and irrevocably effed up if the isolates sale’s pack leader has no “out" read; supporting team members.
And by this I mean they have set themselves up ether by ego, design, or by mistake as the “decision maker.” I refer to this as Doctor Discount and if I hear, "We really needed the revenue," to justify another sick discount I will hurl.
Sales is an individual team sport (see; bicycling). How did Lance Armstrong win seven TDF’s? Simple the bicycle pack had a goal and no matter what happened they used teamwork, patience, remained unified, used each members’ uniqueness, came in with the right attitude, understood failure is a set back and there was always another day to hunt, communicated, showed amazing and consistent perseverance, bought into and stuck with a strategy, had fun, adjusted to change and remained always loyal to their pack leader.
Don't let them carve you up, stay unified; woof.
Now, one issue I dealt with last week relates to negotiation. I swear it is the fourth or fifth time I heard a potential customer say, “We need you be here (insert huge discount here)” as we do not have enough money in the budget.”
Being the Chief Perspective Officer I was asked to consult on this call (the lakeside call) and found an interesting customer behavior that appeared to be a mystery to many sales people. This customer is well described in the book, “The Wisdom of Wolves: Nature's Way to Organizational Success,” by Twyman Towery who obviously has a name that sounds like he is a Ph.D. in Wolf research. If you have not read the book it is a fascinating read on the importance of defining and executing roles in an organization to achieve success modeled after the unbelievably successful structure of a wolf pack. Originally recommended to me by; Al Shugart the founder of Seagate. Rather than test your endurance on a summary of the book (a quick and engrossing read) let me get to how this relates to complex account management.
First if you have not reviewed my Guidelines for a Successful Sales Career post please look it over. Now how do wolves and accounts relate? Simple, in most complex sales to large organizations (F500) the roles of the customer are clearly defined internally. In fact it is highly likely they have purchased more SW than you as a sales team will ever sell. So understand they are a distinct organizational advantage going into a negotiation. Their “buying pack” has clearly defined roles and is designed to select the weakest member of your sales team and prey on them. Even really great customers (like HP) do this. But HP has a very nice and professional wolf pack and sometime you do not even know your price is being disemboweled because of their overt professionalism. But I digress.
In a complex sale when the negotiation takes place the customer wolf pack will look for the weakest leader. It could be the sales person, Sales VP or (deity of choice here) forbid the CFO.
As soon as the customer smells weakness they (and I have confirmed this with many customers) will attempt to fracture the sales pack by carving out the weak leader and isolating him or her for, um, dinner.
This is very effective as often the higher the level of leader the customer pack carves out of the sales team pack the harder it is to for the sales pack to maintain teamwork and negotiating integrity. Oh, and a word of advice, do not talk numbers in emails (that is for another post).
What to do? When approaching a complex account know your roles. While having a “Captain Closer” role in the sales team pack is a cool job, if often becomes very lonely and irrevocably effed up if the isolates sale’s pack leader has no “out" read; supporting team members.
And by this I mean they have set themselves up ether by ego, design, or by mistake as the “decision maker.” I refer to this as Doctor Discount and if I hear, "We really needed the revenue," to justify another sick discount I will hurl.
Sales is an individual team sport (see; bicycling). How did Lance Armstrong win seven TDF’s? Simple the bicycle pack had a goal and no matter what happened they used teamwork, patience, remained unified, used each members’ uniqueness, came in with the right attitude, understood failure is a set back and there was always another day to hunt, communicated, showed amazing and consistent perseverance, bought into and stuck with a strategy, had fun, adjusted to change and remained always loyal to their pack leader.
Don't let them carve you up, stay unified; woof.
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