Bryan Gray

Dictionary of Scary New Sales Terms: What They Mean for You (3/3)

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So far you’ve learned about how commoditization is threatening your sales and how this can often lead to indecision or reprioritization. You’ve learned that to combat both, you’ll need to align your messaging and salespeople to convey your unique value and to communicate how you’ll solve your prospect’s pains.

Consensus Decision Making

The February 1, 2016 issue of Fortune Magazine contained a really interesting article, called “The Hard Evidence: Business Is Slowing Down”.  What it recaps is that as fast moving as the world has become, ironically enough, the time it takes one company to sell to another has slowed down by 22% over the last five years. The reason? In the past you worked with 1 or 2 folks through the buying cycle and you have to contend with 5 + decision makers!

This team of 5+ prospects is the new reality in consensus decision making and these folks are doing their research in advance.  They’ll even think they know what they “need” before you ever get a chance to speak to them. In fact, up to 70% of the buying journey is complete before a salesperson enters the picture. And here’s the real challenging part: you have to sway each and every decision maker to such a degree that they not only agree they have a pain that needs to be solved, but that they select you and your solution. On top of all of this, your portrayal of the pain and your unique solution has to be conveyed strongly enough so that the prospect doesn’t delay and ultimately moves on to another priority.

Wrap Up – How to Solve the Problems These Three Terms Create:

How do I use these three terms to your advantage?

  1. Your entire team can quickly and convincingly attack the pains your prospects have at a subconscious level and communicate persuasively how you’re uniquely positioned to solve them.
  2. You create a presentation/pitch that easily separates you from your competition and drives the right amount of emotional lift through eye-catching visuals and concise content.
  3. Your team should be trained to succeed in a pitch or persuasion-based world.  We’ve moved on from a manipulation-based world and now have to quickly and persuasively pitch up to 3 times before we get prospects to truly open up.