What do we, as knowledge managers or BI and sales activity managers, have to do with this? What is
the place of such a book summary in a professional journal that does not deal with marketing and sales? Well, there is a need for it. Not necessarily because of the consultants and software providers operating in the field but precisely for the internal knowledge managers and BI activity managers. They, like many others in the organization, are internal sales representatives.
Knowledge managers and BI activity managers need to sell twice:
First, by convincing units to join and build knowledge management or BI activities for their employees; second, as part of the implementation process, after the solution has been established, facing the users, who are the employees.
This book is likely incredibly successful in the sales field. Those who wrote it, Michael T. Bosworth and John R. Holland, know how to sell their ideas.
This is different from a book summary in the usual and customary sense. I have foregone explicit topics related to sales outside the organization (financial negotiations, working with distribution channels, etc.) and focused on those suitable for us when we market and sell our ideas internally within the organization. Of course, processing and adaptation work has also been done.
The book is based on the principle that 10% of people naturally know how to sell, but another 90% can improve their sales/persuasion methods through rules and guidelines. It addresses these 90%.
The chapter titles:
Customer-Oriented Sales
Fundamental Principles
Sales Process
Potential Development
Supporting Infrastructures
Tips
Would you like me to elaborate on these chapter titles or provide more context about the book?
Anyone involved in external organizational sales should read the whole book. I hope you enjoy it.
Customer-Oriented Sales
The paragraph title seems self-evident. What sale needs to be customer-oriented?
The customer is at the center, and that's who we're targeting.
However, let's examine, hand in heart, our activity and the way we speak when trying to sell knowledge management or BI activities in an organization. We'll see that we sometimes act differently.
A customer-centric sale is characterized by seven examples, which are easy to explain against traditional behavior:
Instead of... Preparing presentations Prefer... Conversations.
Why? This way, we can better tailor a solution to the customer.
Instead of... Expressing an opinion Prefer... Asking questions.
Why? People don't like being told what to do, especially not by someone selling them a new idea with a vested interest.
Instead of... Focusing on relationships Prefer... Focusing on proposed solutions.
Focusing on relationships can avoid addressing the core issue. Thus, as sales professionals, we might need to see how the customer will use the proposed solution positively.
Instead of... Focusing on users Prefer... Focusing on business role holders.
Why? A business conversation can focus on using the proposal, derived results, and why it's worthwhile instead of on product features as seen by the user.
Instead of... Describing the product Prefer... Describing its use in the context of the user to whom the solution is offered.
Why? Because people only sometimes know or want to create a connection that is so clear to us.
Instead of managing team members, I prefer managing their progress and encouraging their success. This means that more than one person is involved in promoting the idea in the organization, and the advice is aimed at internal team management (of the knowledge management and BI teams).
Why? Because this empowers our employees and teaches them how to sell ideas.
Instead of... Trying to sell Prefer... Empowering customers.
Why? The solution provider's role is to help the customer achieve a goal, solve a problem, or meet a need. Focus on that, and the sale will come.
At the beginning of every idea's life, we encounter innovative consumers—those seeking new ideas and open to them. Their sales approach is different; they almost take from us before we offer. The examples proposed above are suitable for the central backbone of organizational users. Do not let the first customers confuse you into thinking that all sales and persuasion processes will proceed as they did with them. Think customer!
Fundamental Principles
To understand the fundamental principles of any sale, we must first understand what the person in front of us, whom we are trying to persuade to adopt our services, is thinking:
Is this a proposal already proven (preferably in the organization)?
What is the perceived success image of the salesperson sitting before us? What is the success image of the topic they represent?
Is it possible to receive a similar/competing service from other entities in the organization? (Yes, such situations exist.)
Is this an organizational standard? Is this a sectoral standard for my field of activity?
Who else equivalent to me (in the organization or sector) is already using this solution?
What business results have others achieved?
What will the return on investment (ROI) be for implementing this solution?
What do field experts think about the proposed solution?
Can we achieve consensus among unit managers/decision-makers on implementing the solution?
What support will we receive during the implementation and integration process?
Is it better not to decide than to make a potentially incorrect decision?
Understanding these issues will help us connect with the person in front of us and reach an understanding and agreement to use the proposed service.
The book's authors recommend several principles:
Refrain from elaborating on product/service capabilities, especially during initial conversations. Also, it only extensively presents some capabilities. The customer usually needs only a tiny part of them, and overloading detracts more than it adds.
Patience! Do not "close" a sale or start an activity before the customer arrives. Do not try to create instant persuasion or finish a "sale" before a specific date (e.g., the quarter or your presentation to your manager). You will harm the process more than help it.
Lead sales processes with decision-makers. Speak to them in their language (do not talk about capabilities).
Invest time in diagnosing the need/problem before offering a solution.
People buy from and are convinced by those who treat them like humans, are honest and competent, and engage in dialogue with them.
You cannot sell to someone who cannot buy. Always ensure you are facing someone who can make a decision.
Early imperfect knowledge is good knowledge. It is better to stop investing in someone who will not buy or be convinced early rather than late.
There is no sale if there is no goal that the solution is trying to advance.
People are best convinced by the reasons they discover themselves.
Excessive expertise can be detrimental. Proceed at the customer's pace.
The customer is the only person who can declare a direction as a solution.
Understand that the primary decision is emotional; values and logic justify this.
Sales Process
Every organization must define a sales process that suits it. This is true for external sales and internal sales. Assessing sales forecast progress can be difficult, and defining a structured process helps evaluate and advance sales status.
The book defines four stages from which one can draw insights, and each organization can define its stages. It's important to note that each stage includes a goal and can be controlled to verify whether we have reached it objectively.
Stages:
Inactive: No contact with potential clients.
Active: Contact established with the client. Interest has been expressed.
Goal Shared: The client is a partner in the goal/objective. The client has developed a vision (of how things will be afterward). A letter is sent for confirmation and follow-up.
Champion: The client approves the letter. Additional partners in the unit are identified with whom it's worthwhile to speak (critical!!!- creating commitment). Key people are interviewed.
Evaluation: The client is considering implementation. Performs operational steps to make an informed decision.
Decision: Final decision.
One must ensure documentation of the sales process, preferably with the client. This allows:
Our control over the process
Expectation alignment in case our understanding differs from the client we are trying to convince
Reducing the excessive optimism typical when we try to sell/persuade others
Advancing the sale itself, as current and next steps are clear to everyone
Potential Development
Most of us tend to offer services to those we know are already requesting them. This is undoubtedly true when selling outside the organization (to those with a budget), but it is also usually accurate within the organization: offering to those who are already convinced.
The book's authors propose a different approach.
One should develop potential with those who haven't thought about it. Those who have matured often want a solution that is unrelated to us. If they do, we've won, but we shouldn't rely on them, and developing new potential is recommended.
The immediate response we all are tempted to answer is, of course, those who haven't developed potential have no resources, whether financial resources or within the organization where they have other tasks and their managerial energies are invested in different directions.
Don't despair, the authors argue. If we know how to address a real need, we will see how unit managers suddenly find the time and required resources at the expense of other things and turn to us. If we connect to business needs that trouble them, we will see a listening ear even if they are busy with different issues.
What's the advantage, you might ask? Often, if we reach a client who has matured, the solution direction might be far from what we want to propose. In such a case, convincing them to change their mind will be very difficult. A virgin ground is preferable to one already plowed for other purposes.
How do you develop such potential?
First, the 30-second elevator pitch: create interest. Scenario questions can be excellent examples if we have a starting point for a known need.
If the client does not cooperate, we can discuss parallel successful activities and touch on one of our other goals for that role holder (our target audience). Sometimes, success stories from similar cases outside the organization are better. It's advisable to refer to references.
The next stage is creating commitment from the other side.
It's worth preceding all of these by sending a preliminary letter (preferably over a letter that is easy to cancel before opening) that prepares the client for the conversation. According to the authors, email use is effective after we've generated initial interest to align expectations and define the following steps, each time in a measured but precise manner. Thus, by gradually increasing commitment until the persuasion/sale is completed.
Supporting Infrastructures
The book's authors discuss the relationship between marketing and sales and the need for a tighter interface between their actions and objectives. Marketing should be the first stage of sales, and marketing should prepare foundational information to support and promote the sales stages.
A classic sale begins with scenarios from which focused needs are defined, and based on these, objectives are built. The product/service should provide a solution that helps achieve these objectives. Only at this stage can one expand and discuss how it does so through defined capabilities (features). One must begin by diagnosing the customer's situation through a series of guiding questions to anticipate which scenarios to discuss.
Supporting sales infrastructures include, based on this:
Target audience objectives. For example - if selling a CRM, there are objectives a CFO wants to promote (such as efficiency through reducing sales costs or improving sales forecast accuracy), objectives a Sales VP wants to promote (such as cross-sales or reducing learning time to reach effectiveness for a new sales representative), and objectives a Marketing VP wants to promote (such as increasing market share).
Response templates supporting objectives. For each target audience and purpose, a list of product/service capabilities that answer the defined need and target audience.
Scenario examples. Sentences are composed of 4 components: event, question, role, and action, aimed at defining a need and deriving an objective, for instance. Facing a CFO, we want to prompt to say they want to improve forecast accuracy; we ask: After conducting conversations (the event), would you want (the question) your salespeople (the roles) to be able to report immediate progress on a mobile computer from anywhere, based on predefined milestones and stages (the action)? In this way, we draw the customer to define a need they might not have shared with us, even if it exists, thereby shortening the path to discussing the solution the product/service can provide. Of course, each product and sector should build its scenario examples.
Diagnostic questions. Vary according to the product and are simple to prepare. Our output is directed toward the scenarios we've prepared.
The heart of these infrastructures is undoubtedly the scenario examples. They translate a story the customer can easily identify into a more product—or service-oriented need.
The authors propose that preparing sales infrastructure should be one of marketing's central roles in places where they are separated.
Tips
A Few Tips When Performing a Sales/Persuasion Process:
Lack of time is, in most cases, an excuse, not a reason. If the organization is interested in the proposed solution, it will find the time. Investing in those who avoid meetings, cancel them, and claim they are too busy might not be worth it. Afterward, the solution will likely fail, so it's better to step back and proactively invest resources elsewhere.
Prefer collaborative work involving multiple factors: Position knowledge managers or BI activity managers opposite senior stakeholders and team members opposite the organization's personnel reporting to them.
Manage expectations. When you or your employees try to sell and persuade, we naturally paint life in rosy colors and assume most will begin implementation. In reality, the chances are lower. Adjust expectations and align organizational resource allocation accordingly.
It's better to listen more and talk less in conversations. Conversations should involve semi-open questions (directed to prevent dispersion but not entirely closed-ended).
If you use prepared infrastructures or presentations, never strictly adhere to them. Instead, listen to your counterpart and adapt the discussion to them, using guiding references to the infrastructures or presentations you're working with.
Although one should take your time and be patient, a client who pulls us along for too long (more than a month - according to the authors' recommendation) has lost interest in us.
Delay transferring materials or detailed work plans as much as possible until the client is sufficiently committed. Otherwise, they do not need us to help decide whether to start the activity, and it will be difficult for us to influence this decision-making process, which we naturally want to impact.
When managing a team and multiple people are involved in the process, the activity manager must remember that their primary goal is to develop their people, identify where they struggle, and teach them - whether through mentoring or any other method - to complete the missing skills and improve the stage where they are working.
Transitioning to a customer-focused sales method is complex. It's advisable to define it gradually yet firmly and uncompromisingly. This way, we will likely go far.
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