Exchange takes place only with the known customer contacts
We call the people who contribute to the customer’s decision-making process, formally or informally, ” buying centers.” The concept is also familiar to most of you. If not, you will find a short overview in the appendix.
In processing the buying center, it is not just a matter of naming contacts known to us, but of identifying contacts unknown to us.
In most cases, the job title doesn’t really help us. Therefore, we use roles, for example the “evaluator”, who defines requirements and checks how well we fulfill them. These are also the people we deal with first and most often at the beginning of a project. These speak our technical language. We feel comfortable and in good hands there. Far too often, access to other, possibly more important contacts is not even sought. The hope is that known, positive-minded contacts will already “sell” our solution internally.
This approach is already very bad for existing customers, and it is even a disaster for new customers. The inventory supplier is certainly much more deeply networked, understands the individual requirements better and positions its solution accordingly.
So today I have the following tips for your sales force:
– Look for other contacts, the decision makers, users and other evaluators!
– Don’t rely on raters to sell your solution internally, because they’re usually not very good at that!
– Understand the individual requirements of all key contacts!
– Describe your solution approach along the individual requirements, then there is their added value for each person!
Contribution by Pierre Martin,
Managing Director of CEVEYCONSULTING GmbH
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