INSIGHT Marcus Cauchi
“It is still important as an influencer, recommender, technical buyer or even a specifier, but Power, Financial
Decision-Making hold the keys to the kingdom. “ Marcus Cauchi, Sales Trainer at Sandler
How is staying stuck in your
comfort zone, hurting you?
Human beings tend to look for what feels familiar. This is a dangerous comfort blanket
in sales. If you’re in IT sales, it’s time to wake up to the fact that “80 per cent of IT
purchase decisions in 2019 are being made by the Line of Business” (Jay McBain,
Lead Analyst - Channels, Partnerships and Alliances, Forrester, 2018). Marcus Cauchi,
Sales Trainer at Sandler, explains why its time to get out of your comfort zone
before you prescribe any
solution. To prescribe before you
diagnose is selling malpractice.
What do they do day-to-day?
Reporting lines? How are they
measured? Who’s scrutinising
them? Who’s aected by their
work? Who’s looking for them
to fail? What personal pressure
are they under? Where are
they in their job lifecycle, their
career? How old they are?
Are they paying for private
education? Looking after elderly
relatives? Nearing retirement?
What are their motivations for
changing or staying stuck?
People buy emotionally and
justify using reason and logic
Your diagnosis needs to uncover
more than the results the
business wants to achieve. If
your solution is to get buy in, it
needs to help them overcome the
problems and pains they face day
to day that are aecting them
personally. We had an enterprise
sales client who sold a $3m deal
to a CTO because he didn’t have
an implementation from that
vendor on his CV.
Where is their business in its
lifecycle?
• Is the business in start up?
What sort of pains do those
businesses experience?
• Is the business in
“continuation” (gentle
growth or at-lining)? What
problems do they experience?
What do they struggle to do?
• Or businesses in growth
or hyper-growth? What
pressures does growth create
on sta, resources, cashow?
• Or turnarounds? Stress, need
eciencies, cut costs and
heads, automate, outsource?
• And businesses in recovery?
Are they licking their
wounds, playing it safe or are
they trying to get back on an
even keel? Perhaps they are
looking to achieve growth,
fast?
You must be asking these 4
questions AND getting answers
before you can advance the sale
to a conclusion:
• What is the product or
service you are oering?
• What will it do for them?
• What is the benet to
the business and to them
personally?
• How will they measure the
benet?
You differentiate in how you
sell, not what you sell
It’s rare for end users to go to
Are you fat, dumb and happy
and putting your future at risk?
If you aren’t comfortable
speaking to the business about
what matters to them, you will
always nd yourself in a place
of assignment where little or
no decision-making power
resides. IT is still important as
an inuencer, recommender,
technical buyer or even a
specier, but Power, Financial
Decision-Making hold the
keys to the kingdom. Users are
critical too if a solution is to
deliver the results the Board’s
strategy is aiming to achieve.
Partners and vendors too
frequently forget that talking
about the product is like
showing photos of your ugly kids
to strangers. ey’ll politely look
at one or two photos but then
they are thinking “How can I
get rid of this pest?” and they
shunt you to IT. at is sales
Siberia.
Buyers buy for their reasons,
not the seller’s reasons
You must understand who is in
the cast of characters, what each
person’s role is, how they like to
communicate, what impact they
have on the decision in this deal
and are they a friend, neutral or
enemy?
When positioning your
oering you need to have
conducted a thorough diagnosis
one supplier without checking
out the competition so do you
understand the competitive
landscape and how to outsell
your rivals, even if they are the
incumbent?
Who are your competitors?
What are their equivalent
products or services? What
are their strengths? What’s the
weakness in their strength?
Can you set trap questions for
them to fall into? Do you know
who your competitors’ coaches
are? Do you have coaches of
your own? If not, how will you
develop them?
Do you produce a written
pre-call plan? Do you rehearse
what will happen in each
meeting? Do you do a verbal
and written post-call debrief to
capture lessons learned, identify
actions and next steps you need
to take, individuals you need to
engage with?
If you want to sell more you
have to learn how to sell outside
of IT where you are comfortable.
You will nd this much easier if
you have a system and the right
tools.
Marcus will be sharing many of these tools at his 2 training sessions
at Channel Live this September (11th and 12th). Register to attend
online at www.Channel-Live.co.uk
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