Could Sales' Secret Weapon Be Procurement?

Some of you know that I post quite a bit about working with procurement. There are a couple reasons. First, it’s mostly a painful and dreaded experience for those of us who sell. Second, because we’ve been consulting for over 20 years to both buying and selling teams, this practice has provided deep insight into the nature of that relationship.

I want to share an experience from last week. We brought together sales and sales leaders, as well as a chief procurement officer and two of his buyers. In this day-long session, a great deal was learned from both sides. It was one of the most gratifying sessions I have facilitated in a long time as the value was extremely high for all.

Precision Guided Discovery

Discovery has long been among, if not the most important selling skill. Gaining access to stakeholders and uncovering needs is key to presenting your value.

However, most discovery looks like this:

" What Keeps You Awake at Night?"

This approach makes it difficult to gain access to execute discovery and makes it harder to uncover areas to add value and differentiate. What is the value to an executive of meeting with you only to tell you what they already know? How are we going to add value when customers, who are more digitally informed than ever, are diagnosing their own needs and prescribing their own solution (many times sub-optimally)? More importantly, it has us following vs. leading.

Disconnected Sales Solutions

Providers deliver their own methodologies for different aspects of the sales process, such as tactical selling skills, another for questioning skills and a third for negotiation skills. Each come with a separate process and language, as well as their own tools and forms. These disconnected solutions, while independently may be effective to some extent, are still point solutions for a specific pain within the sales process. When you look at your sales organization today, does this sound familiar?

Precision Guided Sellingbrian dietmeyerAugust 22, 2017sales performance, disconnected sales solutionsComment

Salespeople do not need more sales training!

What salespeople need now is real time knowledge that helps them compete at the speed of change.

Brian's thoughtsbrian dietmeyerNovember 24, 2014sales performance

Are you teaching your sales reps to become fighter pilots?

During the height of battle, a fighter pilot will have to assess and act upon up to 17 different pieces of information. Do your reps have the right information at the right time to win their deals (battles) quickly and repeatedly?

CSO InsightsPat Lynch, CSO InsightsOctober 2, 2014sales performance