Can you answer the question, “How are you different?

And do those differentiating capabilities truly set you apart from the competition, or
are they just buzzwords? Sales professionals often have trouble articulating what
makes their offerings unique. In this day and age, it’s all about creating customer
value, and that means more than just explaining what your product can do that no
one else’s can.
How you answer the “How are you different” question could and should change from
customer to customer. Not everyone will judge your product using the same decision
criteria. Price may be paramount in one client’s mind, while quick delivery or
installation could be the deal clincher for another.
So the next question to ask yourself is “What differences will matter to this client?”
The most successful sales people know which differentiators will matter to which
customers, and more importantly, they know how to make the sharing of these
differentiators a value-creating opportunity, not just a value-communicating event.
Issues Planning vs. Sequence Planning – know the difference!
There are two main differentiators between top sales people and their less successful
colleagues. Top sales people can translate effective account strategy into effective
call behavior – they know what to do in the call. They pay attention to the details of
the call, and work their plan around the call.
In particular, they concentrate on “issues planning,” not “sequence planning.” Top
sales people plan for various issues that could arise in the call and then play those
cards when they come up, while average sales people plan a sequence and then can
only play if that sequence comes up.
Which odds do you prefer – 1 in 100 that the right sequence comes up, or 100 out of
100 that you're prepared for all possible issues?
What’s the other differentiator between stellar sales performers and the rest of the
pack? Watch for the next issue of The SPIN!
In the last installment of The SPIN, we suggested that there were two differentiators
between top sales performers and, well, everybody else. The first one is effective
issues-based call planning. We promised to share with you the other differentiator in
this issue.

Put Your Sales Calls in Playback Mode!

If the first major differentiator of top sales people is how they plan and execute their
sales calls, the second differentiator is what they actually do with the results of those
calls. Some of the most valuable lessons you will learn about selling effectively will
come from closely scrutinizing the calls you make.
The star salesperson will take the time to dissect each call, analyzing details like:
Which parts of the call went better than others, and why?
Which of my questions had the most influence on the customer?
Did I uncover the needs of the customer, and how did I influence them?
Which behaviors that I used had the most impact on the customer?
Neil Rackham writes in SPIN Selling that unless you analyze your selling at this level
of detail, you’ll miss important opportunities for learning and improving your selling
skills. So the next time you complete a sales call, don’t be satisfied with your initial
perceptions. Take it a few steps further –determine what went well, why, and what
you would do differently next time.

Three Call Behaviors of Successful Salespeople

Huthwaite research has shown that successful salespeople exhibit certain sales-call
behaviors throughout the selling cycle that their less successful counterparts may not
know about. Specifically, there are three basic practices that lead to more sales:
Let the customer talk more than you do.
You may be selling the world’s best product or service, and you may be convinced it
will solve all your customer’s woes. But in your zeal, you may not be hearing subtle
and not-so-subtle clues about their true needs. The more your customer talks, the
more you will learn about their implied and explicit needs, which puts you in a better
position to offer them the most customized and most helpful solutions. Also,
customers who talk more gain a better understanding of their own situation, and
begin to realize the importance of solving their problems. How do you get them to
talk?
Ask more of the right questions!
If your sales calls are leaving you with little information and a sense of
incompleteness, you’re not asking the questions that will uncover your customers’
needs. You need to fully understand their situation, the problems it’s causing, and
the implications of those problems before trying to suggest a solution. Only by asking
more of the right questions can you make a confident assessment and show how
your offering fills a customer need. Which brings us to:
Hold off on offering products and solutions until later in the call.
You can’t know what solution to offer if you don’t uncover customer needs and
decision criteria first. For example, if you spend your time with the customer talking
about how quiet your machine is, and noise is not a factor your customer cares
about, you’ve wasted your time. Until you’ve investigated customer needs, you won’t
know how to add value. Don’t offer a solution until you know what problem you’re
trying to solve.

Open … and shut?

Among sales professionals, there are field reps, consultants, managers, and trainers
who all have unshakable faith in the power of “open” questions. If the goal of asking
questions is to get the customer to talk more – to “open up” – then it stands to
reason that open questions, which encourage a longer response, should work better
than closed questions, which can often be answered with a “yes” or “no.” However,
Huthwaite’s research has shown that, contrary to popular belief, open questions do
not correlate with success.
“We were astonished,” Neil Rackham says, “to find that there was no measurable
relationship between the use of open questions and success. Calls high in closed
questions were just as likely to lead to orders and advances.” This is not as strange
as it may at first appear. In theory, open questions result in open answers, while
closed questions produce one-word answers. But in practice, this is not always the
case. In the context of a sales call, 60 percent of all closed questions receive an
answer that is longer than one word. In other words, closed questions very often get
open answers. And about 10 percent of all open questions get a closed answer.
To some extent, the open/closed distinction is an artificial one. The important thing is
to ask skillful questions that move the call forward. “If you’re worrying about things
like how many open questions you’re asking,” Neil says, “you’re rearranging the deck
chairs on a sinking ship. What you should be worrying about is: Are your questions
focused on issues that are important to the customVol. I No. 6

A Closer Look At Closing

“Close hard, close early, and close often” was the rallying cry of “old school” selling.
When Huthwaite launched a study of closing, we fully expected the research to
validate the conventional wisdom. But after observing nearly 200 sales calls, our
researchers began to have misgivings. Salespeople who closed frequently were not
more successful than sellers who didn’t – in fact, in the initial survey, the low-close
calls had a slightly better success rate than the high-close calls.
Further research confirmed that there is no strong correlation between closing often
and winning the business. And using a variety of closing techniques may actually hurt
more than it helps, especially in high-dollar sales. A questionnaire that Huthwaite
circulated among professional buyers showed that more than half described
themselves as “less likely to buy” when they noticed that the sales rep was using
closing techniques!
What should a smart salesperson do instead of closing hard, closing early, and
closing often? The short answer is: determine clear objectives for each call, and plan
to advance the sale in increments. Establish a need for your offering before you ask
for the order. Future issues of The SPIN will cover this ground in more detail.

Best Foot Forward

One of the goals of an early Huthwaite research project was to try to figure out the
best way to open the first sales call on a new customer. What we learned may
surprise you!
First of all, the old saying, "You never get a second chance to make a first
impression," is usually not something you need to worry about. Just think about your
own experience: How often do you meet someone for the first time, and almost
immediately forget the most important thing you know about them - their name?
Similarly, buyers often forget details or facts from the first few minutes of a sales call.
Furthermore, even if a call begins awkwardly, most buyers are willing to overlook it if
it becomes clear that your offering will solve a problem for them.
Another significant finding was that call openings are one of the many areas where
techniques that succeed in small, one-call sales may not be appropriate for complex,
multi-call sales. For example, the owner of a small business may feel the eed to "get
to know you a little" before talking business, while a sophisticated purchasing agent
with major budget responsibilities may object to investing any time at all in building
personal rapport during a first call.
So how do you put your best foot forward? Tailor the style of your opening to your
client - don't expect to find one sure-fire approach that works in every situation - but
plan the substance of your opening to quickly establish three things: who you are,
why you're there, and your right to ask questions. When the buyer agrees that the
next step is for you to ask some questions, the opening has been successful … and
the SPIN model can provide a framework for the rest of the call.

The Investigator vs. the Talking Brochure

In the last issue of The SPIN we talked about opening a sales call. Now we'd like to
pick up right where we left off: After you've put your best foot forward, what do you
do next? Huthwaite sees a sales call as consisting of four stages: opening,
investigating, demonstrating capability, and obtaining commitment. Depending on
the nature of your sale, the opening may last only a few seconds - just long enough
for the customer to say, "Let's get started" - or it may involve half an hour of leisurely
conversation.
The transition from the first stage of the call to the second is critical, because it is
here that many salespeople fall into a trap. They have been waiting for this moment,
they have planned their call carefully, and they have a lot of information to share.
Unfortunately, this is usually not the best time to share it. Sellers who provide
product information or suggest solutions before customer needs have been
established risk being perceived as "talking brochures."
A more successful approach is to give the customer room to talk. When you're
planning the call, prepare questions you can use to explore problems the customer
may have that you can help with. The second stage of the call - investigating - is
when you uncover and develop customer needs. At this stage, seeking information is
a more effective means of advancing the sale than giving information. There will be
time to talk about your products or services in the third stage - demonstrating
capability. In the meantime, try being an investigator rather than a talking brochure.
You may discover that listening to the customer offers the shortest route to an
outcome that satisfies both of you.

How may I help you? Demonstrating Capability

We've said it before and we'll say it again: Don't start talking about solutions too
soon.
When you're on a sales call, use your opening to gain permission to ask questions.
Use questions to investigate customer needs. Then, and only then, do you reach the
"demonstrating capability" stage of the call, when it's time to show how you can help
your customer solve problems.
One clear signal that the customer is ready to learn about your capabilities is when
he or she makes a statement of what Huthwaite calls an "explicit need" - an intention
or desire to take action to solve a problem. For example, a buyer who says, "Service
from our current supplier is kind of slow" has probably not yet decided to address the
situation. But a buyer who says, "We've got to have faster service" has given you an
explicit need, and is likely to want to hear about solutions.
Beware of trying to solve problems your customer doesn't actually have - your
strengths don't matter unless they matter to the people you're talking to. In the
above example, if the buyer needs faster local service only, you'll need to resist the
temptation to talk at length about your international capability. This trap is
particularly easy to fall into when you are selling a new offering that has features
you're excited about. Instead of planning a sales call in terms of what your product or
service can do, change your focus a little and Vol. I No. 10

Obtaining Commitment: Winning by Degrees

Our story so far: We've seen how a sales call typically moves from an opening, where
the seller gains permission to ask questions, to investigating, where the seller
uncovers and develops customer needs, to demonstrating capability, where the seller
shows that he or she has a solution that can help the customer. The fourth and final
stage of a sales call is obtaining commitment.
In low-dollar, one-call sales, the meeting typically concludes with a buy/don't-buy
decision from the customer. But in major account selling, multiple calls over the
course of a sales cycle that may last months is the rule. In this case, obtaining
commitment usually means gaining the buyer's agreement to an intermediate step,
which we call an advance.
An advance should move the customer closer to making a favorable decision.
Depending on the nature of your sale, an advance could be an agreement to attend a
product demonstration, an introduction to someone higher in the customer
organization, or a trial adoption of your product or service. There's a simple rule of
thumb for determining if you actually won an advance: Did the buyer commit to
taking an action of some kind?
To maximize the effectiveness of your sales calls, plan each one with the objective of
gaining an advance. The best advance is the largest increment of commitment you
can realistically expect your customer to agree to.
Think about what it can do for this customer.

From Contact to Contract... and Beyond

We've been talking about the four stages of a sales call - opening, investigating,
demonstrating capability, and obtaining commitment. Now let's step back and look at
the bigger picture: What is the context in which a sales call occurs?
Major account selling requires a series of calls, which take place at
various points along the continuum from "contact to contract." Sales
consultants are accustomed to thinking of this process as "the sales
cycle," but we find it more helpful to operate in terms of a Buying
Cycle™. It is the buyer, after all, who is in motion, or who must be set
in motion, toward a decision.
Buyers universally go through the same stages on their way to
reaching a decision. First comes "recognition of needs," where it
becomes clear that a change of some sort is necessary. Next comes
"evaluation of options," where the client assesses the various available
alternatives. (These alternatives may include an in-house solution, a
competitor's solution, or "do nothing.")
After evaluating options, the client enters the "resolution of concerns" stage, and
tries to gain assurance that the solution being considered will actually work. This
stage usually concludes with a decision being made, but the Buying Cycle does not
end there. Next comes "implementation," where the solution is put into place. Finally,
there is the stage we call "changes over time," which means that changes in the
organization, the market, or technology bring the client once again to the recognition
of needs stage.
Effective call planning requires an awareness of which stage the client is in. In the
next issue of The SPIN we'll begin to explore some call strategies that take
advantage of the Buying Cycle. We hope it will give you a fresh perspective on using
the SPIN questioning model.

On a Roll with the Buying Cycle

As we've seen, the Buying Cycle lays out the stages that all buyers go through on
their way to making a high-dollar purchase decision. You can increase your chances
of success by determining where the buyer is now, and planning your sales call
accordingly. Today we'll look at how this idea applies to three of the five stages of
the Buying Cycle.
Let's suppose that your customer is in the "recognition of needs" stage — they have
a growing awareness that the technology, service, supplier, product, etc. they are
using now is not getting the job done as well as they would like. Your challenge is to
uncover that dissatisfaction… and increase it. This is not the time to talk about your
solutions. Instead, "build the pain" to help the customer recognize the need to act.
When dissatisfaction reaches "critical mass," the customer decides to act, and enters
the "evaluation of options" stage. Now the buyer has a choice to make, and your
strategy must shift to helping them make the right decision. There are two points to
remember here: First, you will need to clearly differentiate your offerings from
competing solutions. Second, the most common mistake at this stage is continuing to
behave as if the customer is still in the recognition of needs stage.
At some point the customer begins to favor a particular solution (although one or two
competitors may still remain viable) and enters the "resolution of concerns" stage.
The decision is close to being made, and the buyer naturally worries about the risks.
If you are the frontrunner at this point, it is essential that you understand what the
buyer perceives these risks to be. Under-the-surface

Strike while the iron is hot

"Strike while the iron is hot" is a saying that dates back to the 16th century. Picture a
blacksmith with the tools of his trade — hammer, forge, and anvil — trying to craft a
sword or a horseshoe. The metal won't bend until it is literally red hot. What happens
if you try to hammer the iron when it's still cold? You can pound away for all you're
worth, and barely make a dent. In the vocabulary of sales, this is called "presenting
your solution too soon."
If your customer isn't aware of a problem that needs solving, the time isn't right to hit
him over the head with a solution. Salespeople often reach for the hammer when
they should be stoking the forge — "turning up the heat" to help the buyer recognize
a need.
In a sense, buyer needs are the raw materials of any sale. In the book, SPIN Selling, a
need is defined as "any statement made by the buyer which expresses a want or
concern that can be satisfied by the seller." There are two broad categories of buyer
needs, and it is critical that salespeople be able to identify — and distinguish
between — the two.
"Implied needs" reveal themselves in customer statements of dissatisfaction: "The
current process is a little slow." "We've had some quality issues with our supplier."
"Our costs have risen more than we expected." In the SPIN® model, Situation
Questions and Problem Questions are used to uncover implied needs.
"Explicit needs" are recognized by the customer as requiring action: "We've got to
speed up the process." "Improving quality is our top priority right now." "We have to
find a way to contain costs." Implication Questions and Need-payoff Questions are
used to develop implied needs into explicit needs.
Huthwaite's research shows that in major-account sales, explicit needs are a strong
predictor of success, but implied needs are not. Persuasive sales techniques are
unlikely to be effective if the customer hasn't expressed explicit needs. Use SPIN
questions to develop implied needs into explicit needs, and then strike while the iron
is hot.
Huthwaite client voted Most Effective Sales Force by Selling Power magazine
The SPIN offers hearty congratulations to UPS for being voted #1 in The Top 15 Most
Effective Sales Forces by top sales magazine, Selling Power. In Selling Power's
September 2002 issue, UPS was cited for its consultative selling approach, the
commitment of its managers to coaching, and its continual measurement of
meaningful sales and customer data. Among other things, UPS tracks quotas, volume
of revenues, time with customers, and proficiency in learning.
Every sales resource working for UPS today has undergone Huthwaite's sales
effectiveness training. According to Selling Power, "UPS has created a sales force that
displays behaviors aligned with the company's strong brand. Their extensive training
system reinforces effective sales management; their measurement process flags
performance challenges and identifies reward and recognition opportunities. UPS has
designed a powerful sales engine, designed to deliver value to the customer, which in
turn brings back value to the company and all stakeholders. The concerns won't go
away; they have to be resolved. That clears the way to winning the business.

Features, Advantages and Benefits

Have you ever been annoyed by a salesperson? Of course you have -- whether in a
store, on a car lot, or over the telephone. You may have felt like the seller was
wasting your time -- he or she was talking about something that didn't hold the
slightest interest for you. At Huthwaite we feel some sympathy for these annoying
salespeople, because we know it's not their fault: They were trained to do the wrong
thing.
The "wrong thing" -- especially in a first encounter with a prospective customer -- is
what we call a "feature dump." "Features" are the characteristics of your product or
service. Everything from technical specifications to delivery options may be classified
as features. Reciting a list of features, which is how many salespeople are trained to
sell, won't work with sophisticated buyers.
One way to get a little more mileage out of a feature: You can turn it into what we
call an "advantage" by showing the customer how it can help them. For example, if
"frosted glass windowpanes" is a feature of the windows you're selling, the
advantage might be, "Because the glass is frosted, your house will stay cooler."
However, Huthwaite research shows that advantages are not particularly persuasive
in major account selling. "Frosted glass will help you keep the house cool," you say,
and the customer replies, "The house is too cold already. It never warms up, even in
the summer." The advantage you've presented has only led to an objection, because
it doesn't solve a problem for the buyer.
The most powerful way to present your offering is to make statements that show how
your capabilities meet an explicit need expressed by the customer. We call such
statements "benefits."
Let's return to the frosted glass example. Suppose that before talking about your
product, you explore and develop the buyer's needs. The customer says, "My biggest
concern is privacy. I want to keep the people next door from looking in my windows."
Now you're ready to offer a benefit: "With our frosted glass windowpanes, the
neighbors won't be able to see in even when the curtains are open." Benefits show
that you can provide what the customer needs. Of all the ways of presenting your
solution, benefits are the most successful -- and the least annoying!

The Beauty of Benefits

As we saw in the last installment of The SPIN, there are three ways to demonstrate
capability during a sales call. The acronym "FAB" may help you remember the three
ways - it stands for features, advantages and benefits. Demonstrating capability is
vitally important to anyone who wants to develop a greater mastery of face-to-face
selling skills, so today we're going to take a second look at features, advantages and
benefits.
To recap: features are characteristics of your product or service. Advantages show
how products, services, or their features can be used or can help the customer.
Benefits show how the product or service can meet an explicit need expressed by the
customer. "It has a V-8 engine" is a feature. "It has a V-8 engine, so you'll be able to
accelerate on hills" is an advantage. "It has a V-8 engine, which you said you must
have" is a benefit.
Some sales training models lump advantages and benefits together, but Huthwaite's
research shows that the difference between the two is critical. An advantage
assumes a customer need that may not really exist, while a benefit responds to a
customer need that is already on the table.
Because advantages are based on assumptions that may be unfounded, they can
actually create buyer objections. "It has a V-8 engine, so you'll be able to accelerate
on hills," says the salesperson, but the customer may reply, "I don't live near any
hills, and I don't want to pay for something I don't need."
The beauty of benefits is that they are held in reserve until the customer has stated a
desire or an intention to change. When the customer says, "I need to do something,"
the sales rep is ready to respond with, "Let me show you how we can help." Skillful
sellers first help buyers understand problems, and then demonstrate that they have
the capability to solve the problems.
The features/advantages/benefits terminology isn't important. What is important is
using questions to uncover and develop customer needs.

You Call that a Hat?

Those of you who enjoy the "Dilbert" comic strip may recall Dilbert's adventures in
sales training: A salesman tells the training class that he will demonstrate his skills by
selling roadkill to someone in the room for a thousand dollars. Next, we see Dilbert at
the end of the day with the flattened animal carcass draped over his head. "How'd
the sales training go?" someone asks, and he answers, "I got a hat."
Dilbert's experience brings to mind the old saying that a real salesperson can sell
anything to anybody. But is that saying true? Does the success of a sale depend on
the persuasive powers of the seller?
To explore that question, we'll need to make a distinction between "simple sales" and
"major sales." Simple sales are defined by very limited interactions between the
buyer and the seller - they are usually one-call sales. Major sales, on the other hand,
take place over the course of a buying cycle that may last weeks, months, or even
years. In major sales, large sums of money are at stake, the decision is likely to have
high visibility within the buying organization, and responsibility for making the
decision may be shared among several people or departments.
Persuasion plays a bigger role in simple sales, because the purchase is often not as
important to the buyer. You might buy a sweater just because the sales clerk says it's
on sale, it's the last one in your size, and it looks good on you. In major sales, buyers
tend to be quite sophisticated about the purchasing process. The decision-maker for
a seven-figure sale is not going to make an impulse buy or succumb to pressure
tactics.
Major-account selling is really all about the buyer - not the seller. The most successful
salespeople don't want to sell "anything to anybody" - they want to solve customer
problems, build relationships, and uncover new opportunities in existing accounts.
And they never try to pretend that roadkill is a hat.
Editor's note: We'll explore another myth about salespeople in our next issue.

In and Out of the Zone

At Huthwaite, we recently encountered a salesperson who was skeptical about the

value of any sales training. “Training isn’t important,” he said. “My customers buy
from me because they like me.”
Is selling really nothing more than a popularity contest? This is a view that is shared
by many people outside the sales profession… and by some insiders as well, as
Huthwaite founder Neil Rackham notes in his book, Rethinking the Sales Force. He
quotes a vice president of sales who says that he personally has never bought
anything from someone he didn’t like.
However, in the realm of major account selling, where the purchase is likely to be
both costly and highly visible within the buyer’s organization, a personal relationship
with the seller will rarely be the most important factor upon which the decision is
based.
Relationships usually count most heavily when competing solutions are within what
Rackham calls the “zone of indifference.” This means that if the buyer perceives a
competitor’s offering to be only marginally superior, he will choose to deal with the
seller he likes. Although the competition’s superiority is recognized, it is not
significant enough to break out of the buyer’s zone of indifference. Whether you’re in
or out of the zone, it’s always a good idea to build relationships. One of the best
ways to do that is to let yourself be guided by the “Three C’s” – concern, candor, and
competence.
Concern means that you focus on your customers and their needs, not on yourself.
Making the effort to understand your customer’s problems is the first step toward
earning your customer’s trust.
Candor is a great way to stand out from the crowd: just be honest and don’t
exaggerate. Don’t deceive and don’t pretend.Competence comes from knowing how
your products or services meet customer needs. It isn’t enough to understand what
your products do; you have to understand what problems they solve.
Don’t neglect your customer relationships… and don’t neglect your sales training,
either. Your customers shouldn’t have to choose between the salesperson they like
and the salesperson with professional selling skills.

The Questioner’s Art

Today we look at one of the nuances of the SPIN questioning model. It’s the “forking
paths” dilemma: During a sales call, you uncover a buyer problem that has multiple
implications, some of which lead, in turn, to further implications. How do you
proceed? Do you use your limited time with the buyer to address all the implications
(let’s call this path #1), or do you follow just one of the implications as far as it will
take you (path #2)?
Let’s suppose that you are selling vacuum cleaners, and your conversation with the
customer has already established that she is dissatisfied with the carpet-cleaning
capabilities of the vacuum she has now. The problem you want to explore is that the
present vacuum cleaner leaves the carpets dirty. Within the framework you’ve
established by asking Situation and Problem Questions, you begin to develop some
implications. Because of dirty carpets: 1) her children can’t play on the floor, 2) her
house will smell bad, and 3) her dog’s skin condition will not improve. That’s an
example of the first path.
The second path might follow a pattern like this: Implication – her dog’s skin
condition will not improve. Implication of implication – she’ll have to take the dog to
the veterinarian. Implication of implication of implication – going to the vet is
expensive, time-consuming, and depressing.
You could pursue this even farther: the cost of the vet visits may, over time, amount
to more than the cost of a new vacuum cleaner, and meanwhile, visitors to the home
may be repelled by the funny smell, the sullen children, and the mangy-looking dog.
This could increase domestic tension, diminishing the productivity and well-being of
every member of the family, and so on.
Which path works best for your sale? Let your customer be your guide. Mastery of
the questioner’s art depends not only on asking smart questions, but on really
listening to the answers. Follow the direction that leads to where the customer wants
to go.

The difference between you and me is…

A few years ago, Huthwaite worked with a manufacturer whose sole product was an
automobile part. When the company had first gotten started, they had a unique
process, and were in the enviable position of being the only supplier who made this
particular part in this particular way.
By the time they approached Huthwaite, however, their process had been duplicated
by three other companies. Once the only game in town, they were now on the losing
side in a ruthless price war. The Huthwaite consultants knew this company couldn’t
win on the basis of price, but what about quality, or service, or delivery, or value-
adds like technical expertise? To each query, the clients shook their heads and
muttered, “No, we’re no better than the competition.”
Finally, the most junior member of the Huthwaite team, a new-hire who was at the
meeting merely as an observer, spoke up: “Excuse me, but if your competitors are
exactly the same as you, only cheaper, why should anyone buy from you?” There
was silence in the room for a long moment, and then one of the client’s senior sales
managers said, “We don’t know.”
The moral of the story is a simple one: Without differentiators, you’re doomed.
“Differentiation” is a popular buzzword in sales and marketing circles, but we use it
here with a precise definition in mind. To quote from Huthwaite founder Neil
Rackham’s book, Major Account Sales Strategy: “Differentiation is how you convince
the customer that you are different from your competition. Not just randomly
different, but different – and superior – in terms of key dimensions which influence
the customer’s judgments.”
It’s important to note that marketing departments and sales forces approach
differentiation from different angles. Marketers deal with the overall market, and
must therefore think in terms of factors such as design, pricing, and advertising to
distinguish their offerings from those of the competition. Salespeople, on the other
hand, deal with individual customers, and their task is to connect their differentiators
directly to customer needs. And bear in mind that a highly skilled sales force is itself
a powerful differentiator – your competence generates customer confidence in your
offering.

The Difference Between Hard and Soft

In the last installment of The SPIN, we talked about differentiators – the factors that
make your product or service stand out in the customer’s mind as superior to the
offerings of your competition. Some of those factors will be intrinsic to the product
itself, and some will be intrinsic to your company.
Of course, your competitors may dispute the superiority of your solution. How does
the customer know whose claims to believe? With some differentiators – the ones
that are easily measurable – it’s not so difficult. If you’re selling the lightest laptop or
the fastest motorcycle, these differentiators are “hard” – that is, they can be
quantified.
But what if you’re selling the most stylish wristwatch? The customer probably
doesn’t have a measurement for “stylish,” so this is a “soft” differentiator. Don’t
confuse “soft” with “less significant,” however, because a soft differentiator may in
fact be the buyer’s most important decision criterion. “Quality,” for example, is a
soft differentiator.
In general, it’s easier to sell when your offering is clearly superior in terms of hard
differentiators that the buyer cares about. And hard differentiators tend to gain
importance when the decision must be made relatively quickly. If your widget is
bigger, faster, and cheaper than anyone else’s, and the customer needs widgets
today, you’ve won the business. But if the decision is still several months away, soft
differentiators like reliability, user-friendliness, and image may triumph.
It’s a useful exercise to think about how you can “harden” soft differentiators where
your offering is superior to the competition’s, and “soften” hard differentiators that
are not your strength. “Reliability,” for example, may be hardened by establishing
measurable indicators such as number of service calls or published customer
approval ratings. And a seemingly hard differentiator like “price” may get softer
when the customer considers that purchase price is only one component of the true
cost of ownership.

Analyze This

Every salesperson has at least one story about “the one that got away” – a significant
opportunity they were confident of winning, but which ultimately slipped away from
them.
What went wrong? The answer is often as close as the customer’s list of decision
criteria. You can be sure that in major account selling, the customer nearly always
has a definite, rank-ordered list of criteria with which to evaluate competing
solutions.
As a well-prepared salesperson, you will naturally work to gain an understanding of
your customer’s decision criteria; you will know the strengths and weaknesses of
your own solution; and you will learn the strengths and weaknesses of the solutions
of your competitors. At this point, are you ready to formulate a strategy for winning
the business? Not quite.
You have to consider that your customers may not share your views. They may not
understand what your strengths are … or why these strengths are important. What
you know to be true is one part of the picture, and what the buyer believes to be true
is another part.
To build a “Vulnerability Analysis” that will help you plan your strategy, divide a piece
of paper into three columns. In the first column, list your customer’s decision criteria,
with the most important at the top and the least important at the bottom.
In the second column, rank your capabilities – as the customer sees them. (For
example, you may know that your service is the best in the industry, but the
customer may perceive you as weaker than a better-known competitor.) In column
three, rank your top competitor’s capabilities – again, as seen by the customer.
This simple diagram can reveal three different kinds of challenges. First, the
customer may have a misperception about your abilities that you’ll need to correct.
Second, the customer may be undervaluing something that you do well, and you’ll
need to help them understand the importance of this particular criterion. Third, there
may be an area where you need to improve your performance.
A little bit of analysis can take you a long way down the road to sales success.

Monkey Business

There’s an old, old saying in sales: “Why talk to the monkey when you can talk to the
organ grinder?” Organ grinders were a common sight in nineteenth century New
York, and can still be found in some European cities. The tools of the trade are a
hand-cranked organ, a pushcart, and a little ring-tailed monkey who collects coins
from passersby.
So if your product line included hand-cranked organs, spotting an organ grinder and
his monkey on a city street might represent a significant sales opportunity. Who
would you want to call on first – the monkey (a low-level employee) or the organ
grinder (top management)?
Just as a call planning exercise, we could script hypothetical dialogues for both
scenarios:
Seller: Good morning, sir. That’s lovely music. Unfortunately, your current
equipment is severely limiting the number of tunes you can play. My company offers
a hand-cranked organ that uses interchangeable sheet-music rolls, which would give
your repertoire the variety you need to satisfy today’s demanding audiences.
Organ Grinder: My audiences like the old songs. I would never waste money on a
new organ, and I don’t have time for salespeople. Get out of my office.
Seller: You don’t have an office. We’re standing on the street.
The sales rep has made the mistake of calling too high. He met with the decision-
maker before he had any understanding of that person’s issues.
Now let’s try a different tactic:
Seller: Good morning, sir. That’s lovely music.
Monkey: Wow – no one has ever called me “sir” before. Your cordial, low-key
approach makes me feel inclined to candidly discuss every aspect of our business
operations.
Seller: Great! Are you experiencing any dissatisfaction with
your current organ?
Monkey: Why, yes, we are. It’s much too heavy, and the organ grinder has to push it
along the street all day. It limits the range of our operations, and that, in turn,
inhibits revenue growth. And revenue growth is the only thing the organ grinder
cares about.
Seller: My company makes the world’s lightest hand-cranked organ.
Monkey: Well, if you can show how your solution will help with our pressing business
needs, why don’t I arrange a meeting with my boss?
Why talk to the monkey? To get prepared to talk to the organ grinder. Never call
high until you’ve done your homework.

Trash Talk

Let’s talk about your competition for a minute: Those lying, underhanded weasels,
they wouldn’t recognize a quality product if it bit them on the… but wait. Would you
say that to a customer?
Attacking the competition is a dangerous tactic that can backfire in two ways. First, it
can reduce your credibility. Second, it focuses the conversation on the competitor’s
solution rather than on your own.
Talking about the competition opens up areas you can’t control. “They can’t do X,”
you tell the buyer, who counters with, “Yes, but I love how they do Y and Z – too bad
you’re not good at that, because Y and Z are where we really need to concentrate
right now….”
Furthermore, the more you talk, the more you run the risk of building the
competitor’s importance in the mind of the customer. Market leaders rarely make
negative comparisons; conversely, lesser-known brands often feel compelled to.
Recognizing that badmouthing the competition can be counterproductive, some sales
organizations forbid their sales reps to mention the competition at all. But this, too,
can be a risky tactic. For one thing, customers may ask you to assess a competing
solution, and you can’t refuse to answer.
There are two methods you can use to talk about the competition and at the same
time avoid the appearance of negativity. First, make comparisons in terms of your
strengths rather than their weaknesses. Instead of saying that their delivery is slow,
say that yours is fast.
Second, you’ll sound less biased if you can talk in terms of “generic” weaknesses
rather than focusing on the rival company or product. As explained in the book, Major
Account Sales Strategy, a generic weakness is a flaw in the method or technology the
competitor uses, rather than a specific criticism of the competitor.
So instead of saying, “Acme’s hot dogs don’t taste as good as ours,” you could speak
more objectively about their methods: “Acme uses a mix of beef, pork, and industrial
sludge in their hot dogs. National taste tests have shown that consumers prefer an
all-beef dog to a beef/pork/sludge blend.” So instead of talking trash, you’re talking
facts.
Poker Face
In these modern times, with the “hard sell” theories of the twentieth century safely
behind us, it is almost universally acknowledged among sales professionals that a
“customer-centric” approach to sales makes the most sense. Focus on what the
customer cares about, and show the fit between your solution and the customer’s
needs.
But what if the customer isn’t giving you any clues about what they care about?
Perhaps you’ve run into a buyer like this – a buyer who doesn’t show approval or
disapproval, who doesn’t give you any indication of how you’re doing. You may
encounter this behavior on a sales call, during negotiations, or while giving a
presentation.
Huthwaite calls these buyers “low reactors.” Some people are “natural” low reactors,
but sophisticated buyers often train themselves to wear a poker face. In fact, the
higher the stakes, the more likely it is that buyers will deliberately curtail their
reactions.
For most salespeople, a negative response from a buyer is actually easier to deal
with than the absence of any response. Handling a low reactor can be tricky. Here’s a
list of five things you shouldn’t do:
1. Don’t talk faster, hoping you’ll get to something that pushes a button for the
buyer.
2. Don’t talk too much – you may give away more information than you intended.
3. If you’re making a presentation, don’t depart from your planned outline to
scramble for something the audience will respond to.
4. Don’t over-react yourself, especially by making exaggerated claims.
5. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. It may be difficult to get good answers out of low
reactors, but you can’t let that discourage you.
Low reactors are not necessarily hostile. They may actually be in favor of your
solution, but may think they can get better terms by not offering feedback.
Furthermore, they are not always the “silent type.” They may do a lot of talking… but
without giving anything away.
It’s a good idea to anticipate the presence of a low reactor (or even a roomful of
them) when you plan your sales calls and presentations. If you’re ready for them, you
won’t be rattled. And when it’s time to negotiate, bring your own poker face to the
table

Prospecting for Fun and Profit, Part 1

It’s one of the most famous lines in movie history - the police official in Casablanca
telling his men to “round up the usual suspects.” We can picture a weary sales
manager saying the same thing to his or her sales reps.
Write letters, leave voice mail, call and call again. Turn suspects into prospects, and
prospects into clients. It isn’t easy, and it definitely isn’t fun. In fact, most
salespeople say that prospecting is the thing they like least about their jobs.
Even top-performing salespeople dread prospecting, and it’s easy to see why.
Despite their best efforts, the results are often disappointing.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Effective prospecting skills can
be learned, and can begin to produce results almost immediately.
Great prospectors have figured out two important aspects that make prospecting
both successful and credentialing: finding a target-rich environment and then
developing a message based on value creation.
Assembling a target-rich environment means starting with a hypothesis as to why a
given prospect may be interested in what the seller has to offer. Developing such a
hypothesis begins with an analysis of the problems or issues that the seller has
recently solved for current clients.
The way to craft a message based on value creation is to focus on client problems,
issues, or needs - not on the seller’s offerings, organization, or resume. According to
Huthwaite’s model, there are three ways for a seller to create value during the sales
process: 1) Uncover or identify an unrecognized problem; 2) Offer an unanticipated
solution; 3) Act as a broker of capabilities

Prospecting for Fun and Profit, Part 2

In the wide, wide world of business enterprise, there are a few organizations that
have been able to simply open their doors and stand back while the customers pour
in. Some of these businesses are even legal.
For everyone else in the world, the reality is that even hotcakes don’t “sell like
hotcakes.” Sales and marketing teams have to go out and find new customers, and
find new opportunities with existing customers. In major account sales, prospecting is
an indispensable part of that effort.
As noted in the last issue of The SPIN, successful prospectors follow a two-step
approach: finding a target-rich environment and then developing a message based
on value creation. Huthwaite summarizes this process in a four-stage prospecting
model called RIMS: Research, Implications, Message building, Sales cycle. Let’s take
a quick look at each of these stages.
Research - Assembling a target-rich prospecting environment requires, first, a
starting hypothesis about why a given prospect may be interested in what the seller
has to offer. Development of this hypothesis begins with an analysis of the problems
or issues the seller has recently solved for current clients.
Implications - As in the SPIN model, the prospector should think carefully about the
implications of problems that are left un-addressed. Thinking through the
implications provides essential material for building a value-creating message.
Message building - The key is to have something insightful to say. A customer-
focused message will use one or more of the implications derived from the
issue/problem thought process to demonstrate that the seller may have an
interesting perspective on some aspect of the suspect’s business.
Sales cycle - The goal of prospecting is to move the prospect into the sales pipeline.
There are two factors at play here: First, the seller must plan, and achieve, what
Huthwaite calls “Advances” - increments of forward progress, as measured by actions
on the part of the buyer. Second, the prospector must assess the opportunity in
terms of the prospect’s position relative to the Buying Cycle - are they becoming
aware of a need, for example, or evaluating competing solutions? A prospecting
message must be tuned to the appropriate Buying Cycle stage.
Buyers don’t listen to “info-dump” messages. To be successful, a prospecting
message must connect what customers care about to the seller’s capabilities to
generate positive change.

Rules for Winning Proposals

If you are selling to major accounts, where decisions may take months and where it is
necessary to influence a wide range of people at different levels in the client’s
organization, proposals are probably one of the tools of your trade. And even in sales
that lack these characteristics, the buyer may request proposals.
Whether you’re dealing with a new account or a new opportunity within an existing
account, a well-built proposal can make the difference between winning and losing
the business. Here is a list of Huthwaite’s “Golden Rules for Winning Proposals”:
Write the proposal to influence key players you haven’t met, not just the ones you
have.
Build a strong business case that justifies the cost and addresses the client’s
business issues.
Make it as easy as possible for people to read. (Remember Elmore Leonard’s advice
to novelists: “Leave out the parts that everyone skips.”)
Focus the document on the client and their needs. Show how your solution meets the
needs and delivers benefits. Don’t dump all the technical features into the body of
the proposal.
Assess the risk inherent in the decision for the client. Show how your solution will
minimize those risks.
Think about how the client might question the price, and then present it in a way
that’s more difficult to challenge.
Provide clear implementation plans showing how obstacles will be overcome.
Check your draft proposal with your sponsor (internal champion) before submitting
the final version.
Consider how you will ensure that key decision-makers actually read your document.
It’s also helpful to remember the old adage, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing
right.” Your proposal is selling for you when you can’t be there, so it has to reflect
your standards of professionalism.

It's Only Money

Recently an acquaintance reported that his five-year-old son had developed a
creative strategy for supplementing his allowance: Whenever the family had guests,
the child would choose a moment when both his parents were out of the room and
then urgently whisper to the visitors, “Could you give me five dollars?” When anyone
turned him down, he would sigh and say, “Jeez, how can people be so stingy?”
Many salespeople seem to be asking themselves the same question. The SPIN Doctor
is getting a lot of letters from sellers who are frustrated that corporate buyers keep
turning the conversation back to the subject of price.
It may be helpful to remember the following points when you have to talk about
price:
Don’t talk about solutions too soon, and don’t let the client talk about price too soon.
You have to understand what the client’s problems are before you say that you can
solve the problems. Explain that the first step is to see if you can help. Until you both
agree on what the solution should look like, you can’t begin to discuss how much it
might cost.
Help the client define price. “Purchase price” may not be as realistic a definition as
“cost of ownership.” For example, a cheap car with poor gas mileage may cost more
in the long run than a higher-priced car with great gas mileage.
Encourage the client to think about price in terms of outcomes. If they buy a cut-rate
solution that doesn’t deliver the results they need, the money is wasted.
Don’t let the client put you on the defensive because you’re not the lowest-price
provider. The lowest-price provider may be keeping their costs down by cutting
corners on quality.