There’s no business like ‘know’ business

How to migrate from ‘tell mode’ selling to ‘seek mode” selling – Part II
JERRY STAPLETON
For SBT
Last month, I wrote about curiosity, probably the greatest weapon in a sales professional’s arsenal. It’s important, though, to channel that curiosity correctly in what I term a “Knowledge Call.”
The Knowledge Call – what it is, and what it isn’t
The Knowledge Call is not a needs-analysis meeting. Its aim is to gain insight into the customer’s organization, its business, its culture, its political structure, and the “fit” between your two companies.
A Knowledge Call is distinct from other types of sales calls in four primary ways:
1. Products are truly left at the door.
The aim of a Knowledge Call is not to discuss your company and its solutions. It requires a high level of discipline not to immediately respond to a future purchasing opportunity, but it’s worth it in the long run.
2. A Knowledge Call is about more than determining the buying company’s needs.
Customer needs spring from customer business issues. So to understand the needs, you first need to understand the issues. That’s why needs-analysis meetings, while important, are different from Knowledge Calls. Certainly some discussion of customer needs occurs during a Knowledge Call. The traditional Vendor/Problem-Solver stops there – or, at best, tries to understand the business issues relating to the needs that the salesperson knows he or she can fill. But the new Business Resource does much more. The Business Resource seeks to understand not only the business issues behind the customer’s immediate needs but also the much broader business issues facing the customer.
3. A Knowledge Call is positioned with a very specific purpose in mind.
A Business Resource has developed the ability to clearly frame his or her request for a Knowledge Call with directness and clarity. The positioning isn’t buried in some fuzzy, general request to “get together” with that customer or to “understand the customer’s needs.” While this distinction may seem insignificant, it’s anything but. How a Knowledge Call is positioned is among the biggest predictors of its success. What’s more, whether a Knowledge Call is conducted as a stand-alone meeting or integrated into another type of sales call, it must be clearly positioned.
4. A Knowledge Call doesn’t have to yield a lot of knowledge to be useful.
Surprised? Such calls always yield knowledge, but they needn’t in order to be successful. The salesperson succeeds in scoring Business Resource points just for asking good questions. Remember, it’s not merely about information gathering, it’s also about how you are perceived by your customers.
How Knowledge Calls fit into your overall sales strategy
Consider the Knowledge Call in relation your total sales strategy and ask yourself:
* How credibly could I articulate knowledge of this customer company’s business to its CEO, and, in turn, articulate the business fit between our two companies?
* What facts do I have to confirm my perceptions of the real level of influence that my contacts possess?
* Do I understand the key political agendas?
* Do I know enough about my competition’s strategy to launch an effective counter-strategy?
* Can I adequately answer three questions based on objective criteria:
1. Should we pursue?
2. Can we win?
3. Will it be good business?
If you believe (and who wouldn’t) that having all this information at your disposal will enhance your overall sales strategy, then you need to make that first Knowledge Call. But to whom? It may not be the obvious person. I’ll tell you more next month.
Jerry Stapleton is president of the IBS Group and author of From Vendor to Business Resource: Transforming the Sales Force for the New Era of Selling. For more than 10 years he has been showing companies of all sizes, from start-ups to Fortune 500, how to sell to large accounts. www.theibsgroup.com.
Aug. 3, 2001 Small Business Times, Milwaukee