When a buyer makes a decision to use the selling organization's solution, they are making a commitment to action. To accomplish this, they must communicate their concerns, needs, and wants. In today's buying world there are many choices and the stakes have never been higher. People in purchasing roles take even the smallest purchase seriously and will therefore conduct due diligence by communicating internally and with the salesperson. Due diligence is the effort made by the buyer to ensure that no harm comes to their organization or there own personal well-being when they choose you. Failure to make this effort is considered negligence and is quite serious inside the buying organization. It is therefore extremely important to support the decision-making process by being responsive with requests for information, questions, requests for meetings, and even postponements or waiting for others to collaborate internal to the buying organization.
The way people make buying decisions depends on the complexity of the problem they are trying to solve and the complexity of each step in their individual or organizational decision process. This will affect how salespeople manage the communication process during the sale. If their need and the decision-making process are simple, all they will need to do is make people aware of them, build trust, differentiate themselves, demonstrate value and guide the buyer through a very simple shopping and buying process. This is why lower-end, branded commodities sell so well.
If the need and the decision-making process are highly complex, then highly competent salespeople realize that buyers need to be aware, relationships need to be built, and buyers need to be educated (and perhaps many different individuals or teams within the same organization). Salespeople should show sensitivity to the different decision-makers, influencers and groups, and resolve conflicting needs, so they can customize their solutions and make the buying process as painless and positive as possible.
The key is to build trust and credibility with the buyer(s) in the buying organization. People will reject something if they have a bias against the salesperson or their organization. Buyers are also more inclined to buy from someone they like. Equally as important is the fact that many decisions are unduly influenced by initial information that shapes their view of subsequent information that you provided (this is why the role of Positioner is so important).
Selling requires an open a two-way dialogue with customers in order to work with them to uncover their needs, and reveal how the solution can provide them with genuine business solutions. This will allow the salesperson to distinguish themselves in a world where customers have large amounts of information. Communication also allows them to improve their ability to connect with customers and focus on customer needs, rather than on their own product or service.
Throughout the communication process, salespeople must develop credibility, minimize anxiety, and increase their own self-confidence. This will allow them to improve business relationships and rapport. Buyers will also attempt to gather facts that support their initial conclusions about a solution and disregard other facts that support different conclusions. Therefore past experiences and thoughts are important to understand through the use of probing and open-ended questions.
Sales presentations are scripted (in writing) explanations of the value you provide to the prospect. They are usually a blend of visual (such as PowerPoint) and oral communications where the buyer expects the seller to share information that focuses on the benefits of what is being sold as it relates to solving their specific problems.
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Focus Area: Communication Management