e book complex sale 2 0

E-book by Scott Miller/ The Complex Sale, Inc. How to Compete and Win in a Complex Sale 2.0 World

www.scottymiller.wordpress.com 1 of 40

How to Compete and Win in a

Complex Sale 2.0 World

Scott Miller

Principal

The Complex Sale, Inc.



The world of selling is changing and the change is wrapped up in the

catch phrase, “Sales 2.0.” On the buyer’s side, best practices are more

readily available, as well as information about solutions and competitors.

In some cases, buyers no longer rely on a sales people for product demos

or access to their customer base.

Barry Trailer, co-founder of CSO Insights frames the phenomenon: “. . . essentially universal

Internet access provides unprecedented (some might argue unlimited) insights to product features,

benefits, applications, pricing, successes and failures—even before a sales rep is involved in the

conversation. This shifts the dynamics (i.e., power) in the buy-sell equation. Sellers unwilling, or unable,

to leverage the various communication channels available to facilitate buyers' investigations will

increasingly find themselves less successful in their sales efforts.”

Sales people can no longer use traditional techniques as effectively as they

once did. Picking up the phone, making a cold call, scheduling an

appointment, doing discovery, demonstrating capabilities, competitive

differentiation, handing a proposal, providing references, and negotiating



a deal were once done on the sellers terms because they had all of the

information. The irony is that many of us have been selling information

technology that would eliminate manual process; but, we were never

affected by it on a personal level. With tools like Google, Facebook,

Wikipedia, Podcast, Blogs, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn, consider that

chapter of selling closed. The information is now, quite literally, at your

finger tips.

Forward-looking sales organizations are embracing this change. Terms

like social networking, mobility, online presence, and search engine

optimization have given marketing a well-earned seat in the board room.

Now, sales people need to be able to compliment marketing’s efforts by

selling to buyers the way they are buying today and, most certainly will

buy, tomorrow.

As Anneke Seley and Brent Holloway, authors of the book Sales 2.0 state, “Sales 2.0 practices

combine the science of process-driven operations with the art of collaborative relationships, using the most

profitable and most expedient sales resources required to meet customers’ needs.”



The Evolution of Selling

The evolution of selling began as B2C: business to consumer. I have a

grainy image of pioneering Americans flipping through a catalog back in

the old west. Then, as the world began to industrialize, businesses were

created specifically to sell to other businesses, hence the genesis of B2B

selling.

At first, B2B selling was as simple as you need “X” and I have “X,” sign

here. Then, Neil Rackham created the SPIN selling mechanism while

working for Xerox. He found that the most successful sellers were the

ones that listened. They pointed their focus on the customer and away

from the product.

Sometime later, Michael Bosworth created the Solution Selling method to

help sellers understand that pain is fluid. Pain can start high and trickle

down or osmose from the bottom to the top. He also taught us to align

with our buyers’ vision of addressing that pain. Jim Holden taught us

organizations have a few key personalities with power when he

introduced Power-based Selling.



Rick Page ties the concepts of pain and power together and adds the third concept:

preference. Preference gives deeper insight in respect to competition and politics, ideas

once thought taboo by earlier methodologies. He then added prospect, part and plan to

create the ground breaking R.A.D.A.R.® methodology to win the complex sale.

Our challenge is quite simply this: How do we take the new reality that is

Sales 2.0 and marry it with the best practices of winning the complex sale?

After all, if buyers don’t need sellers, how can we at least stay relevant

and KEEP OUR JOB?

Lucky for us, buying rarely has an altruistic and utilitarian decision-

making process. In a complex selling environment, there are multiple

decision-makers and multiple vendors. Each decision-maker will be

impacted by the selection differently and they make their decision based

upon that impact! Stated otherwise, complex sales have risky, political

ramifications for the decision-makers.

The marriage of leveraging emerging technologies and selling the greatest

amount of impact to powerful people is Complex Sale 2.0.



Complex Sale 2.0

The purpose of this e-book is to expose emerging technologies that allow

us to communicate with buyers in the new age. Then, we must use these

emerging technologies to incorporate a strategy to win a complex sale. It

might read like a sprint, and it should. Keeping up with the speed of

information is critical to our success. In this e-book, I will introduce 4 key

concepts:

1. Consolidate emerging technologies and strategy into the CRM to

create a sustainable competitive advantage for your sales force

2. Add value beyond the traditional buyer/ seller paradigm to gain

trust and relevancy and sell peer to peer (P2P)

3. Bring experience, empathy, and mutual interest into the sales

process using the three minute rule to regain control

4. A stage by stage action plan on how to compete and win in a

Complex Sale 2.0 world



Consolidate Emerging Technologies and Strategy into the CRM

One thing all sales leaders should know is that poor CRM (Customer

Relationship Management) adoption from the field is the rule, not the

exception. Most sale professionals see very little value in the CRM

because there is very little value in recapping their activity. In their eyes,

the CRM is for management oversight. As Rick Page, CEO of The

Complex Sale, Inc. states, “the last thing we want to do is turn six figure

big game hunters into data entry clerks.”

We, as sales leaders, need to change that perception by equipping our

reps with the best possible tools available for success. With emerging

technologies changing the rules of buying behavior, the CRM must keep

pace. It must be a single source of competitive advantage and the first

place your sales force goes for strategic selling information.

There are many CRMs to choose from, but I recommend and use

Salesforce.com because of its ease of use and wide adoption within the



profession. More importantly, I recommend Salesforce.com because of the

App Exchange. The App Exchange is where users can install pre-

integrated tools to make the database into the strategic arm of your sales

team. Think of it like the iPhone, where hundreds of applications are

available to choose from.

For a CRM to work optimally, it needs to mirror your sales cycle. For a

sales cycle to work optimally, it needs to match your customer’s buying

cycle. As an example, every natural milestone in your sales process needs

to be reflected as a stage in your CRM:

Buying Cycle Selling Stage Understand and Develop Need Territory Coverage

Sponsor Project First Call

Research Vendors Discovery

Evaluate Solutions Proof of Concept

Select Vendor of Choice Proposal

Submit for Funding Approval

http://sites.force.com/appexchange/apex/home



Within each stage, we need to come to agreement upon and document the

tactical best practices that will progress the sale to the next stage. These

best practices should be embedded inside the CRM as reference points, or

even check points, as to whether we continue working an opportunity. As

the buyer becomes less and less dependant upon the seller, sellers must

become more and more insistent that they are doing the right things to

progress the sale.

Create (Demand Creation) Win (Opportunity Management)

(Phase 1) Territory Coverage

(Phase 2) First Call

(Phase 3) Discovery

(Phase 4) Proof of Concepts

(Phase 5) The Proposal

Webinar

Cold Call

Web Visits

Trigger Event

Trade Shows

Social Network

Research:

Individual

Position

Company

Industry

Pain

Prospect

Preference

Process

Power

Plan

Demo Solution

Link Pains

Sell to Power

Differentiate

Will we win

Will it close

How much

What’s our plan



As a salesperson, I know I am doing the right things to progress the sale

to the next stage by documenting the best practices. As a sales manager, I

can feel comfortable that my rep has an understanding of my

expectations. It might be easy to do a “quick online demo” or submit a

template pricing proposal, but we shouldn’t without reciprocity that will

help us win.

A Sales Culture of Accountability – KPIs

A recent survey from the Complex Sale found that 93% of sales leaders

thought that having a sales culture of accountability was the number one

cause for success! Oftentimes, sales organizations use revenue attainment

goals as the key metric for success. The revenue attainment objective is

owned by one person and divided among that individual’s direct reports.

This process continues throughout the sales organizations down to

individual sales representatives quotas.

Revenue, however, is a lagging indicator of success. The best practices

implemented by the world’s greatest sales forces also attach leading key



performance indicators as goals. The goals start at the top and cascade

down to the field, just as revenue attainment quotas.

Leading Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are specific to individual

sales organizations based upon their clients buying cycles and revenue

generation targets. Most successful organizations start with how much

revenue they need to attain from the base of accounts and create metrics

around account penetration and retention. An example of leading

indicators for account management would be net new opportunities,

renewal rates, and percentage of growth, as applied to each account. We

prescribe other goals for opportunity management and demand creation.

These companies track the progress of these KPI’s on a continual basis

(monthly or quarterly) through a KPI dashboard inside of the CRM.

We see that the most successful companies use this process to hold sellers

accountable for the correct activity and management accountable to the sellers.

This practice leaves out any uncertainty in expectations throughout the sales

organization.



Peer to Peer Selling (P2P)

A new study by Forbes finds that 53% of C-level executives do their own

research online, well before they delegate a project or contact vendors.

Therefore, sales people need to add much more value than the standard

discover, present, pricing method that permeates our business. The buyer

wants to buy from someone who can add value well beyond your

offering. They want advice from a peer who has seen everything and

provided a solution to a problem, not a product.

Successful sales forces are able to take their operational features and

functionality and translate their benefits into a compelling value

proposition for non-technical buyers. As you begin to sell more complex

solutions, more stakeholders are involved in the decision-making process.

These stakeholders often do not have the technical expertise to

distinguish your solution from the competition or other in-house

alternatives.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=108099



Inherent in a value proposition is a keen understanding of the pains of the

non-technical buyers and a linkage of your solution to solving those

pains. Many organizations make the mistake of having one generic value

proposition; when in fact, the value proposition must be tailored to the

individual to whom you are selling.

As a go-to-market strategy, successful sales organizations take a census of

every potential stakeholder in their sales process. They uncover every

potential pain this individual could have and link their solution to solving

that pain. If they don’t have a solution for a pain, they stay involved and

recommend someone who does. They also take inventory of every

potential competitor and create competitive position statements and ways

to handle objections. They lean upon the expertise of their best

practitioners and marketing departments to create an easy-to-access tool

kit or playbook for the sales force.

With this knowledge and confidence, they become more of a peer to their

prospects. With social networking, they can communicate with them as a

peer.



Territory Coverage

Demand creation in a Complex Sale 2.0 world can be summed up in one

word: touches. You don’t know how your prospects want to be

communicated with, so you cast as wide of a net as possible. You don’t

know what message will resonate, so you offer many. Additionally, you

don’t know when your prospects are ready to hear from you, so your

outreach is constant. The medians available to you will not replace the

telephone as the primary means of communication – they will enhance it.

Sellers don’t want to make a cold call as much as buyers don’t want to

take them.

Your buyers need your information. They just don’t want to talk until

they are ready. Brian Carroll of InTouch writes an excellent e-book

entitled Lead Generation for the Complex Sale. Carroll explains the

multimodal approach to engage prospects in a manner that they prefer,

before they are ready to make a purchasing decision.

Steve Woods, CTO at Eloqua, wrote a great white paper, Digital Body

Language. The premise is that by using Eloqua’s tracking capabilities,

http://www.startwithalead.com/downloads/StartWithALeadEBook.pdf

http://www.eloqua.com/resources/whitepapers/Digital_Body_Language_whitepaper.html

http://www.eloqua.com/resources/whitepapers/Digital_Body_Language_whitepaper.html



sellers can know when prospects hit their website, what pages they go to,

and how often they do so. By creating an algorithm that weigh all three,

the prospects score themselves and sellers use that score to triage their

selling efforts, all inside of the CRM. For example, pages on your website

that indicate cursory interest, like the home page, result in a low score.

Pages that reflect deep interest, like an online demo, reflect a much higher

score.

Buying Cycle Selling Stage Web Page

Understand and Develop

Need

Territory Coverage E-books / Blog / Webinar

Sponsor Project First Call Online Assessment / RFP

Template

Research Vendors Discovery Product Datasheets / About Us

Evaluate Solutions Proof of Concept Online Presentation / Trial Offer

Select Vendor of Choice Proposal ROI Calculator / Clients

Submit for Funding Approval Terms & Conditions / Financials



Social Networking

Peer to Peer salespeople understand that building your personal brand is

just as important for you as building a corporate brand is for the

marketing department. The first place to build an online presence to

network is LinkedIn. Using social networking sites like LinkedIn is peer

to peer selling. My LinkedIn profile is a virtual billboard about my

accomplishments, people who network with, and recommend me.

LinkedIn allows you to view up to three degrees of separation to see the

mutual contacts you have with your connections. It also allows you to

communicate with your network en masse or one-off. There are a number

of applications one can add to their profile that raise awareness about

what you are reading, shared presentations, polls, and personal blogs.

LinkedIn also allows its members to form and become members of other

liked-minded groups. The Complex Sale, Inc. has created its own group

called the R.A.D.A.R.® Alumni Association. Our members are updated

via e-mail on group discussions, shared best practices, news links, job

openings, and Complex Sale points of interest. Afterall, the best prospect

http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=15102833&trk=tab_pro

http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=application_directory&trk=hb_side_apps

http://scottymiller.wordpress.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=93836&trk=anet_ug_hm



is one who has bought from you in the past. In sum, social networking

tools like LinkedIn are a great way to stay connected.

I also have an account on Twitter for those that prefer communication in

that median. This is an emerging technology that has gained controversy.

The median has grown well beyond a way to tell your friends what you

are doing. While twitter may not be the median of choice for your buyer,

it can most certainly be used to gain information about their interests and

company. Simply type in the key words that your target buyer would

care about and see the results. (As an example, try this key word search

on sales 2.0 and see all of the thought leaders tweeting on the topic.) I

recommend following thought leaders in your industry and sharing their

insights with your buyers in a median that they prefer. It is a source of

endless competitive advantage.

By following your customers, competitors, and industry, you will become

a better resource to your buyers, perhaps even becoming their peer. But

remember, for social-media to be effective, it must be relevant and

consistent. You must be willing to connect and follow people that connect

and follow you.

http://twitter.com/scott__miller

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22sales+2.0%22

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22sales+2.0%22



Today’s buyer needs to hear from you well before they need your

solution. WebEx and Gotomeeting.com are both great tools to share

thought leadership via a webinar or podcast. The webinar is a central

focal point for a campaign-based demand creation strategy. Like all

social-networking, webinars need to be relevant, thought provoking, and

consistent. Try to deploying polls to keep the attendees engaged and keep

the dialogue conversational with panelists instead of a one-sided

infomercial. Invitees that accept share their interest in your topics/

service, and those that accept multiple invites show allegiance to your

brand. Attendees that express they want to be contacted at the end of the

webinar should be put into the CRM as a lead. Recorded webinars should

be on your website and catalogued to pique the interest of your visitors.

http://www.webex.com/

http://www.gotomeeting.com/



Trigger Events

Jill Konrath, in her best selling book, Selling to Big Companies, coined the

phrase, “use the news.” What she refers to is allowing your prospects to

tell you when they are ready to buy. Organizations offer press releases

about new position appointments, quarterly earnings, partnerships, new

initiatives, etc. in an effort to generate public relations and investor

interest. Lead411 offers daily e-mails showcasing trigger events on

selected companies by using spider technology. Savvy sales people take

this information to be the first knock on the door linking their solution to

facilitate enterprise-level changes.

Google allows its users to create a personalized home page to consolidate

social networking sites and RSS feeds of industry content. The Google

reader feature allows for centrally located content to be catalogued under

various headings without having to go directly to a variety of news,

industry, or trade websites. I recommend setting the personalized Google

page, iGoogle, as your home page to be notified of “trigger events” every

time you log onto the web.

http://www.lead411.com/

http://www.google.com/



The Three Minute Rule

Complex selling used to be about the three foot rule meaning that you

need to be face to face, within three feet of your prospect to influence

their buying decision. Today, with Sales 2.0 technology empowering the

buyer with information they need to make a buying decision, you need

the three minute rule. I define the three minute rule as the three minutes a

seller needs to explain to the buyer why they need to trade information.

For example, complex sales stall for one of or all of the reasons below:

1. Vendors look alike – Prepare for this by linking your

differentiators to solving pains for stakeholders.

2. They consider the cost of doing nothing – Prepare for this by

withholding pricing until the decision-maker has given a

quantifiable cost justification.

3. Camps Divide – In this scenario, the most powerful people will

exert their influence on the process to break the deadlock. In order

to win their vote, you must sell to those decision-makers in terms

of risk mitigation.

For further information on the

crucible concept, where rational

evaluation processes become

political decision making

processes, click this link for an

e-book.

http://www.complexsale.com/uploads/The%20Canyon%20and%20the%20Crucible%20eBook%200308.pdf

http://www.complexsale.com/uploads/The%20Canyon%20and%20the%20Crucible%20eBook%200308.pdf



To avoid the pitfalls of a complex sale, sellers need to devise a plan to

overcome early in the sales cycle. You know what you need, access and

information, and you must be prepared to exchange it for what the

buyers need. I recommend creating a checklist from which to barter:

What You Need What They Need

Understanding of the decision-making process

Understanding of the decision-makers’ pains

Understanding of the competitive landscape

Acknowledged competitive advantage

A date they can no longer go without a solution

Acknowledged business case your solution provides

Decision-makers’ preference for you

Access to the decision-makers

Needs assessment

Demonstration of capabilities

Competitive differentiators

Technical resources

Statements of work

Pricing

References

Access to our executives



Here, true selling in a Complex Sale 2.0 world and the three minute rule

come into play. You need to convince your point of contact that it is in

their best interest to give you the things you need in return for what they

need. William Ury writes in his book, The Power of a Positive No, that

you gain respect in negotiation when you position yourself from a point

of experience, empathy, and mutual interest. This is the crux of selling

peer to peer. After all, sales people have been down this road before and

this could be the only time the buyer has been in this position. You must

sell them on following your process to give them exactly what they want:

a thorough evaluation with the best outcome. This is how you regain

control in the sales process.

From my experience working with sales forces using Sales 2.0

technologies, it is far too easy to let the prospect dictate the sales process.

First calls and demonstrations can be done virtually, and pricing comes

from a template. Sales people must have the discipline to withhold these

treasured bits of information in exchange for what they need. They must

remember that selling isn’t about how many deals you are in; it’s about

how many deals you win.



A Stage By Stage Action Plan to Win the Complex Sale 2.0

Create (Demand Creation) Win (Opportunity Management)

First Call Discovery Proof of Concepts Proposal

Probing Model:

Point of View Statement

Gather Information

Understand Impact

Confirm with Metrics

Create Mutual Vision

Discuss Proof Methods

Get Return Ticket Punched

Opportunity Plan

Why Buy?

Why Now?

Why Us?

Who Cares?

Who Matters?

What’s Next?

Stakeholder Plan

Pain

Prospect

Preference

Process

Power

Plan

Stakeholder Analysis

Shark Chart

Plan for the Crucible

Demo Checklist

Agree on Terms

Demo Solution

Link Pains

Sell to Power

Differentiate

Sales Prophet Review

Pain Linkage

Differentiation

Preference of Power

Source of Urgency

Decision-Making Process

Approval Process

Qualitative Value

Quantitative Value

Competitive Strategy

Political Strategy

Closing Strategy



First Call – The Probing Model:

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, yet I hear so

many sellers stumble out of the gate with questions such as: “What keeps

you up at night?” As discussed, a peer is seen as an equal with similar

acumen and experience. A conversation with a peer is not a series of open

ended questions, rather a conversation with a purpose and path.

Successful first calls are executed by following a model that begins with a

“point of view” and follows a six step process:



The point of view statement is an observation about the prospect’s

industry or business followed up with a closed-ended question.

Remember the trigger events that spark evaluations. As an example:

“I read that your company is expanding your product offering to include

a software as a service platform. We have seen that companies usually

have a six month lag in revenue with this type of change because it takes

marketing and sales that long to get on the same page with sales ready

messaging. Is that something you have factored in?”

1. This starts the conversation on a path that will help you gather specific

information. The prospect will either answer the question “yes” or “no.”

To prepare a provocative point of view for a first call, I recommend

InsideView. This tool can be embedded inside of your CRM on the

account level and gives you everything available about the company from

the blogosphere, LinkedIn, Jigsaw, Facebook, and Twitter. InsideView is

offering a free version right now that is well worth the time invested.

http://www.insideview.com/DEMO/



2. To understand the impact that a six month lag will have on the

individual and their organization, simply ask the question: “What impact

will that have on your company?”

3. Next, confirm that impact in terms of metrics. If you are going down

the right path, there will be a tangible repercussion. You will want to ask,

“Just so I heard you correctly, a six month lag in revenue for this product

line will mean $15,000,000 in lost revenue?” You would also want to add

some clarification to address a date by which this problem must be

solved. “When is the product due to go-live?”

4. You want to create a mutual vision to address this pain because it is

very important to align with their vision. You want to collaborate with

them by asking, “What are your plans on getting sales and marketing

aligned before the product release?” Then, follow up by sharing how you

have helped similar organizations in similar circumstances.

5. Your next step is to offer a method of proof. Most complex sales will

require some deeper discovery with individuals in the company. We

want to get sponsorship of this discovery step, but not without giving a



“high-level” overview of what you are trying to achieve. “Our Sales Tool

Kit will provide sales ready messaging at the time of product release to

avoid the six month revenue lag.”

6. Finally, ask then for the prospect’s sponsorship on a deeper discovery

and a time to demonstrate your proof of concept. “As a next step, you will

introduce me to your VP of Marketing and the Sales Operations

department to tailor a proof of concept demonstration of the Sales Tool

Kit. We can have something prepared for you by month end. Can we

schedule a time for our next meeting then?”

Tools to Help with the First Call

Selling like a peer means thoroughly researching all of your potential

stakeholders to be well versed in their position and the challenges they

face. Successful companies take this research and put it into a sales

playbook for consistency throughout the entire sales force. It is vitally

important to have a central repository of best practices in messaging,

competitive positioning, objection handling, and probing questions to

prepare for a first call. The playbook should be housed in the CRM, and

http://www.complexsale.com/solutions/solutions.asp?id=26

http://www.complexsale.com/solutions/solutions.asp?id=26



Kadient offers a content management tool that fully integrates with most

CRMs.

At the Complex Sale, Inc., we believe in Stephen Covey’s third habit:

Begin with the End in Mind. We think that big ticket, multi-vendor,

multi-decision maker evaluations will always have political impact, and

therefore, the potential to stall. To avoid the stall, you must prepare for it

with a strategy from the very first call.

The Complex Sale offers our GPS R.A.D.A.R.® tool off of the App-

Exchange which facilitates the critical thinking sales rep needs to create a

political solution and closing strategy for their opportunity. For

customers who use R.A.D.A.R.® as their sales methodology, we transfer

the learning from the class room to the opportunity, on a deal by deal

basis. This tool is embedded inside of the opportunity tab on

Salesforce.com, and is available on most CRMs.

http://www.kadient.com/

http://www.complexsale.com/demo/radar/index1.html



The R.A.D.A.R.® process begins by applying the six keys to winning a

complex sale to qualify the opportunity:

Pain: Why Buy?

Prospect: Why Now?

Preference: Why Us?

Process: Who Cares?

Power: Who Matters?

Plan: What’s Next?

On a first call, your very first plan is to fully understand the six Ps of the

account. As stated before, the buyer is becoming less and less dependant

upon you; therefore, you must become more and more insistent that you

are doing the right things to progress the sale. If you don’t know the six

Ps, then your plan is to figure them out. Use this information to qualify in

or out of the account.



Discovery

By definition, a complex sale has multiple decision-makers, multiple

vendors, and usually distinguishes between evaluators and decision-

makers. Successful sales people take a census of all the potential players

in an opportunity and then understand what role these people play in the

buying the process. You can take the same six Ps used to qualify the

account and apply them to each stakeholder in the buying process:

Pain: What pain will my product solve for this person

specifically?

Prospect: What personal risk does this person have with this

project?

Preference: Do they acknowledge our competitive advantage?

Process: What role do they play in the decision-making

process?

Power: How do they influence the decision?

Plan: How do we earn the stakeholder’s vote or live

without it?



Building Preference in Discovery

The Complex Sale deploys the Shark Chart to help

you better align with your buyers and speak with

them in a language they understand. When

performing discovery, you want to understand the

impact that the strategic, political, financial, and

cultural pains have on the organization. Your

discovery should be tailored to uncovering pains

specific to the individual buyer to build preference.

This is how you begin to be seen as an experienced

peer who is offering a solution to a problem, rather

than a sales person offering features and benefits.

You build competitive preference by linking your

unique differentiators to solving acknowledged

pains and avoiding general benefit statements.



With the information you have uncovered in the first call and discovery,

begin to create your plan to win the votes of the powerful people by

creating a “Stakeholder Analysis” out of the six Ps. In the chart below,

Pain is detailed by type: Strategic, Political, Financial, Cultural, or

Operational. Power is on a scale of +5 to -5, and Preference for your

solution is from +50 to -50. The part allows you to see the role the

stakeholder plays in the decision.

PPaaiinn PPoowweerr PPrreeffeerreennccee PPaarrtt PPeerrssoonn

Strategic + 5

+ 2

Operational - 5

Operational - 1

Cultural + 4

+ 4

Financial + 5

Operational + 4

+ 50 PS, DM

- 40 Gatekeeper

- 50 Tech Buyer

+ 50 R

+ 40 NP, PI

+ 40 NP, PI

- 40 DM

- 20 DM

Smith

Jones

Wilson

Allen

Pierce

McCune

Millen

Turner

PPllaannss

Support

Disconnect

Ignore

Coach

Involve

Raise Pain

Out Vote

Change Preference



Proof of Concept

When you move to the point of proof of concept, you must first set the

ground rules. This has been stated before, but bears repeating. Even

though there is technology such as Gotomeeting and WebEx, you must

resist the temptation to demo without bartering for access to power.

Think of the three minute rule. If you haven’t performed discovery with

all of the potential decision-makers, then how will you link your solutions

to solving their problems?

Successful sales organizations don’t have standard presentations. That

bears repeating as well. Successful sales organizations don’t have

standard presentations. The Complex Sale website has a recorded

demonstration of our GPS R.A.D.A.R.® product, and anyone is welcome

to view it. It is a great compromise for people who want to see the

product, but aren’t ready to buy. (Tire kicking) However, I will not show

a demonstration of our product without first conducting a stakeholder

analysis. If I cannot get the individuals I need to submit to some form of

discovery before a proof of concept, then they have qualified themselves

out.





When you can agree to terms on a demonstration, you want to use the

stakeholder analysis to create a unique presentation based solely on the

participants’ pain, power, preference, and part. Using the chart above,

there are three decision-makers (DMs): one is solidly against you (-50),

one is solidly for you (+50), and one can be swayed (-20). One plan for this

demonstration will be to raise the preference of Turner (-20) by linking

your unique differentiators to solving her operational pain.

PPaaiinn PPoowweerr PPrreeffeerreennccee PPaarrtt PPeerrssoonn

Strategic + 5

+ 2

Operational - 5

Operational - 1

Cultural + 4

+ 4

Financial + 5

Operational + 4

+ 50 PS, DM

- 40 Gatekeeper

- 50 Tech Buyer

+ 50 R

+ 40 NP, PI

+ 40 NP, PI

- 40 DM

- 20 DM

Smith

Jones

Wilson

Allen

Pierce

McCune

Millen

Turner

PPllaannss

Support

Disconnect

Ignore

Coach

Involve

Raise Pain

Out Vote

Change Preference



Another plan could be to involve an additional powerful person,

McCune, in the decision. The NP part means Non Participant, but with

high preference (+40) for us and power (+4), we could ask for his help.

The overall point is that the proof of concept phase is too important to

your overall plan not to tailor it. And, you can’t tailor it without

discovery.

Proposal

Outside of your own personal expertise, the most valuable piece of

information you can offer buyers is your pricing. In the Complex Sale 2.0

world, buyers are gaining more and more control because information is

becoming more and more available. Therefore, you should only share

pricing when/ if you feel you have positioned yourself as best as you can

to win the business. If there is information you still need, you will not get

it AFTER you send a detailed proposal.

Integrated into Salesforce.com and other CRM s, The Complex Sale’s Sales

Prophet tool helps managers know if they are in a position to win.

http://www.complexsale.com/products/index.asp?id=2

http://www.complexsale.com/products/index.asp?id=2



Will we win?

Is their pain linkage? Have we differentiated our solution? Do we have enough votes to win?

Will it close on time?

Is there a source of urgency? Do we know the decision-making process? Do we know the approval process?

Will it close for the amount forecasted?

Have we quantified the value? Do we understand the political risk?

Have we prepared for the crucible?

Are we anticipating counter-attacks? Can we navigate the political landscape? Do we have a closing strategy?



Your confidence in winning should be based upon these 11 objective

questions. The more you can answer “yes,” the more confident you feel

that you can win and vice versa. The Sales Prophet tool assigns a

forecasting confidence level (red, yellow, green) based on how you

answer these questions.

The biggest mistake we see sales managers make is to base a forecast on

stages in the sales cycle. Just because you are 75% into a sales process

doesn’t mean you are going to win the business. If you are in a

competitive deal, your competition should be in the same phase. You

need to compliment this quantitative step of forecasting with the

qualitative step of a Sales Prophet deal review. Our research shows that

25% of forecasted deals are lost to competition by not taking this factor

into account.

Our research also shows that 25% of forecasted deals are lost to no

decision. That is why it is imperative to have the business case established

before you present pricing. If you don’t understand the quantifiable

metric upon which your decision-makers are going to base their decision,

then you have a good chance of losing to no-decision.



Approval

The approval process is the most important step in a sale, but perhaps the

most often overlooked. What a waist of time to usher an opportunity all

the way to the end, only to see it stall in legal or finance. When forced into

negotiating with procurement, legal, or buying committees, keep this

acronym in mind: TIP. After all, how many proposals do you think the

CFO has on his or her desk besides yours?

Timing – Organizations will forgo a purchase until they simply cannot

anymore. You must know that “source of urgency” that will spark a

purchase.

Information – You must know all the stakeholders and the pain,

preference, and part they play in the process to avoid little white lies that

could trick you into concessions.

Power – Those that have the most risk in a decision will influence the

decision-making process the most. You must be sponsored by these

people when you go into the approval phase.



In Conclusion

The world of selling is changing, and you must embrace this change.

Buyers want the freedom to evaluate on their own, and you should

provide as much information to them as they need. However, to

successfully navigate this new world you must:

Consolidate emerging technologies and strategy into the CRM to

create a sustainable competitive advantage for your sales force

Add value beyond the traditional buyer/ seller paradigm to gain

trust and relevancy and sell peer to peer (P2P)

Bring experience, empathy, and mutual interest into the sale process

using the three minute rule to regain control

Have a stage by stage action plan on how to compete and win the

Complex Sale 2.0



About the Author

Scott Miller is a Principal at the The Complex Sale, Inc. (TCS). TCS is a

sales consultancy focusing on accelerating the revenue lifecycle. To our

clients such as Apple, Deloitte, and SAP, that means we help them create

more demand, win more opportunities, and grow key accounts. Scott is

responsible for over 20 clients at The Complex Sale, having implemented

the concepts, methodologies, and execution skills referred to in this e-

book.

For more information, please contact Scott at (770) 771-5130 or e-mail him

at [email protected]. You can follow Scott on Twitter, read his

blog on WordPress, or view his profile on LinkedIn.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.twitter.com/scott__miller

http://www.scottymiller.wordpress.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmiller08

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