In my experience, whether developing large-scale programs for enterprise clients or focused tactics for startups, I’ve noticed a recurring pattern: the insistence on having black and white answers for every situation. For example:
- Give me a qualification model that guarantees I only sell to people who will buy.
- Tell me how I should behave in front of a potential investor.
- What are the components of a compelling presentation?
The list goes on.
Many experts are happy to provide a one-size-fits-all solution for these scenarios. The problem with that is these solutions will only work in some situations, and it’s difficult to predict when they will succeed or fail.
Why is that?
Is it because people are not binary? We need our analogue components, the space between the 1s and 0s, the shades of grey. Because in reality, every situation is slightly different. Yes, we can simulate situations, but success lies in dealing with the unknown, the surprises, the gaps between the obvious.
I saw a stat last week that said High Performers were 6 times more likely to follow the “sales process” than mid-performers. This is misleading; It should have said that High Performers deploy the sales process when it works for them and when it’s appropriate. They find the shades of grey and manipulate the process to suit their desired outcome. The same is true of qualification tools and playbooks; the best salespeople extract the best elements from these and morph them into something that works for them.
A simple way of understanding the contrast between someone who follows a fixed model and someone who operates in the grey areas is to consider the analogy of painting by numbers.
The first image is a very high-quality painting-by-numbers Mona Lisa, and there is no escaping from the fact that it’s good. The original Mona Lisa underneath however has more feeling, and it captures that the artist intended to capture the smile and innocence of the model.
Our highest performers may not have the artistic ability of Leonardo da Vinci, but what they do have is the situational awareness that makes them stand out.
I’m not a psychologist, and I don’t have a PhD in Human Behaviour, but I do know that we are not purely digital or binary creatures but rather analogue beings influenced by various internal voices and perspectives shaped by time. For example, we might be concerned by a specific risk, or driven to deal with a tactical issue that distracts us from the “strategy”. We rush to take action or settle for a quick solution because time is of the essence.
Models are there to guide our thinking, not to be followed to the letter. Every revenue leader has a variation of the same story about the sales executive who, by rigidly following a sales process, refuses to ask for the order because they had only reached step 3 of a 7-step process or the sales executive who won’t deal with a customer because according to Myers Briggs, they are incompatible.
High performers stand out because they understand the situation and read the room. They look for the grey areas and use those to find points of connection that enable them to “sell with a buyer’s perspective.” They are constantly thinking “What is my buyer thinking now, how can I help them progress?” If the customer says, “I want to spend $75k with you because if I don’t, I will lose the budget,” they respond by saying “Of course I will help, and we can then work out how to make the best use of your budget.”
Don’t be a paint-by-numbers salesperson, use the process as a guide but remember it’s the situation that should drive the outcome, not the process.
If this resonates but you are struggling to find the shades of grey you can use, here are some suggestions:
- Look for things that are out of the control of your contact, hindering their success. They will want to talk about how they can get control back.
- Keep in mind that if you’re talking to someone for the first time and their focus is solely on the solution criteria they bring to the table—they have identified a solution. In such cases, it’s beneficial to steer the conversation back to understanding the ‘why’ and ‘what’ instead of the ‘how’.
- If someone disagrees with you this means they are happy to debate, which is good as it’s an opportunity to have a conversation.
- The buyer drives the speed of an engagement, if they are ready to go from enquiry to buy in one call, that is their right, go with the flow.
- You are a salesperson, not a consultant, success is in making the sale, not designing, and agreeing on how to save the planet, which can come later.
If you’d like us to teach your team how to sell with a buyer’s perspective, please contact us via the form below and a member of our team will get back to you promptly.
