I wish I had written that…

I just read an ebook on the New Rules of Sales Enablement by Jeff Ernst. It is written from the perspective of a classically trained marketer who had the “ah ha” moment of what it really takes to sell. Well, this little book should be required reading for all product marketing management. I used to say, don’t confuse selling with installing. An adjunct to that is don’t confuse sales enablement with collateral or sales process.

Mr. Ernst outlines six critical elements a successful sales person manages and advocates marketing to understand them and get them incorporated into a repeatable sales playbook (not to be confused with a sales process).

1. Understand the customer’s marketplace and business issues
2. Help the buyer envision solving their problems using his or her products and services
3. Frame the buyer’s evaluation criteria so that the competitors are at a disadvantage
4. Help the “buyer champion” sell within his or her organization
5. Overcome objections raised by the buyer
6. Respond to the tough questions immediately and with credibility

What is the difference between a playbook and a sales process? A sales process is how you progress through the sale. The playbook is what is done within the context of the customer’s environment.

I liken this to how head coach Josh McDaniels is running the Denver Bronco’s team. He has all the positions covered (sales process), but each week the Broncos adjust their playbook and approach to exploit the weaknesses and protect against the strengths of the opposing team. How this is done is through heavy analysis and the coaches strategizing how to play this week’s game.

Translation to marketing: First identify a specific sales environment, the customer. Think industry, think decision maker and influencer, think company size and environment.

Know the customers has a lot of options to solve their problem, including doing nothing. Define the playbook with questions that probe for problems, pain and view to solve their world. You will have to talk to your top sales people to determine the questions and what they are looking for with those questions.

Teach the sales to set decision criteria and plan for landmines. This isn’t just listing unique requirements and capabilities. It is using questions, with the sales person’s knowledge of what is important to the buyer, to get your unique value as the baseline requirement(s). Nice to have doesn’t cut it. As far as landmines, if I know what the competition is up to I can discredit them before I get hit.

If you still don’t understand, call your local sales person and ask them what it means.
Happy selling.

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No need to be concerned because…

• We repeat the marketing and sales cycle over and over, working through the leads. So it makes sense certain materials get dragged out and used over and over.
• Most business’ revenue comes from 1 or 2 products, representing 80% of the revenue. So, it fits those marketing materials are used.
• Sales people will use what they are most comfortable with. The same reference stories, the same white papers and the same presentations. It is appropriate the sales process is predictable and repeatable.

Yes, we should be concerned , IF…

• You are spending 80% of marketing’s time on corner cases  (i.e. industries, solutions, products) that are not strategic, this is a problem.
• You haven’t aligned the marketing materials with your marketing and sales funnel.
• You are constantly searching for the ‘right’ collateral for a marketing campaign or event. And worse, you settle for something that will just do for a call to action.
• You haven’t updated your materials with new media, such as video / white boarding and online webinars, which are fast becoming the preferred mode to obtain information quickly.
• You hear constant clamor for customer reference stories. (I usually discount the general statements from sales for “better collateral.”  However, if there is a lot of noise and sales can be very specific about what is missing and how the new collateral will be use, then there there is probably a problem). 
• You hear constant noise about defining a true value proposition and how this product solves business problems.  In this case you most likely have general product collateral with a lot of marketing speak and not enough differentiation.  Or it maybe too engineering, in love with the technical abilities.
• Things are done by rout, that is you produce the same materials in the same way for all the products without consideration of the audiences

If your yes’s out strip your no’s its time to re-examine and prioritize the marketing strategy. More is not better.

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I started a series on the channel which has been posted at  The Examiner on the B2B Marketing page.  Well received.  So here are the links to the 4 that have been posted.

Part I: So you want to get into the channel:  An approach to laying out a strategy and the questions you need to ask.

Part II: Is your company channel ready? This outlines what it means to be channel ready from product packaging, pricing, customer support, sales, etc.

Part III: We’ve signed a partner to sell, now what? Tips and techniques for getting the channel up and running fast

Part IV: The channel and sales compensation:  The strategies and pitfalls of compensation.  How to avoid conflict (or create it if that is what you want).

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What’s the difference?    When was the last time you bought something? When was the last time you were sold? There is a vast difference between the two.  When we buy, it is internalized.  When we are sold, it is external.  During the transaction process we move from one side to the other, often within the same meeting.  When deals become unraveled, we call it ‘buyer’s remorse.’   Something wasn’t internalized with enough value.

The role of sales and marketing is to present the product in the light of value to the customer.  In order to do so, we need to make sure we understand what the customer values. This is different from what the product is capable of accomplishing. 

Take for instance a product that streamlines a difficult process.  The customer’s value has to do with how difficult they percieve the process.  For those not directly effected, it is the financial benefit of the improvement.  Their propensity to buy will have to do with how intense they percieve the problem compared to other pressing needs.  This is the internal factor.

If during the sales process we understand this pressing environment, we can move from selling, (telling the value) - to relating to the pain.  We can relate how our product relieves pain for others by telling stories.  We can point out how the product operates to relieve the situation, but it is up to the customer to internalize this working for them in their environment. 

There are true skills in developing this back and forth conversation. We so often see the ability innate with our best consultants and people that do implementations.  That is because they have learned to question, be curious and explore the world of the customer. Combine this with a skilled sales person who knows how to listen, overcome objections, sees “No” as the need for more information and work through the decision process in a company and a business will have a winning team. 

All of this I have seen taught very skillfully by Peter Svenneby. He does an insightful job of training people how to move from selling to buying. If you have time, Peter is offering two virtual seminars in June.  The first on Persuasion and Influence and the second on Difficult Clients and Building Conversations.  Don’t let the 3 hour time scare you.  The interactive nature makes these events extremely valuable.

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