Mastering Complex Business Relationships (It’s about buy-in! not making a “sale”) Blog Entry

– By Shane Gibson – shane@closingbigger.com

Complex and long sales cycle selling is drastically different than regular sales processes. To succeed in the six and seven figure selling arena sales people must transform themselves into key account, relationship managers. What also must follow is not just an attitude but a plan and process to strategically develop and close business. It ’s really about getting “buy-in,” not selling in the traditional sense.

In order to land these big complex sales clients, we must first understand the structure of their organization, who the key players and opposers are, and also how they make decisions. More than just identifying the Ruler or decision maker we must also look at other contributors and team members who often don ’t have the power to buy but do have the ability to de-rail the deal. Identifying these contributors, their value sets, and creating a plan to get them on-side or dissolve their opposition will increase our chances of landing the deal. Ignoring or denying that these influencers exist, can often result in our financial peril.

Some questions we can ask are:

What stage of business growth is my client in? How will this affect the decision making process and power base?

Is this organization Progressive? Liberal? Or Conservative ? How will this affect the way I present my product or service?

At what stage of relationship development am I at with each key influencer, and how am I going to make this even better?

What state is the local economy and industry and how does this affect their buying motivators?

Has my presentation and proposals been effectively adapted to address these questions?

To master this process we need to keep track of each person in this network of contributors and decision makers. This sales process is often long and complex, key account sales people who are highly aware of their clients business activities, key players, and even slight changes in corporate policy, are often the ones who get the deal. A large corporation of 50,000 people such as a bank is literally like a city in it’s political complexity, to succeed, a solid plan and relationship strategy is paramount. Master complex business relationships is about getting the buy-in not a traditional “sale.”

Click here to read about our Managing Complex Business Relationships Program.

–by Shane Gibson shane@closingbigger.com

This sales blog entry has been reposted from original article at kbitraining.com