What differentiated the legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar from the rest? Many cricketers worked equally hard and with as most passion. There were a lot who were as gifted as he was. In the words of the master blaster himself, it was his ability to think from the bowler’s point of view. He was the master of anticipations. He could predict the bowler’s next delivery by getting into his mind by looking at his actions before the ball was delivered. Would he go for a wicket-taking delivery or try to contain the score? A lot would depend not just on the state of the match but also the bowler’s personal record. Has he been going for too many runs in the series? Has he been without wickets? Is he nearing a personal milestone?
Sales does have a similar nature. It must begin from the Buyer’s side – from the buyer’s mind from the buyer’s perspective. Getting the buyer to buy is the final moment of truth. Every organization strives for the buyer’s final action. For no Sale is complete without the buyer’s ultimate action. The ultimate action that results in a transaction that results in revenue for your offering. This is true whether you are selling biscuits, an airplane, a pair of shoes, a software product, or a concept. It is imperative that the sales process begins with the buyer and not from the seller’s point of view. This brings me to the point that Sales is an Inside -OUT process and not Outside-IN. You begin with understanding the buyer’s mind before you even start thinking of your offerings.
Picture this. You have a large bid going on. A team is built, holidays are canceled. People fly in from various locations to be in one place for the next few weeks. The bid is given a name, a war room is booked, project plans are drafted on MS Project. There are reviews planned. Teams are working on different sections of the bid document. Timelines are agreed upon and adhered to. All these things need to be done and are done. The output of this exercise is a bid response document and a few jazzy presentations. The team claims to be solving all the problems the customer has mentioned. The teams pitch to be the best vendor. They talk of the credentials and how on previous occasions they have solved all the problems of similar customers.
But what is missing is what is the buyer really wants beyond the stated and the unstated. The ‘obvious’ things that the buyer wants are always accounted for– cost savings, better efficiencies, more value, more features, risk mitigation. These are both stated and sometimes unstated. But what is missing is the understanding of the secret needs. The needs that cannot be stated. Those needs cannot be mentioned in board rooms or even in private discussions. There is limited time spent on this aspect. All vendors are trying to solve the pain of the organization – both stated and unstated. Very few teams spend time on solving the secret needs. The secret needs are often personal. And it varies for each individual member of the buying team.
Many times, deals are lost due to these ‘secret’ needs and wants. A key member of the decision-making team not wanting to do the frequent travels to the vendor locations if the project goes through. A person having some bad experience of a similar initiative at a previous place of employment. A senior manager having an aviophobia or worse a bad personal experience of having travelled to that country in the past as a tourist. A senior executive nearing retirement not wanting too much of a risk at that time of her career.
The secret need can range from – a promotion, a future-plan for themselves, an award from an association. It can also be job security. What happens post this product or service is bought by the organization? Will I be losing my job? What happens if this purchase fails to give the desired results? Will I be questioned for buying this as against the other option? Will I be questioned as to why this service provider can do things better than my team was able to do all these years?
To understand the ‘secret’ needs, you must start with the understanding of who the buyer is. The buyer can be a single person or a group of individuals. But it is finally a group of human beings. It is never an organization. Organizations do not buy, individuals do. We all know that B2C selling is never rational. Consumers based on emotions, sense of security, sense of one-upmanship, and many other factors. B2B selling is considered more rational than B2C. However, it is not as rational as it is made out to be. Even in a B2B sale, it is a group of individuals who are buying stuff and have unobvious, unstated, and sometimes secret needs that can even take the form of wants.
This is an aspect missed by most salespeople. They try to find how their offering is the best one suited for the customer. The softer and important aspects that are difficult to find are the ones that really differentiate the offering. How can I make the life of the user better beyond just giving him a better product? How can I make the procurement manager successful in her career milestones? Would the operations manager be losing her job if the organization were to buy my product? Will my product help the IT head to get her next promotion? If buying my product means the project manager needs to be traveling thousands of miles away each quarter, is she up to it? If not, can I propose something alternate?
Start from the buyer. Look not just inside the organization but inside the minds of the buyers. Do not start with what you are capable of offering. Solve the secret need and you can have the edge above others.
