Introduction
The quickest conclusion that can be reached in this transition is that the commercial approach must be different. Using simple sales tools for complex sales definitely doesn’t work, nor does the other way around.
So, while I was experimenting with the new role, I searched for the main studies on the subject and found a new and exciting world, full of theory, practice, science, tools and, of course, a lot of noise. The idea of this article is to filter this learning and bring you the main frameworks I found on this journey.
Evolution of sales strategies
One of the first groundbreaking innovations in sales took place in the insurance sector over 100 years ago. At that time, when these representatives made a sale, they visited each of these customers weekly to collect instalments. The professional spent most of his time on activities other than the sale itself.
It was then that they decided to separate the functions. One person was in charge of capturing new sales and the other of maintaining relationships with customers. As a result, sales grew so much that the insurance market and many others adapted to this approach.
The next big innovation came in the 1920s, when the psychology involved in sales began to be studied and used by organisations. Techniques such as features and benefits, open and closed questions, handling objections and focusing on closing the deal kicked off the sales training industry.
More importantly, selling was no longer considered an innate skill but came to be seen as a series of competencies that could be learned, which boosted the sales force in companies.
In the early 1960s, another revolution in technology sales began with the creation of the role of SE (Sales Engineer). A model that became famous after its adoption by IBM, which aimed to create a more technical approach to negotiations, but without losing sight of commercial acumen.
Account managers at technology companies now had a technical interlocutor to help them discuss requirements, functionalities, implementation and demonstration of solutions.
In the 1980s, sales in all segments began to be more clearly defined as either simple or complex. The techniques previously used for all types of sales began to be questioned. Extensive studies and research were carried out to discover what became known as consultative selling. Solution sellers were renamed consultants and the productivity of complex sales increased.
In the first decade of the 2000s, with the advance of the Internet and the avalanche of data, it was necessary to develop different areas of sales support. In addition, CRM and other platforms helped develop pipeline management, sales funnels and KPIs.
After all, buyers had more and more information at their disposal and salespeople also needed new tools, which allowed for economies of scale and generated greater standardisation in the B2B approach.
From then on, technologies and data added incremental innovations, buying sectors became increasingly specialised and fierce competition created an even more competitive environment, in which deal agreements were decided by details.
Characteristics of complex sales
The longer duration of a complex sale generates some peculiarities. The main one is that the most important conversations take place without the seller being present. Another is that the pressure to close has the opposite effect in complex sales. It is possible that the buyer simply does not want to talk to the pushy seller again.
The degree of customer commitment is another important feature of complex sales. After all, perceived value is much more important as the size of the sale increases.
Another factor is the ongoing relationship that is required. In more complex sales, the customer not only buys a product or service, but also initiates a relationship. It is increasingly difficult to separate the seller from the product in the customer’s mind.
The risk of error is perhaps the characteristic with the greatest impact on complex sales. Big decisions have much higher visibility, so a bad choice is much more publicised. Customers are much more cautious when the decision is a big one.
The need for consensus also presents an additional challenge. After all, the degree of uncertainty in a complex solution is much greater, so even the main decision-makers are hesitant to sign a contract without the general approval of their team.
Finally, there is also a greater demand for personalisation. The increase in complexity is accompanied by a natural tendency for customers to look for all the necessary modifications in a contract so that it fully responds to their needs.
The importance of frameworks
That’s it. Now we have the minimum context to understand the strategic motivation of each framework. There are many frameworks for complex sales. I have selected 3 that make the most sense to me and that have been backed up by more solid research.
MEDDIC – Qualification
‘Successful salespeople are those who dedicate their time only to customers who will end up buying.’ –Darius Lahoutifard.
This is the basic premise of this framework: qualifying an opportunity to sustain its development and continuity. In other words, evaluating a potential customer as early as possible to determine if they really have a chance of closing the deal.
MEDDIC is divided into:
- Metrics – The objective here is to transform subjective gains into objective and measurable gains. What does the client company gain from contracting our solution? It is essential that we obtain this data because no decision-maker will invest in a solution until they are sure of the impact on their business. That is why it is important to know the metrics and turn them into a sales pitch. If we are unable to understand and impact the metrics of an opportunity, it may not be worth investing in.
- Buyer: this is the person with the authority to make the final decision on what to buy. While users want to know HOW their solution works and managers want to know WHAT it does, senior management wants to know WHY they should choose your solution. Do we know and support or have any influence over the Economic Buyer?
- Decision Criteria – Do we know and are we well positioned in the customer’s decision criteria? Continuing the negotiation will only be worthwhile if our solution is capable of satisfying the known criteria. If we arrive well in advance of the negotiation, we will be able to influence these criteria so that our solution is fully compliant and competitive. If we arrive late, we will have to play by the rules and on the playing field of the competition, which was undoubtedly already there when we arrived.
- Decision-making process – Basically, the internal ritual that a client must follow in order to sign a contract. Are we familiar with this process and are we capable of influencing it? If so, we will know what we have to do to close the sale.
- Implicit pain – Do we have a clear definition of the customer’s problem and are we really capable of offering a solution? A skilful salesperson must be able to clearly identify the customer’s real problem and present a solution that directly resolves this pain. Here it is important to know how to separate needs from wants. We cannot spend time on solutions that the customer would like to have to the detriment of solutions that the customer needs to have.
- Champion – Does the client have people on their staff who will publicise and defend our solution? The Champion is the person with whom we have the best relationship on the account, who participates in the decision-making processes and criteria, who has access to the Economic Buyer and who understands, likes and supports our solution. If we don’t have at least one Champion on our side, we can be sure that the competition has the advantage.
Conclusions of the framework
In summary, MEDDIC tells us that if we meet all these criteria in any complex B2B business opportunity, we will close the deal.
On the other hand, if we cannot meet certain elements, then we should avoid spending time on that opportunity for the time being and focus on those we can, or prospect more to bring new opportunities to the pipeline.
In other words, the methodology is not only effective in identifying winning opportunities, but also provides objective and transparent criteria for the entire organisation to decide which ones not to work on.
The framework helps create a language within the organisation and guides the salesperson to cover the most relevant aspects of the negotiation.
Spin Selling: Sales process
‘Two differences stand out among the best complex sales professionals. The first is that the best place a huge emphasis on evaluating each visit, dissecting what they have learned and thinking about possible improvements. The second is that they recognise that their success depends on getting the details right.’ – Neil Rackham
One of the best-known frameworks for complex selling is Spin Selling. The result of constant research, it emphasises the sales process oriented towards specific behaviours.
The author has structured his findings and divided them into each of the stages of the sale. As well as showing what works best, it has helped deconstruct many beliefs that we have inherited from older scenarios.
The first stage is the opening of the sale. The study found no significant correlation between the closing of complex sales and the opening phase. On the other hand, it discovered unexpected disadvantages with the more traditional tactics, such as making references to the buyer’s personal interests.
The recommendation is clear: get to the point quickly. Professional buyers often complain about salespeople who waste their time with small talk; on the other hand, it is rare to hear complaints about a salesperson who gets straight to the point.
The second phase is investigation of the problem. This is where the great Spin Selling approach lies. The study showed that the traditional distinction between open and closed questions is not indicative of success in major sales. Instead, they discovered the SPIN sequence, questions that successful salespeople use to discover and develop the customer’s needs:
Situation questions: About facts, background and what the customer is currently doing. Research shows that successful people ask them in moderate doses, so that each question has a purpose.
Problem questions: About the customer’s problems, difficulties or dissatisfactions. These questions are closely related to success in simple sales, but they are only the raw material for building bigger sales.
Implication questions – About the consequences or effects of the customer’s problems. Successful visits tend to contain a high level of this type of question. The ability to develop implications is a crucial skill in large sales because it increases the customer’s perception of the value of the solution you offer.
Questions about the need for a solution – About the value, usefulness or viability that the customer perceives in a solution. The most important thing is that they make the customer verbalise the benefits that your solution can offer them. They are also closely related to success in big sales.
The third stage is the demonstration of capability. It is not about showing the customer how they can use your product. In big sales, the most effective type of benefit is to show how your product or service meets an explicit need expressed by the customer.
The final stage is obtaining commitment. Studies have shown that the simplest way to obtain commitment is also the most effective: check that you have covered all the customer’s concerns, summarise the advantages and propose an appropriate level of commitment. This commitment can be a major breakthrough, such as scheduling a demonstration, taking the negotiation to the next level or accessing parts of the account that were previously inaccessible.
Framework conclusions
Successful salespeople do their homework before the visit, which eliminates the need to ask many basic questions.
If you don’t plan your questions in advance, you won’t think about them during the visit. When planning visits, many people think about what they will say to the customer rather than what they will ask.
Success in the big sale depends, more than anything, on how the consultation is carried out.
The nature of complex sales is that the needs are not immediate. The skilful salesperson asks the right questions to help develop this need, translating the customer’s problem into an intention to act. They transform the Implicit Needs (obtained with the Problem questions) into Explicit Needs (obtained with the Need for Solution questions).
In complex sales, the need must be developed further in the research phase, so that the perceived value of the solution that will soon be presented exceeds its costs (which are not only measured in financial terms).
Skilled people receive fewer objections because they have learned to avoid them, not to deal with them. The best way to deal with objections is prevention. Attack the cause, not the symptom.
Stop thinking about your products in terms of features and benefits. Instead, think about their problem-solving capabilities.
Questions about the need to solve problems focus on business application and ‘train’ the customer to sell your product internally.
In a successful visit, the desired progress is defined in advance. In other words, an action that moves the sale forward. Simply collecting data or establishing relationships does not directly contribute to progress.
The Challenger sales approach
‘Research often shows that customers value sales representatives who make them think, who find creative and innovative ways to contribute to their business. They expect salespeople to teach them by showing them what they don’t yet know.’ –Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson
Challenger refers to the type of approach that works best in complex sales. After empirically testing 44 attributes of a sizeable group of salespeople, they realised that they fall into 5 distinct categories:
- Committed – Always willing to go the extra mile; not easily discouraged; motivated and interested in feedback and development.
- Challenging – Always has a different view of the world; understands the client’s activities and motivations; loves to discuss and instigates the client.
- Relationship builder – Passionately defends the client’s organisation; generous with their time when helping; popular.
- Lone wolf – Follows their own instincts; self-confident and difficult to control.
- Reactive problem solver – Responds reliably to all those involved in the process, internal and external; tries to solve all problems and is detail-oriented.
By correlating each category with its productivity, it was observed that one of these types performs far above the rest, while another lags drastically behind.
The surprising thing is that the result was radically contrary to conventional wisdom.
Those who obtained the best results were predominantly Challengers, while those who obtained the worst results were Relationship Builders. A study carried out by Gartner with 6,000 complex sales professionals confirmed this: among the best in the sample, only 4% had a Relationship Builder profile, while Challengers represented 54%.
Of course, relationships are important, especially in complex sales. However, if your strategy as a salesperson basically consists of being at the customer’s disposal, striving to satisfy their every desire, you are undoubtedly heading for disaster.
The main difference between Challengers and Relationship Builders is that while the former tries to take the customer out of their comfort zone, the latter seeks to be accepted within it, to eliminate tensions, not to create them. A totally opposite approach.
There are also cultural issues involved and results may vary depending on the sample, but we cannot ignore the fact that Challengers excel.
Fortunately, the study also identified what really defines the success of the Challengers: their ability to teach, personalise and take control.
To teach means offering customers unique perspectives on the business and communicating them passionately and accurately. Nowadays there is a lot of talk about how representatives can ‘get ahead of a request for proposal (RFP)’. The didactic function can be used not only to ‘get there first’, but even to restructure it in one’s favour.
Basically, customers all over the world are vehemently asking: ‘Stop wasting my time. Challenge me, tell me something I don’t know’.
The personalisation will depend on the knowledge that the salesperson has of their interlocutor. It is not just a commercial issue, but one of mental agility, in the sense of the professional’s ability to adapt to the environment of each interlocutor.
It is important to emphasise that the ideas of sales professionals must be perfectly linked to the peculiarities of the supplier, to the advantages that only they can offer. It may seem obvious, but believe me, it is not.
The Challenger usually takes control in two ways: first, they take control of the discussion about the price in general. Instead of, for example, giving in to a request for a discount, they steer the conversation towards the solution as a whole, seeking an agreement on value, not on price.
Secondly, they are able to challenge the client’s way of thinking and exert just the right amount of pressure on them to avoid the ‘inertia of decision’ and move forward. Always with control, diplomacy and empathy, but also in a sufficiently provocative and assertive way to ensure that the message not only resonates, but actually leads to action.
In short, Challengers are much more excellent teachers than researchers. They make good use of their time, providing information that is so interesting and valuable that the client looks forward to the next meeting. That is true and pure ‘loyalty’, the kind that is earned in the field, in the trenches.
Framework conclusions
A quarterly call to find out what’s new can be a good way to find opportunities, but it may no longer be as useful for capitalising on them.
The higher the stakes, the more you have to weave a web of support along the way, or you run the risk of losing the entire contract due to a lack of support within the organisation.
Nobody wants to work with a supplier who complicates purchases more than necessary. Nothing cools a relationship faster than salespeople who all the time have to ‘consult with the director’ or ‘ask the legal department for approval’ or ‘more time to finalise the proposal’. Don’t make your customers go to so much trouble to spend money.
Challenging professionals seek a different reaction from their clients. Instead of ‘Yes, I totally agree!’, they know they are on the right track when they hear from the client: ‘Hmm? The best indicator is not enthusiastic agreement, but thoughtful reflection.
‘What is costing our customers more money today than they realise, and that only we can help them solve?’ The answer to this question will be the core of your commercial didactic discourse.
A crucial lesson of the Challenger approach lies in the fact that the involvement of the organisation as a whole is essential to make it truly sustainable, and not just the result of the fortuitous excellence of individual professionals.
Many sales professionals underestimate the contribution they make to customers. They underestimate the enormous value of their company’s resources and overestimate customer objections.
Conclusion
The very complexity of the subject antagonises any possibility of a ready-made recipe, making it clear that maintaining the old paradigms is too great a risk for teams and companies working with complex sales.
The frameworks are only references for each company or team to develop the best sales approach according to their scenario.
Therefore, the most important thing is to realise that there is no longer any point in waiting for things to fall into place, or in letting salespeople solve everything on their own, without structured processes, well-defined tools and a lot of strategy.
Each complex sale is a collective project.
