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Comments or Suggestions?
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By Kevin Temple, President of ValueVision Associates.
So what don’t CRM vendors, middle management and many consultants understand? When the time is right to close.
Last night I watched the movie, "Boiler Room", a sad story about a group of
stockbrokers with questionable ethics, selling stock for non-existent shell
companies. Ben Affleck plays the recruiter for the firm, looking for young
able-bodied sales people that he can mold. At one point in the film he
insists the new recruits never forget their "ABC's". ALWAYS BE CLOSING.
While the ABC approach may be necessary for a transaction that requires completion in a 5-minute phone call, closing in every sentence would undermine the credibility of the professional sales person who is attempting to sell an expensive solution to another business.
With that said, when is the right time to close?
In the Value Selling Framework, the time to close is when you have earned
the right to close.
The next question is, how do you earn the right to close?
The Value Selling Framework identifies four steps that a customer needs to
complete with the seller in order to conduct business. In other words, the
four steps required to earn the right to close. They are:
VisionMatch(D):
This is a process of establishing credibility by building a
vision with the customer that develops the understanding of how your
solution can address his/her problems and resolve his/her business
challenges better than any other solution. (Differentiated)
Value:
This step involves helping the customer uncover the potential value
accrued by resolving the problems and addressing the business challenges.
Power: Establishing the VisionMatch(D) and Value at a level in the
customer's organizational hierarchy that has the authority to spend the
money.
Plan:
Validating with the customer that this change can be implemented with
minimal risk.
If you have completed these four steps successfully, you have earned the
right to close. Further, if you have completed these steps successfully, do
not be surprised if the customer closes for you.
On the other hand, if you attempt to close prior to earning the right, you
will most likely be met with an objection. Usually, the objection will
indicate which of the four steps was not completed in the customer's mind.
As a test, look at these very common objections and determine what step is
incomplete in the customer's mind:
Your solution costs too much!
I'll have to talk to my boss.
I don't see the difference between your solution and the others we are
reviewing.
I'm not sure yet, can you give me some references to talk to?
When the objection gives us a hint as to the un-addressed subject, our best
course of action is to revisit that topic and cover it satisfactorily with
the customer.
Advanced Value Selling Note:
Now comes the trick question: What is happening if the customer agrees to
your close, but you have not covered all four of the subjects? The answer is
that the customer covered those subjects without your help. The customer may
have read enough about your solution to understand how it can help, or he
may have used it elsewhere and understands its value. In the case of power,
your contact may have already developed a VisionMatch and Value with the
boss and without your help. Additionally, the customer may have seen enough
evidence elsewhere to be confident that your solution will work for them.
Kevin Temple is cofounder and president of ValueVision Associates, creators of the Value Selling framework. Prior to ValueVision Associates, Mr. Temple was Vice President of Sales for Cadence Design Systems, the world’s largest electronic design automation
supplier. While at Cadence, Mr. Temple re-engineered the sales organization to move from product feature/function selling to high-level business impact selling using the Value Selling framework, which is now provided by ValueVision Associates. The results were outstanding -- revenue growth jumped from 6% to 38% annually, discounting dropped by 38%,
and the breadth of products included in every sale increased dramatically. During his tenure at Cadence, sales increased from $48 million to over $700 million per year.
Prior to working at Cadence, his experience also includes sales and sales management responsibilities at Valid Logic, a key competitor of Cadence and eventual merger partner; Analog Design Tools, a successful start-up company focused on a subset of electronic design challenges; and Control Data, the forerunner in supercomputing technology.
As a consultant, speaker and writer, Mr. Temple travels around the world to retool medium-to-large sales organizations with the Value Selling sales process. He combines his experience and knowledge with a fast wit, comical characterizations and practical applications to motivate and educate sales and marketing organizations.
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