Want To Make Larger Sales & Manage Key Accounts?
Your sales career is going reasonably well. You usually achieve your goals. You work hard. But now you want to move up a gear and make larger sales and manage some of your organisation’s key accounts. Where do you start?
The crucial point is to realize that when you move into larger sales, you need an enhanced sales playbook. The usual small-ticket selling skills are no longer sufficient. The larger sale is more complex. You are expected to quantify your proposals. You go from single to multiple decision makers, most of the selling takes place when you’re not there, you make more calls on the account, the sale takes more time, and risk and competitive issues take on more significance.
To excel in this area you need to learn additional, more advanced sales techniques. A good starting point is to have the mindset – ‘bring more to the table than just a sale’. Look energetically for ways to be a resource to the customer. What can you offer in addition to your product or service to help the customer run their business more effectively?
Multi-thread vs single-thread
In the smaller sale it’s often satisfactory to use the traditional single-thread approach – you as the seller build a relationship with one person from the buyer’s side – though this practice is diminishing as buyers increasingly bring in more decision influencers to help them decide.
However, in the larger sale you need to deliberately multi-thread – build a relationship with several decision influencers across their business. You can either do this yourself or use ‘team selling’ where different people from the sales side interact with different players in the buyer’s organisation.
Understanding the 3 Key Tiers
In the large sale when you meet decision influencers at different levels, your must position your message to suit each level. The three main levels are:
Level 1: Top/ Executive Management
The larger sale typically involves top management. These people buy business performance. They are concerned with profit, with return on investment (ROI), with minimising risk, with increasing market share. They have their eyes on the big picture. To sell here you must see yourself as a salesperson selling solutions with a strong business performance.
Whatever you do, don’t waste your time selling features and benefits in the boardroom. Their eyes will probably glaze over. To sell effectively at this level, you must talk about business performance improvement not products.
At the onset think carefully about what you sell and decide whether you want to position your solution as a cost reducer or a revenue enhancer – or both. Business improvement is the key benefit.
Level 2: Business Function Manager/Department Head
Moving down the organisation you come to middle managers. These are the business function managers or department heads. They buy solutions to problems. They want to help their team.
Function managers are surrounded by problems, concerning people, productivity, manufacturing, quality, inventory, IT, sales or image. They want relief from their problems. They want their costs reduced and they want greater opportunities for more sales and greater productivity. When you meet them tailor your conversation accordingly.
Level 3: The Buyer/Purchaser or User
You will also meet the buyer or user of your product/service. What do these people buy? They buy products and services, they are interested in features and benefits, and price versus performance comparisons. Again, when you meet them tailor your conversation to meet their requirements.
The key learning point is that to make larger sales you must move business improvement, not just products and services, to your customer.
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