Oct
Sales Contest – Test Your Strategic Thinking – Complete the Sales Scenario
How It Works:
Based on the success of our “Help Trevor Out” contest last month, we thought hey let’s do it again. And so we are. This month, we’re adding a couple of elements to make it more interesting for everyone. As we did last month, we are going to ask you for the best possible solution to the scenario below (it’s based on a real live situation faced by a sales team in the Mid-West).
Read this: To enter and win, please submit your solution as a comment below as well as on your blog, or Facebook, or Twitter, web site, LinkedIn update, or other social type outlets, including this link back to http://www.sellbetter.ca/blog/?p=601. (special thanks to Doyle Slayton).
Once the contest closes on October 17, 2009, we will post the qualifying submitted responses here on The Pipeline and open it up for a week for voting. You will want to get your friends to vote for your submission. The submission with greatest number of votes will win a free Pipeline Audit, a key component of the Sales Process Audit offered by Renbor Sales Solutions and Compass North Inc. If someone comes up with the actual solution, they will get the free audit and a free sales book.
Good luck and have fun. May the best sales mind win! (Hint: you may want to have a quick read to see what kind of thinking we see working best).
The Scenario:
The Company: large equipment manufacturer.
Market: high tech/communications market.
Average sale: $1 to $1.5 million.
Average sales cycle: 12 to 18 months.
Buying is usually by committee. At the specific prospect in question the Director of Strategic Sourcing (DSS) was more than a gatekeeper; the individual in question was The IRON GATE! Going “around him” was not an option, not to the president , CFO, even Obama.
The team had been working on the sale for about four months when it became painfully obvious that the DSS had it in for their company and was not going to allow them to be selected. Although there was no formal RFP, the DSS was in a position to steer the selection away from our heroic team of sellers. Even as our team gained support and acceptance from the others on the buy side the DSS was adamant that our team will not prevail and win the sale.
After a couple of more months of manoeuvring, the team realized unless things changed dramatically they would not win this million dollar plus deal, and certainly miss quota in the process. They decided to bring in an outside party to take a day away from the office and strategize and devise a new plan.
The session was a no holds barred affair that examined and considered everything from the ridiculous to the sublime, legal to immoral. After an exhaustive day, multiple false starts and rejected options, they formulated a plan; a bold and creative plan that not only allowed them to permanently remove their problem, the DSS, get back in the game and win the deal.
Now it’s your turn, tell us how they were able to move the irremovable object and turn their fortune 180 degrees.
As we did in our last contest we will publish the actual solution after the contest closes on October 17, 2009.
Good Luck!
Tibor Shanto
This post has 15 comments
October 3rd, 2009
I claim an honorary prize based only on the title of my latest book:
“Sex, Leadership and Rock’n'Roll – Leadership Lessons from the Academy of Rock”
Acclaimed by Tom Peters:
“Sex, Leadership and Rock ‘n’ Roll is a marvellous book, which closes the door on the tidy, hierarchical, know-your-place ‘Orchestral Age’ and ushers in a new, creative era of challenge and change. Hooray!”
Check it on AMAZON: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1845900162?ie=UTF8&tag=renborsalesso-20&link_code=as3&camp=212553&creative=381305&creativeASIN=1845900162
Enuf said!
Peter
October 3rd, 2009
Get your sponsors and the DSS in one room and for a final ppt. Make sure that you feed the DSS that he can make the difference and blow you out of the water at that meeting by faking weaknesses. Then he will show up for sure.
At the meeting start up the round table discussion and get the DSS to answer last (table settings). Your supporters from within the company get to answer first and speak their mind. The DSS will have to go up to his own co workers based on none arguments and he will have to give in to not loose face. This will take him out of the DMU he will not want that. Make sure your meeting is on neutral ground and that dinner is after the meeting. So they can sit on it for a while. Nobody wants to loose face before his coworkers and you can be neutral cause it were not your arguments in the discussion but his own companies. This way you can still work with him after.
October 3rd, 2009
I think the team should involve some executives from their company and get them to reach out to their counterparts on the buyer’s side. This may open up a dialogue at higher levels that would allow others to see the benefits of the teams offering. The DSS may back off if he saw the CEO of his own company get involved.
If on the other hand this tactic does not work, the team has plausible deniability if the DSS finds out, and let’s face it he is not the biggest fan right now as it is.
My suggestion is go high and change the stakes for everyone.
Bob
October 3rd, 2009
Get to the source of the problem.
The problem is the understanding, knowledge, or perception of the DSS.
Have the sales team leader confront the issue face to face with the DSS privately, and honestly, make a persoanl and emotional connection wiht the DSS, to ascertain the root cause of his perception and (mis) understanding.
Address these matters- and you may be surprised at the result. It you get blown out – then screw it- at least you know honestly why you were blown out. And if it was unethical make their CEO/Board aware of it after the fact.
You’re smarter, learn from it, and live to fight another day. And go support their competitor with the best pricing and service you can deliver.
October 3rd, 2009
Your team has nothing to lose by being more aggressive.
I would recommend a high level executive at our team’s company contact the CEO at the prospect company for a one-on-one meeting.
I would have our high level executive discuss the issue at hand and the key reasons we should be considered to compete.
I would then have our high level executive request advice on how our team should proceed.
October 5th, 2009
Hire him.
October 5th, 2009
Approach the DSS with an offer of employment as a consultant at your company. Make it an offer he can not refuse. His first job is to get the contract with his former company.
October 6th, 2009
It appears that the DSS has no reason to give the business to your sales team other than dislike. He hasn’t appeared to give any reasons why he will not buy from you.
I would begin by extending an invitation for the DSS and other executive members to visit your company/factory to tour your facility, the product, customer service teams.etc…
Let them become comfortable with your business and what you have to offer, then discuss the barriers and seek answers and respond appropriately.
It may be that the DSS has the type of personality that needs to be “wined and dined”
October 7th, 2009
You could bring in a common link to the DSS – a sourcing advisory or a partner firm which has better connects with the DSS. They could work as a mediator or the partner could front end the deal with your firm as sub-contractors.
Probably a joint conference/ meeting as next step including the mediator, sales team & DSS could help sort out any issues & open the iron gate.
October 7th, 2009
Pretty simple really – we face these kinda situations on a daily basis.
Get the guy some carrots – percentage on the sale, full time employment with my firm at double the current paycheck, awesome holiday in the Caribbean, sweet nothings as gifts, a luxurious spa date with some of the hottest women money can hire, etc.
But the carrots are like trump cards for me – i’m going to use them one at a time. And there will obviously be the ‘demarcation line’ from which point onwards the deal becomes a loss for me. I will make sure I tell the DSS this the first time we meet.
October 7th, 2009
Ladies & Gentlemen,
Wage war on all fronts. Set the strategy and employ tactics to meet the goal. “Knowledge is Power,” Plato said. Irrespective of the DSS’s reasons, you are in sales. Make it happen!
I would cold call and establish a conversations with the CEO, board members, and probe for insights with colleagues whom may not participate on the board, but can offer insight from a department perspective. * I might start with the little guys whom have no input on the board, but can offer insights that the CEO himself may have interests in knowing… a good captivator on a cold call!
It’s your job as a convincing salesman to win the respect and trust of those you call on.
Probing via cold calling, aka, waging war on all fronts, talk to anyone you can talk to.
“Hey Joe, I know you’re not on the board, I know you hate your current infrastructure and want to improve, tell me what you thinking/feeling?, we don’t have to acknowledge we ever spoke. I’m trying to learn why the DSS, and the board are behaving as they are, what is the perception you have of what’s going on?” This might work, if it doesn’t you move forward until you get your foot in the crack of the door with someone whom offers insight…knowledge….power to enlist the next proper tactic..
Based on how much I can learn cold calling into the account in 1 week, I would engineer a meeting between higher brass on both sides. I would amass as much information learning what the concerns are before going in with a PPT, or tactical strategy, that way you have a plan that addresses the challenge, “no communication from the DSS or his company.
At a committee meeting:
I would ask for input via round table discussion, personal introductions and concerns of each attending member. Create dialouge to uncover the champions within the group whom understand our value proposition and support the alliance with our team. Obtain the internal champions emails. At the same time, uncover alliances with the DSS.
In the end, carrots or consulting positions are far fetched for most companies. Wining and Dining is a social primer to connect on personal levels and a must. TCO/ROI is key. It’s all about communication. Do you understand our value proposition over our competitors? Do you understand whom we have worked with in your associated industry?(Get a champion whom is thier competitor to offer a conversation with the CEO or board).
When will you be issuing the PO? How high is this solution needed on your priority list Mr. CEO, Board Members, and DSS? Do you know your competitors are enlisting our solutions while your considering a change? Check out thier ROI…
It’s all psychology. The DSS could be an egomaniac, or have direction from the CEO to be the gatekeeper. Nevertheless, it’s all about communication, tactics and stratigize. No one can ever have a full proof plan, unless they “know,” the variables involved in the equation.
Wage war on all fronts!
October 14th, 2009
Here’s the bold, creative plan: Give the DSS all the credit for coming up with the awesome proposal you’ve created.
Give him the kudos for forcing you to dig deep to come up with the exhaustive, detailed bid that satisfies every degree of what you’re looking to accomplish. “We don’t normally go to these extremes to create a proposal,” you say. “If it wasn’t for Mr. DSS here, you never would have seen this kind of detail, this kind of scrutiny on ROI, and certainly this kind of aggressive pricing. Our hats off to you, Mr. DSS; you’re an asset to your organization, and you’ve singlehandedly changed the way we’ll be submitting RFP’s in the future.”
And the presentation begins.
You’ve complimented him on the very thing that made it difficult for you in the first place, bolstered his reputation among his peers, and got the deal. Way to go! Cigars all around.
(And you didn’t have to resort to illegal activities, or worse yet, have to HIRE the guy!)
October 16th, 2009
This problem should be confronted making it obvious that the DSS is not considering our offer in an appropriate manner. Yet we have to take care not to upset him in any way that the results are worse. In other words, put the DSS in a position that he has no choice but to agree that our solution is the best and gains the trust of the board and executives.
A presentation should be organized, outside of their offices, and it should include as many of the members of the prospect’s board of directors as possible, C-Level executives and the DSS
The presentation provides all the details of our solution, why it is the best solution, and addresses all of the possible objectives. If possible, a high level executive from an existing client should be present to endorse our solution.
The objective is to gain the buy in of the executive board, thereby leaving the DSS no choice but to side with the board and executives.
October 16th, 2009
The problem with the DSS is his unwarranted dislike for the prospective bidding company and he must be removed from the approval process. At this point in the game the company has nothing to lose therefore should attempt to hire him away from his current position and make an offer he can’t refuse with the bidding company, therefore eliminating him from the approval process. Given the size of the deal, it would be more than affordable to hire him away.
October 20th, 2009
It’s obvious the DSS has an emotional issue w/your company, and maybe even your sales team. You need to get better grounded on what the issue is, and what is @ the core of his concerns.
At this point in time you have invested multiple months into the solution. It’s time to raise the stakes and take a multi-pronged approach.
DSS – you need to come up with a simple plan to neutralize him. You will not win him over. Where is he in his career? where are his alliances/why? What connection do your executives have to people he respects. What can be his personal wins for picking you?
Prospects executives – come up with a simple plan to engage them in a business discussion. What business issues are you addressing, that competition does not, that are important to your customers success and survival? (not features/functions, no ppts). Where are the connections between them and your company senior business leaders.
Industry references – where have you solved this business problem before? set up a call from your best reference customer to the business executive. Coach your reference on key business issues, and how you uniquely are qualified to solve this business problem. Again, no PPT.
Execute.
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October 2nd, 2009
RT @renbor Contest time, test you sales knowhow against other ‘Rock Star" sales pros! #contest http://bit.ly/aXlmH
This comment was originally posted on TwitterOctober 3rd, 2009
Sales Contest – Test Your Strategic Thinking – Complete the Sales Scenario http://bit.ly/OM4cN
This comment was originally posted on TwitterOctober 3rd, 2009
RT @salesbloggers: Sales Contest – Test Your Strategic Thinking – Complete the Sales Scenario http://bit.ly/OM4cN
This comment was originally posted on TwitterOctober 3rd, 2009
RT @salesbloggers: Sales Contest – Test Your Strategic Thinking – Complete the Sales Scenario http://bit.ly/OM4cN
This comment was originally posted on TwitterOctober 3rd, 2009
RT @salesbloggers: Sales Contest – Test Your Strategic Thinking – Complete the Sales Scenario http://bit.ly/OM4cN
This comment was originally posted on TwitterOctober 3rd, 2009
RT @salesbloggers: Sales Contest – Test Your Strategic Thinking – Complete the Sales Scenario http://bit.ly/OM4cN
This comment was originally posted on TwitterOctober 3rd, 2009
RT @renbor Contest time, test you sales knowhow against other 'Rock Star" sales pros! #contest http://bit.ly/aXlmH
This comment was originally posted on TwitterOctober 4th, 2009
Sell Better http://www.sellbetter.ca/blog/?p=601
This comment was originally posted on TwitterOctober 5th, 2009
RT @renbor Contest time, test you sales knowhow against other ‘Rock Star" sales pros! #contest http://bit.ly/aXlmH
This comment was originally posted on TwitterOctober 7th, 2009
food for the sales brains … http://www.sellbetter.ca/blog/?p=601 good case to solve..
This comment was originally posted on TwitterOctober 19th, 2009
[...] the period for submissions for our current sales contest has now closed, and we are pleased to present all the potential solutions suggested. Those of you [...]
October 26th, 2009
[...] were at risk to loose the deal, and as a result months of effort and no chance of making quota (full details). Desperate situations call for desperate measures, and our team stepped it up by coming up with [...]
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