Little nightly thoughts
by Business Exploration
Dear Fellow Innovator,
Despite the professionalism of B2B buyers, the logic of business decision takers, and the measurable impacts of a solution on the competitive markets, selling is much different than a rational undertaking.
We are humans, and humans decisions are taken in the very few milliseconds that an opportunity arises.
In those milliseconds our brain sweep out a series of possible outcomes coming out with an answer.
All the remaining time between this moment and the signature of a contract is devoted to justify the "milliseconds decision".
What can we do as Sellers to support the "millisecond decision" in a way that is good for the buyer as well as good for us?
Simplify.
Along these 4 line of thoughts...
Continue reading below to know how.
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The little book on
Convincing Brand
Strategy is about selling despite competition.
We fight first and foremost for the head of our customer.
We win telling our story.
- Strategy
- Positioning
- Unique Selling Proposition
- Brand
- Pitching
- Storytelling
- Communicating
The little book on
B2B Sales Funnel
Anticipating customer’s problems is the only way to beat Google.
We have to perturb the client’s journey out of the status quo, earning his trust.
- Leaving the status quo
- Perturbing the buyer’s journey
- buying process
- Decision making
- Getting to “no”
- SPIN Selling
- The challenger sales
- Sales Funnel
- Crossing the chasm
The little book on
Competitive Market
The secret of a successful marketing is the right customer base. Sizing the market and sheltering it from competition is a strategic game in which the customer is the prize.
- Who is competing
- The market
- Sizing the market
- Defining attractiveness
- Targeting
- Pricing
- Negotiating
What can we do as Sellers to support the "millisecond decision" ?
Simplify: Our efforts shall respond to the buyer's brain that begs: "Don't make me think".
If we can convey information in a simpler way, the chances of the "right decision" are more.
Simplifying means mostly "pre-digesting". We should make an effort to deliver information that are useful to the "millisecond decision" process.
The "millisecond decision" process has several tasks:
- Shall find a good reason to give up an established solution for something new.
- Shall find extra value in adopting a new solution versus the old one.
- Shall find a fit of "the new", with "the old" context, experiences, values and culture.
- Shall find a match with proven decision processes used in the past.
These tasks are for the most part driven by past experiences.
To support these tasks we could use well established models.
The Human Sale
- We can sell the CHANGE, pointing the buyer to a modification of her assumptions.
- We can sell the VALUE, making her quantify and prioritize the impact of a possible solution.
- We can sell the EMOTIONS, telling a story that resonate with her imaginary.
- We can sell the DECISION itself, nudging her through a structured decisions' frame.
When we deliver our information in a way that takes into account the 4 tasks of the "millisecond decision" process, we reduce the need for the buyer to work on the information we send.
Every time we leave to the buyer the task to analyze, verify, justify, categorize our information we leave space to errors that fit our information to the wrong tasks, that mis-interpret the information, that do not use the information at all.
Furthermore we ask the customer to "work". And working requires effort. Something that people in general do not take well.
Next time you have to build your "sales pitch", try this "4 sales framework" to simplify the information you deliver.
Your sales pitch will become more human: a Human Sale.