Without a doubt selling your innnovation is CRUNCH time. Not only must the product be right, but have you the savvy and strategy to make the technical success a commercial success.
I came across a resource from those clever people at Xplane some while ago, and thought I’d share my experiences to the series of challenges as portrayed in ‘Selling to Big Co’; so…
Welcome to BigCo, land of the complex sale, where each meeting could be your last. Each step in the sales process can move you forward or torpedo the business for good.
All along the way, the people of BigCo will have numerous conversations about your product; with each other, with their leaders and managers, with consultants – even with your competitors.
HOW CAN YOU BE SURE YOUR SOLUTION WILL BE FULLY AND COMPLETELY UNDERSTOOD, EVEN WHEN YOU CAN’T BE THERE YOURSELF?
Here are some of the challenges you will need to be prepared for….
Your well-meaning but bumbling champion miscommunicated your value proposition.
You invested at considerable risk to your business in an idea you all think is a winner. Will the value be so obvious to the customer you wont need to sell it?; ‘if we build it – they will come’. If the answer is no (and it will be!) then why put it into the hands of someone who is not prepared, or does not have a stake in its success? Sound outrageous? Its done every day with distributors and agents, sales people with improper incentives and/or the wrong tools.
Frontline managers and workers couldn’t see how your solution would help them to do their jobs better.
Consider this.. on the whole people don’t like change, especially if they don’t have to, so what would persuade them to change vendor or adopt a supposedly better solution. Whats in it for me!!
In order to address this, sell benefits..not features. How does your offering make your customers job easier, faster, better, cheaper, more productive etc etc? OK then prove it…show me the data, demonstrate it.. here…now!!
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A competitor used technical jargon as a ’smokescreen’ to confuse buyers about your solution.
You know who your competitors are (I hope), put yourself in their shoes and think about how they would claim a superior proposition or attempt to expose your weaknesses where they have strengths. Be prepared for such a rebuttal have data, facts and evidence as per the last point.
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A consultant who has ties to your competitor recommended against you, and nobody knew enough to disagree.
Technical businesses will work with academics or leaders in their field of chosen work. They often perform private consultancy and therefore have allegiances to companies they have worked with in the past. Who are influencers in your field? Who do they work with? Consider trade association, societies, conference organising commitees, speakers and chairs, researchers. Make sure you get the opportunity to sell the merits of your solution. Work with your own sectoral gurus and develop them into advocates.
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The VP of NO, who must approve all purchases over £100k didn’t understand your solution.
A Power player can make the decisions about how dollars are spent. Period. Sometimes referred to as the “VP of No,” they don’t have to ask permission, and they care primarily about results.
By the time you talk to a Power Player, you’d better understand the company and the problem and you’d better have a solution to offer ideally advocated by other organisation members, but mmost importantly demonstrating a results based benefit. Power players make their decisions and move on quickly, so be prepared to move fast if this person says yes.
The gatekeeper didn’t understand how you were different, so you never got to meet the commercial people
And don’t underestimate Gatekeepers like Secretaries, PAs and potentially anyone else meant to be organise and control. Their job is to manage the traffic moving in and out of the organization. They are responsible for keeping the “wrong” people out and letting the “right” people in. A Gatekeeper can be a powerful ally who can put you in front of the buyer — or, if alienated, they can be a powerful foe.
The buyer skimmed your proposal, but didn’t understand the key differentiator you had worked so hard to establish.
By this time, you have hopefully many advocates and developed a tailored argument specific to the benefits your product will bring. However you must be able to communicate all all levels and prevent creating your own smokescreen with jargon. Dont forget the buyer is concerned with Quality, Cost and Delivery. How do you stack up, this might be a differentiator if your competition fails to deliver on-time and has unreliable product; even if they are cheaper.
Know your stuff, know your customer, know your competition and be prepared.
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Its widely proposed that to succeed and be innovative you have to had plenty of the failure experience. Therefore failure should be acceptable facet of innovation.
