How to Get Buyers to Buy and Improve Your Sales Forecast

Think of the last time you bought something you don't buy regularly. Perhaps a car, or a notebook computer or - as a business-to-business buyer - a professional service (e.g. a consulting service).

Think of the first time you considered buying this product (or service). What made you think you wanted or needed it? How long did it take you from this first thought to actually taking action and looking for potential vendors? How long did it take you from approaching vendors to finally make the purchase?

Obviously, for different situations and different products, the length of the buying cycle, i.e. the time needed from the first consideration to the final purchase, can vary considerably.

Unless you buy straight from the catalog or the internet, you are likely, in the course of your buying process, to interact with the seller. Most sellers will ask you at one point when you will be ready to make a buying decision. And typically, you will give them some estimate.

Unfortunately, these estimates are often not in line with the real time needed for the buying decision. In most cases it takes longer than you expect.

Why is that so? Are buyers liars?

Poor forecasts

It is a fact that most sales forecasts are pretty poor. They usually get better with more sales transactions. For example, if you sell low-value items, you have to sell lots of them and often require many sales transactions to get a reasonable total sales volume.

For simple statistical reasons, your forecasts in such cases tend to be more reliable. If you forecast 100 transactions per month with an average value of 1,000 USD per transaction, chances are much better that you will come close to the forecasted figure of 100,000 USD per month than if you expect just 10 transactions with a value of 10,000 USD each. It is much more likely that three buyers will unexpectedly postpone or buy from the competition in the latter case than 30 in the first case.

That's why many companies are so keen on their so-called 'bread & butter' business as it is more reliable and often covers to a large extent their fixed cost.

Besides this volume problem, there is the problem of over-optimistic and over- pessimistic (yes, they also exist) sales executives. Experienced sales managers and directors typically know to which type their people belong and either coach them to become more realistic and/or to make adjustments in their forecasts accordingly.

Another reason for poor forecasts, and perhaps the most important one, is inaccurate information from buyers.

The issue of trust

Most buyers don't really trust sellers. Because most sellers focus on selling, potential buyers feel the need to take care of their own interests to avoid buying the wrong product or service. They want to make the best possible buying decision.

As a consequence, buyers show some reservations towards the seller and provide info only reluctantly to assure that they don't harm their own interests. Whether this happens consciously or subconsciously, it does not really matter. Fact is, in these cases, the seller often gets incomplete, inaccurate, sometimes even plain wrong information.

How can a seller build sufficient trust to get the full truth from the buyer?

Besides the commonly known factors like building good rapport and displaying competence, we found that the NATOO mindset of the seller is the biggest lever towards creating trust. NATOO stands for "Not Attached To Own Outcome." If sellers can detach from their own outcomes and instead focus on the best possible outcome of prospects, including the possibility that their products may not be the best solution for the buyers, only then will buyers develop true trust towards sellers.

I know that this is a very hard call for most sales people as they are usually driven by their need to achieve sales results. Letting go of this need and instead focusing on the best possible outcome for the buyer is not easy. It can only work if the sales person believes that this attitude will lead to better results in the longer run.

Our own experience and the experience with our clients have clearly shown that this is true. Not only does it lead to more truthful conversations between seller and buyer--it also helps make your forecasts more reliable.

This level of trust is a precondition for encouraging buyers to buy and thus accelerate the buying decision process.

Buying Processes versus Sales Processes

Once you have achieved a truly trustful relationship with your buyer, you will get the permission to help your buyer make a buying decision. In order to do this effectively and efficiently, you must gain an understanding of buying decision processes.

Think of yourself when you buy anything beyond satisfying your daily needs. For example, if you want to buy a new dining table for your home.

In our workshops we typically ask three to four people to describe the way they buy. We ask them about their criteria for buying such rather ordinary things. We ask them where they buy such items. We ask them if anyone else is directly or indirectly involved in the buying decision. We ask them about what they expect from the sales person. And we ask them if the way they buy such an item today is different from the way they bought the same item some years ago.

Ask yourself those same questions if you would buy a dining table. Perhaps ask some of your friends or colleagues as well. What you will notice is that buying processes for the very same item can vary tremendously from person to person and from time to time.

Obviously, the most successful sales process is one which matches largely with any buying process. Unfortunately, most sellers are trained to follow a certain sales process which may or may not match with a person's buying process. Using traditional sales approaches, the seller who employs a selling process which matches with the most probable buying process in his industry will be the most successful one. However, even those 'successful' sellers typically reach only a 20 -30% lead-conversion-rate, i.e. they lose 70-80% of the available business.

The Stop Selling! approach is based on the premise that a seller must continuously adjust his selling process in order to match as closely as possible with the buyer's preferred buying process. That means the seller must give up the comfort of a more or less fixed selling process. Since we can never really know what the buying process of a buyer is at any given time, the seller must develop a high level of sensitivity towards the buyer in order to minimize the risk of 'losing' him.

Accelerate the Buying Decision by Coaching Your Buyer

We can't truly know how buyers buy. In fact, most buyers don't even know in advance exactly how they are going to buy. This is not a problem but an opportunity. What the seller can meaningfully do is to coach the buyer through his/ her buying decision.

What does coaching mean?

Unlike consulting where you analyze your buyer's needs and then recommend the best possible solution you (!) have, coaching means you work from the belief that you don't know if you have a truly good solution for your buyer. Instead, through active listening and effective questioning, you help the buyer line up all necessary criteria to render a buying decision possible. Only answers to questions related to the seller's products, services and performance are actually required by the seller. On the other hand, many of the answers to the questions a coaching sales person asks are irrelevant for the seller but crucial for the buyer.

For example, in the case of the dining table, it is important for the seller to know the buyer's design preferences whereas only the buyer really needs to know if the spouse must be involved in the buying decision. In many cases the buyer is left alone to line up all necessary criteria for a buying decision; hence, the buyer often undergoes a time-consuming trial-and-error process. A savvy seller doesn't leave this process unmanaged; a savvy seller pro-actively supports the buyer in his discovery.

The seller knows at a very early stage if there is anything meaningful he can offer to the buyer, thus minimizing the risk of wasting time or what we have come to describe as misleads. As a consequence, the buyer reaches a buying decision more quickly.

The Invisible Decision Maker

In many buying situations, the seller doesn't have direct access to the ultimate decision maker or to third parties who influence the buying decision. In order to maximize the chance of getting the business once you have worked out a good solution for the buyer, it is necessary to coach the buyer in dealing with these third parties. In such situations it is indispensable to discuss with your buyer the potential reactions and preferences of these influencers and how to best deal with any objections they might have.

Ideally, the seller gets the buyer to involve these third parties - directly or indirectly - right from the beginning to reduce if not avoid the occurrence of any objections.

Conclusion

Progress-U's Stop Selling! approach accelerates your business by:

- Creating a truly trustful relationship between buyer and seller using the NATOO mindset - Continuously adjusting the sales process to the buyer's current buying process - Coaching the buyer through his buying decision process including the consideration of third parties involved

As a consequence, the quality of sales forecasts will improve considerably.

So when will you Stop Selling! and instead help your buyers buy?

About the Author

Charlie Lang is an Executive Coach and Trainer who founded Progress-U Limited in 2002. Progress- U's mission is to help improve the image of sales.

Charlie is a passionate and professional Executive Coach, Mentor Coach, Trainer, Public Speaker and Author of articles related to leadership, change management and innovative sales.

"The Groupness Factor", his first book on leadership and corporate culture was published in August 2005.