Hey Motivated Buyer, You’ve Changed…

Hey Motivated Buyer, You’ve Changed…:from The Sales Challenger™ by Scott Collins
What happened to our motivated buyers and decision makers?  They used to be so easy to identify, evaluate and work with.  We were able to create opportunity scorecards based on known and defined criteria to identify the high-value opportunities and accounts.  These are the same people and companies we’ve sold to for years, but doesn’t it feel like we need to sit them down and say “you’ve changed.  I don’t even know you anymore”?
Well, it’s because they HAVE changed.  A motivated buyer in today’s environment is different than the motivated buyer of just a few short years ago.  As many of you are aware SEC research has found that, on average, customers are already 57% of the way through their buying process before FIRST contact with ANY supplier.  They’ve been out there learning on their own, defining their own needs, researching solutions and considering all their options, without suppliers.
In today’s marketplace, we’d call those opportunities established demand.  It’s the world of the commoditized, price-driven sale; the one in which we’re one of three suppliers to submit the bid.  It’s the place none of us want to be, yet often times, the criteria we tell our sales professionals to look for in opportunities drive them right INTO this established demand.  They are looking for motivated buyers, with established needs who know what their problems are and need solutions.
However, what we’ve found at the SEC is that the absolute best sellers out there are using a very different approach to identify and select opportunities.
Our best sellers know the customer has fundamentally changed.  That’s why they are out there looking for emerging demand—opportunities where needs are not well understood or agreed upon, and they can create or re-shape demand.  Our research last year revealed that high-performing sales reps use opportunity qualification criteria that revolve around customer agility and disruption.  They aren’t waiting to be one of three bids; they are out there looking for the next, best opportunity.
And our new work this year explains how these reps not only look for this emerging demand in the market, but also shape and re-shape demand by teaching customers insights where they learn. The best sellers are out there creating motivated buyers or reframing the way motivated buyers think.
If we want our sales organization shaping, re-shaping and uncovering emerging demand, we need everyone following our highest performers’ approach.  That approach involves looking at customers in a different way.  A way in which we:

• Use different criteria to determine opportunity via updated scorecards that identify customers where disruption is occurring and agility exists (SEC members, view our updated Opportunity-Fit Scorecard)
• Teach customer where they learn in their respective marketplaces
• Lead with insight to teach customers

Many of today’s sales professionals feel they don’t recognize their motivated buyers anymore because they’ve failed to realize that customer buying has shifted.  In response, this means our sales approach must also shift.  A shift that seeks out emerging demand, where we can shape demand and re-shape customer demand.
SEC Members, learn more about how high performers evaluate good opportunities.