Pitch for Success

Facilitating Buying, then Mastering the B2B Pitch

Without a sale there is no business activity.  And during this recession those who go under will include those who can neither win back past clients nor win new prospects. 

Those  who thrive will have won new business and if they delight their clients they may reap ‘life time value’ with little migration of customers.
 
Demystify the Purchasing Process
 
Just suppose I could remove those factors that inhibit you winning new business.  If I could demystify the purchasing process in your favour, what difference would it make to your profitability and your business stability? 
 
What could happen to your business if I could take your sales team, their propositions and presentations to a superior level where you are evaluated in the top rankings of sales in your field?  What’s more, attaining these rankings means that you have a much stronger chance of winning new business over your competitors.
 
I am not guaranteeing totally that I can win you all your new business pitches and new customers, but I will guarantee you that I will put you and your team in a stronger position and in a different league from that which you occupy now.
 
Start with Facilitating Buyer Behaviour & Decision Making
 
The sales cycle and process is within any business, especially new business, changes all the time.  There’s a good chance you will not be privy to those changes – simply because you may not know what is going on behind the scenes. 

As competitive pressure mounts, recession bites and constraints demand new priorities, the sales cycle and the procurement process changes.  It is very difficult for you to have intimate and accurate knowledge of these changes. 

Traditionally sales people accept this as the norm – but my approach is

different. It’s highly unlikely that you have any idea of how the Sales cycle and procurement culture changes

You may think you do, because you know the buyer.  Maybe you have traded with the company before.  You think you know how this business operates and the process they employ to make buying decisions.  Here’s a wake-up call – you do not!  I am not trying to be rude – but this is a fact of life.  We all make assumptions about what we think we know happens

but do we?

I am convinced from sales training that sales people and consultants don’t go into this territory in anything like enough depth.  They may know a lot about their products.  They can skilfully sell the benefits to a potential client.  But they do not have a precise appreciation of the buying culture and their current practises and behaviour. 

Generally, speaking, we all make too many wild assumptions.  The reality is you can only ever be aware of the people who interact with you.  You don't know what happens after you meet them. 

Apologies again.....you probably don't know how the potential client will talk with after your meeting.  You don’t know what they talk about.  You don’t know the agreements they have with the rest of the team who are all stakeholders in buying your services.

Priorities, Constraints and Demands

You don’t know their priorities or budgets, the local politics between the team of buyers and their managers.  You don't know what it is they fear about making the wrong decision, or the pain they and their career may suffer if they don’t do things the ‘right’ way.  You don’t know the latest good or bad experience with purchasing decisions that they and their team have made recently.
 
Do you know their attitude towards risk?

To be honest, you are disadvantaged and largely ignorant of what happens behind the scenes.  And it’s not your fault.  You were trained to sell not encouraged to get buyers to buy!  You probably are not exposed to the procurement process or the key actors who influence events. 

There’s a good bet you don't know the values they hold or their beliefs and how this impacts the procurement process and their group and personal decision-making.  Again, you don't know their current attitude to risk and how many other projects they are managing. You don't know how your project fits with the buyers other priorities.
 
You don't know the criteria they use for making decisions, nor do you understand or have any clue to the back-drop to decision-making or the political chicanery the "buyer" has to endure within their business. 
 
It’s a fair assumption  that you don't know the systems and processes, constraints and demands that the buyer has to work within.  You don't know the decision tree and most important you don't know what happens after you make your initial pitch.
 
So what if your initial 'pitch' was superb – you still don't know what happens afterwards
 
There is a process - an infrastructure, perhaps a buying bureaucracy that you have to navigate to win the support of the whole team of people to who are privy to, influence and make the decision.
 
You have to help these people to have confidence in you to become their trusted associate,  You uncover how key people or stakeholders in the overall decision work together, and understand their mixed motivations and current reality.
 
It makes sense to understand the buyer’s behaviour and, more importantly, the dynamics and the culture of the 'organisational buying behaviour' and the methods and models they use to reach purchasing decisions.
 
It is not enough to know their corporate procurement policy. Knowing the steps of that policy is rarely any use.  It is, however, critical to understand the dynamics of the organisational culture before you make any pitch.  That means listening rather than talking, and judging, making assumptions and second or third guessing.
 
Time invested in facilitating the drivers, the attitude and behaviour of how the people and organisation makes decisions is critical and determines whether you hit 'hot' or 'cold' buttons, resulting in success or failure.
 
Create Personal Credibility
 
I know how to create the credibility that build and will deliver your best value proposition for your sales pitch.  I have experience as an independent consultant over 20 years, winning lots of ‘big ticket’ consulting business.  Many of these deals have been achieved despite the strength of the big consultancy arms bidding against me.
 
Winning Against the Big Players
 
I have worked extensively with companies at senior levels with GE, Lloyds, Mortgage Express, Case Corporation, Bass, TI and many other businesses in Europe, the UK and the USA and won big contracts against the competition of ‘big players’.
 
I have also secured many projects in the public and the third sector using these skills, including extensive work with local authorities, quango’s and charities.
 
Appeal to Logic & Emotional Buying Behaviour
 
My success is based on my credibility as a change consultant, listening, facilitating and only then, when I fully understand the culture of the client’s business, do I make any attempt to present ideas which evolve into proposals.

I am a successfully published business author and have a strong platform of experience with ‘blue chips’ at senior level and I am equally at home with SME’s and professional services providers.

Only after ‘actively listening’ do I then develop the most plausible series of ideas that link directly to how the client company and the buying team prefer to buy.  Only then do I make a pitch. 

Supporting My Clients to Win new Clients 

So many sales people and account managers try to dominate their prospects or clients.  I display patience and build rapport with the buying team.

When the team of buyers are fully comfortable content with me understanding their true wants and needs, is then time to make a credible pitch and presentation that logically and emotionally appeals to them. 

You understand you have focus on forming a partnership with the client to then work with them to facilitate their decision-making.  And when you it comes about to making a pitch use PowerPoint (if you must) with precision and energy.  Avoid death by PowerPoint and Bullet points!
 
Death by PowerPoint
 
I know more than most what influences people to make decisions.  Working in partnerships with my clients, we radically dismiss the ‘death by PowerPoint’ presentational style used by many of our competitors as their common platform.  We replace that with a tailored and authentic influential pitching style based on integrity and a common win-win

orientation.
 
Retain Customers, Acquire New Ones, Create Life Time Loyalty
 
Let’s get real: the only way to improve our competitive edge is to increase the number of retained customers, increase the volume of business with existing customers and develop new products and new prospects.  If we are not doing that ‘facilitated pitching’ for new business, then we can expect that any success to be short lived.  But first we must actively listen, probe and then test for understanding, repeat their situation so that precision in needs is identified to facilitate decision-making.
 

Retained, Volume, New Business
 
Too many sales people fly by their seat of their pants.  They don’t get close to their clients or prospects, do enough preparation and fail to assess the real benefits for their clients.  They focus on trying to induce an emotional state close a ‘buying frenzy’ – which rarely works and only in the short term resulting in buyer remorse and migration.  They never get a second sale..
 
Preparation starts with listening to the client and facilitating ease in their buying decisions.  This means understanding the culture they operate within and the impact it has on their decision-making. 
 
Too many pitches rely on and use the most boring PowerPoint presentations and generally hand the business to their more innovative and alert competitors who have spent 90% of their time asking probing questions and listening to what is said, what is not said and what only can be stated through debate and discussion – simply because the buyer may not be sure in their own mind. 

Those who fail, do so because they do not listen nor do they address objections to their proposals, and know little of the psychology of influence and persuasion or their buyers’ preferred method of making decisions.
 
New Business Takes Years to Win & Minutes to Lose
 
And don’t kid yourself that you can rely on the strength of your brand, your reputation in the industry.  What is important is that it takes years to win client confidence, and minutes to lose it.
 
You need to understand the importance of personal and organisational buying and decision making.  Understand there is a often a ‘buying team’ who you never meet, but they sit behind the people you meet.  They may have a great deal of influence behind the scenes and have a tremendous impact on whether you win new business or not.
 
After you have done all your facilitation into buyers decision-making you focus on your pitch.  What matters in winning the business is the quality of your proposal, how it is presented and reinforced on the day.  The bottom line is it comes down to the preparation, the credibility of the case and the impression you create on the day.
 
Design Your Pitch to Win the Audience 95% of the Time
 
This does not happen by default or accident.  It is based on sound and intelligent marketing, and developing a winning sales pitch based on the latest research in influence, sales and negotiation.
 
We can help you improve the effectiveness of your pitch by 80%.  If I can help get you to a board room for my pitch, there is a good 90% chance that we will win that pitch.  We win it because we have done more research, asked more relevant questions and precisely worked in close partnership with our client.
 
Win Business back based on Buyer's remorse
 
And the evidence is if I don’t win business personally and it goes to my competitors – I always revisit the client later to check on progress with their ‘chosen supplier’ and have many times, facilitated the business back to me through working together.  And as we work together, the ‘buyer’ becomes even more skilled in isolating good providers from the ‘quick sale’ merchants and buyer’s remorse dawns very quickly and decisions are reviewed because they recognise that they have embarked on a relationship with the wrong company.
 
I can share my 20+ plus years experience in behavioural sales delivery.  With my colleagues, I can design and deliver a strategy for you that works for you.
 
Here is some of what we can do for you…………

• Construct a strategy to win your specific and follow on business
• Support you in writing proposals and using language patterns, create the right image and impression of your expertise as a distinct brand
• Enable you decipher Tenders and RFP’s 
• Read buyer behaviour and analyse organisational buying 'cycle' and procurement processes and policies
• Examine the entire buying team and other stakeholders who are central to making a purchasing decision
• Identify buying criteria and explore the politics and psychology of buying behaviour
• Facilitating buying decisions through analytic processes and systems 
• Design your presentation
• Design and practice the most effective questions and discussion that facilitate a buying decision 
• Facilitate improvement in your sales presentation team
• Rehearse with them until their have the competence and confidence to deal with any objection
• Make benefits specifically deliverable to the client’s bottom line
• Support you in sales delivery and ongoing account management
• Create a positive impression with your potential client so they return to you time and time again

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