ROI and The Salesperson, Don't be a "Fool with a Tool!"

I'm sure you have heard the old adage "a fool with a tool is still a fool."  It is certainly true when we start talking Return On Investment tools.  Today with wireless Ipads and tablets, salespeople are equipped to present mobile, personalized presentations to prospects and clients.  Marketing and Sales Enablement organizations have worked hard to support these efforts.  Often ROI calculators are included as a part of these presentations tools.  Herein lies the danger.  ROI is part of calculations used in the cost analysis by many purchasing departments, Chief Purchasing Officers as well Chief Financial Officers.  ROI used by sales persons is just a part of, not the sum total of  the value assessment process and should be presented in that context. If you try to present ROI outside of the value assessment process you could very well become the fool with the tool.

When speaking about the book ROI Selling,  by Michael J. Nick and Kurt M. Koenig, Brian S. Sommers, Vice President, Research Services, Aberdeen Group said " selling tools to top executives is okay as long as the executive is a mechanic. ROI Selling isn't about having an ROI calculation tool. It's about guiding a buyer to a solution that solves a real business problem and keeping them engaged through the benefits delivery."  Value assessment , of which ROI is a component, is a process in which the customer/prospect is a key participant.  To use ROI successfully, as part of that process, the customer/prospect must buy in and participate in that process.  If you have a tool that calculates ROI without that buy in and participation by the customer/ prospect, good luck! and you are a good candidate for being a fool with a tool.

To help you use ROI as  a part of the value assessment process, I suggest the following resources:
1. ROI Selling, the book by Michael J. Nick and Kurt M. Koenig.
2. Pretium Partners,  Columbus, OH, a consulting firm that provides some of  "the best" sales training in the value assessment process. Go to their website http://www.pretiumpartners.com/ and sign up for their free webinars and the email delivered newsletter "Sharpen Your Edge."
3.Alinean,  http://www.alinean.com/ value messaging , interactive tools and training for today's more skeptical, frugal buyer.

The Evolution of Questions in Selling

One of the most important skills in selling is questioning! With the advent of The Challenger Sale by Matt Dixon and Brent Adamson the importance of questioning seemingly diminished.  They positioned that the questioning, typically used in the needs diagnosis/discovery phase of the typical consultative sale provided little value to the customer and prospect and led to a condition they called "questioning fatigue."  They proposed that successful sales people, like the  challenger profile, shared insight with the prospect.  The discovery was not conducted with questions but rather with what they called "hypotheses." The research of the Challenger was so compelling that many of us in an attempt to change to its insight principles "threw the baby out with the  bath water.".  The subsequent writing of Linda Richardson puts it best in her latest book Changing The Sales Conversation, when she writes: "It is the combination of questions and insights that is one of the distinguishing marks of the new sales conversation." It might be useful to look at the evolution of questions in selling to see how we got to this point.

The earliest sales conversations used closed ended questions or those that could be simply answered by 1 or 2 word answers such as yes or no.  This occurred frequently up until the 1970's because before this time sales conversations were heavily scripted and closed ended questions stayed with the script.  In the 70's sales leaders such as Neil Rackham and and Linda Richardson  introduced SPIN Selling and consultative selling which introduced the use of open ended questions.  Rackham in SPIN Selling introduced a progression of questions: Situation questions, Problem questions, Implication  questions and Need- Payoff questions that helped the client/prospect discover the value of the product/solution.  Richardson's consultative approach also used a variety of questions open as well as closed .  The SPIN, consultative, solution selling was very successful through the 70's, 80's, 90's and the 2000's.  With the world financial crisis, starting in 2008, the world of selling turned upside down.  The techniques that had worked so well for the previous  four decades no longer were effective.  Enter The Challenger Sale research, in 2012, by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), which, as we stated earlier, talked of questioning fatigue and replaced questions with hypotheses and insights.

Also we have now seen a new type of question introduced, the disruptive question.  The disruptive question is just that one that is disruptive.  It is designed to move the prospect out of their comfort zone.  For a prospect to buy they have to be in the proper mindset.  They must believe the problem/challenges introduced in the insight are real and affect them.  You need to emotionally connect with the buyer.  The disruptive question is often the first step in this process. Typical disruptive questions start with why or how.

Since 2012 the subsequent writings of Linda Richardson and the research by the RAIN group in, Insight Selling Selling : Surprising Research on What Winners Do Differently by Mike Schultz and John Doerr, the reactive changes we made as a result of The Challenger have been softened .  Solution selling and questioning are not "dead."  However, they have been modified by what we learned from the Challenger research.  The key point is that we,as sellers in this new age, must show insight, unique ways of looking at situations/problems.  Questioning is fine as long as it is coupled with that insight and creates value for the customer/prospect.

For a more detailed look a The Evolution of Questioning in Selling go to : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rNy5AyQEQQ

The Importance of Teaching and "Clock Speed" in Today's Selling

Since the publishing of The Challenger Sale in 2012, teaching has been highlighted as a key skill of effective salespeople.  The whole insight selling approach focuses on "tell me something that I don't already know about my business. "  How this insight is communicated to the prospect is all about teaching.  Brent Adamson and Matt Dixon talk about teaching as one of the three key attributes of the Challenger Seller (Teach, Tailor and Take Control)  More specifically they talk about "commercial teaching," and they say commercial teaching is more than just teaching the prospect/customer something they did not know about their business (an insight).  It is doing so in a way "that reliably leads to commercial wins."  To do so they say" commercial teaching has four rules:'

1. 'Lead to your unique strengths
2. Challenge customers assumptions
3. Catalyze action
4. Scale across customers"

Subsequent research and writing has reinforced this key concept.  Linda Richardson, in her latest book Changing The Sales Conversation,  actually suggests a balanced teaching approach not a "commercial" one or leading one. She does add that your example insight should be backed up with data, experience and financial return and you must communicate the contrast between the new approach and the status quo.  This is similar to the "reframing" that Adamson and Dixon talk about in "challenge customers assumptions.".

In Insight Selling: Surprising Research on What Sales Winners Do Differently, Schultz and Doerr of the Rain Group talk of Convincing as on of their three qualities of  Insight Seller (Connect, Convince and Collaborate) Convincing is very similar to what Dixon and Adamson refer to as commercial teaching.

So we can now say that the ability to teach is a key attribute of today's effective salesperson.  However before you can teach you must first be able to learn.  The Gartner Group has a term for this very effective skill they call it "clock speed."  Learning is such a key ingredient, in today's information age,that you must not only be able to learn, but you must be able to do it quickly.  

When you are evaluating the skills of your sales force or hiring new salespeople be sure you measure their clock speed and their ability to teach.