Managing To Win

MANAGING TO WIN
SMART STRATEGIES FOR ACCOUNT SALES
IN AN UNCERTAIN ECONOMY

by EDWARD R. DEL GAIZO, Ph.D., Director, Sales Performance
Portfolio, and SELESTE LUNSFORD, Product Manager, Sales
Performance Portfolio

In times of economic uncertainty, buying organizations often respond by reducing discretionary
funding, raising investment hurdles and adding
decision makers to their buyingprocesses — all
resulting in increasingly complex sales cycles.
One of the most productive ways to prepare for
success in this environment is to emphasize
account management skills.
Once reserved for select national and global
accounts, account management skills and tactics
are now recognized as indispensable for achieving
success in any complex sale where multiple sales
calls arerequired, multiple buying centers are
targeted, multiple decision makers are involved
or when multiple opportunities are present.

The ladder has five rungs, starting in ascending
order, with Professional Visitor, Price Seller,
Content Seller, Needs Satisfaction Seller and
Trusted Business Advisor.

Selling Transactionally
The lowest selling levels are characterized by
goods and services beingexchanged for money.
There are three categories—classified as transactional selling—that define the lower portion of
the Sales Impact Ladder:

Trusted
Business Advisor

Beyond enabling the navigation of these complex
sales, account management provides the tools
and tactics sales professionals need to alter the
way their customers perceive them and to forge
long-term, profitable customerrelationships.

Needs Satisfaction Seller
Content Seller

THE SALES IMPACT LADDER

When all other things are equal, the one factor
that matters most in selling is the salesperson’s
behavior . How a customer perceives behavior can
be the determining factor in success or failure.

Price Seller
Professional Visitor
SALESPERSON BEHAVIOR

The Sales Impact Ladder illustrates howsalesperson behavior impacts customer relationships.

MANAGING TO WIN

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1. Professional Visitor
This person sells on personality or common
interests, often meeting the personal needs of
the customer, but failing to form a long-term
strategic business alliance. They use friendliness and other incentives to get in the door.
While it is true that people often buy from
people they like,Professional Visitors are
unlikely to maximize the potential of an
account, because they are rarely viewed as a
highly valuable resource.
Professional Visitors sometimes think they are
succeeding simply because they manage to get
additional time in front of customers. But
increasing face time does not lead to greater
sales. In fact, customers may perceive Professional Visitors as “time wasters.”2. Price Seller
The behaviors of this person revolve around
price, cost, deals and quotes. Price Sellers are
higher on the ladder than Professional Visitors
because they need a bit more knowledge and
skill in case they have to negotiate. Price Sellers may meet the customer’s organizational
needs (for finance) but have difficulty selling
the value of a product or service.
Price Sellersoften succeed only in cases where
their product or service is the least expensive
and where the customer is more concerned
with price than overall value.

3. Content Seller
The person at this level focuses on product
knowledge. Content Sellers typically are highly
knowledgeable about their products and try
their best to explain it all to customers. The
problem is that the salespresentation
frequently becomes what is known as a
“feature dump”—long on technical information but short on customer benefits.
While their product and service expertise puts
Content Sellers higher on the Sales Impact
Ladder, they have trouble successfully differentiating themselves from the competition,
leaving the customer open to ultimately buy
on price.

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MANAGING TO WIN

Customers...