Every day, business leaders attempt to understand and predict when revenue will land.
It’s a complex and elusive process because sales doesn’t exist in some mathematical vacuum. People are part of the process. Humans are both rational and irrational, and we do many things that don’t seem to make much sense. Nonetheless, we develop process and forecast models to make sense and predict a sale’s future.
The model I’ve found most interesting and compelling recently? Setting up what I call a “sales ladder.”
You start with the basics and build toward aligned value.
Two flaws in customer interaction
Business success depends on forecast accuracy, but what if the inputs are flawed? To show you a new process to align value, we’ll discuss where we are today – flaws and all – so we can move to align with how customers buy. Ultimately, this may lead to a renaissance in how we sell and forecast value.
Flaw 1: We map and model a fraction of what is known
Selling is like playing chess on five chess boards simultaneously while standing on your head. Selling strategies and variables are endless. So are perceptions, histories, biases, and even cultures of people engaged in the sale who influence the outcomes.
Why are we so surprised when we misread the situation, or a large deal fails to land when our forecast models predict? Just ask yourself: how have your forecast models adapted to selling in the pandemic economy?
We are at a turning point in sales history. We clearly need a better way to understand and interpret customer behavior. On the one hand, we leverage an abundance of data to inform our decisions. On the other, we still trust many people in the process to share their gut instincts.
It’s helpful to remind ourselves that these processes and models represent a deal’s abstract dynamics – it’s not what’s actually going on. The reality of the situation is based on many different variables we perceive. If we’re lucky enough, we capture the variables correctly. If not, we fail and wonder why.
Our goal is to present a new way for sellers to build more accurate and collaborative customer engagements and for leaders to create more predictability into their models. Sales is something we do with people, not to people. It makes sense that we would understand what’s going on inside, things that until recently were not well understood.
Flaw 2: We don’t have good instrumentation to evaluate shared value
When you don’t have a plan, you risk losing control of a sale. I recently went to the Tesla store, and the sales professional was excellent and communicated the value of owning a Tesla. He took control of the sale by saying: “We should get you an appointment to come drive one of these.”
I thought it was a good idea too, and agreed. Then he asked for my name, phone number, and email, and said, “I’m going to email you to set up a time, ok?” He had control of the sale and led me through the process of saying yes. He could have easily said, “Hey, it was nice showing you these cars. Have a great day!” Instead, he took control.
The customer appreciates the knowledge of what will happen next and how they can plan for it. When you take control and show what happens next, who is accountable, and how to set realistic timelines, you have a path to a successful sale.
You can describe a sale simply, but it doesn’t make it so. Sales is tough, and salespeople try to develop a point of view on what’s happening. Still, the truth is we never know. Since time is the enemy of sales professionals, thinking back to the Tesla salesman: was spending time with me his best option?
What would be the impact if we knew some frameworks of how people buy and where we are intersecting them on their journey? Now take that a step further to elicit the mental map of their customers’ buying criteria and process. Suppose we could represent this in a simple way that we could refine over time. Wouldn’t this be a great way to inform sales forecast models and actual customer buying behavior?
The science of buying behavior
For simplicity’s sake, there are three broad stages to a buyer’s decision process:
Evaluating
During this buying stage, the brain makes sense of concepts of value. For anyone in sales, it seems 100% opposite of what we believe. After all, our selling processes end with a deal at 100%, so it’s a natural assumption to think that concepts of value occur late in the process.
In this stage, buyers make decisions that lead to better outcomes. For sellers, focusing on the customer’s desired results will set the stage for value alignment. Sellers can improve by painting a path to the desired state.
Assessing Value
Much of the study around how and why people buy occurs here. A natural expectation exists here to explore options and go through a winnowing down among a field of known alternatives.
Acting and Deciding
While decision-making for the buyer occurs at every step, this is where a sale occurs. It’s incredible to see the internal pattern in the brain here. We tend to think that the end of the deal is a celebratory one and represents finality. The truth is that the buyer continues to review their journey and monitor and refine their concepts of value.
Often, buyers will share that they “got a good deal” as a way to validate with others. Modern sellers know that the sale represents a stepping stone to the next sale. Successful companies have created customer success units based on this realization.
How to build toward shared value
If you’re using a joint execution agreement or an evaluation plan to help guide your sales, you are on the right track. Except we have a problem. Science shows that complexity kills perceptions of value in the evaluation stage. Sellers jump to prescribing before they understand the diagnosis.
That’s why you have to build a ladder with your customers.
Here’s an example of using the sales ladder in your conversations – especially when customers are in evaluation. Begin by identifying the outcomes desired by what time, and place the date in the upper left-hand corner. It’s essential to use this side of the ladder for the customer because thought is grounded here first.
By establishing a date, and the desired end state, you now need to help the customer identify the critical decision points along the way. You are building a plan that is activating the frontal cortex. It conceives progression best in a visualized manner, such as signposts. It’s not as crucial if it is upright or lying on its side. When you share the signposts or steps, it’s like a football team moving toward the end zone. Customers know where they are and the path to the goal.
Imagine a ladder representing value alignment between you and your customer: on the left side of the ladder is the customer. On the other is the seller. You start the sales process together on the ground, and you must climb rung by rung to the top.
The rung represents shared value creation between you and the customer, and you must build them together. Your goal is to establish successful value connections (the rungs) as you move toward the sale (the top).
If your ladder rungs become uneven, symbolic of misalignment, your deal is in danger. Balance each rung of value as you progress upward toward your goal. You also must climb quickly because beneath you is time, burning up past value. Don’t hesitate too long, or else the ladder will collapse.
As you move through creating your ladder, you validate your alignment based on your feedback. On the surface, the customer will see simplicity, which is intentional to reduce cognitive load and mirror the brain’s natural tendencies. It’s a system because you will discover the right approach to sell to them uniquely.
What is their motivation, rationale, and how do they process value? Use the right path, and you increase your chances of a sale. What’s great is this system has a feedback loop that sellers can use to quantify customer behavior.
The bottom line
When you help your customer, and all the stakeholders in the sales process own and be accountable for their actions, your sale will elevate. Your team is solving problems that matter and creating strong bonds of value with your company. The system is easy for sellers to implement. Customers want to engage in it with you because it works the same way our brains do, which until recently was unknown.
