Classic – Communicate to Influence

Of course, what your business does and who your suspects are makes a difference. This is about SMBs (Small-Medium Businesses) and what it takes for them to realistically own their niches. This applies equally to enterprises if they are willing to listen.

How you communicate is a lot more than what you say or how you say it when communicating to a suspect. When asked the question “what is the best selling organization in the world,” three companies always show up in this order, Google, Amazon, and Apple.

How amazing that 2 of the 3 basically have no salespersons, and the third (Apple) generates 2.6% of their revenue through their stores, channels like AT&T and the rest with no salespersons.

Retailers like Nordstrom’s, Nike, Harley plus B2B companies like IBM, Quicken and Microsoft do use salespersons, but the first communication is often value-added content, awareness, online chats and other ways to influence the “right” suspects to take a next step.

Revenue Science™ recognizes that helping suspects become long-term customers/partners is not something one person (salesperson) or one department (sales department) can accomplish, but rather an organization-wide total commitment in the short-term for the long-term.

The market has access to Google reviews, industry top 10 rankings, BBB grades and reviews for creditworthiness from past employees and all types of media.

Today the first thing every suspect wants to learn is “can I trust this brand,” and if they can’t, no single salesperson regardless of their pitch will close anything significant.

If the seller doesn’t get ruled out by the suspect, the game is on. The suspect wants to learn more about the selling company (stability, reason for being, customer focus, technology, etc.) to see if the seller actually does what the suspect wants, and how well they are able to do it.

Then if the selling organization is a good enough fit, the suspect wants to engage with the selling company with questions like “exactly how will you help me get where I want to go.”

From here on, the suspect is qualifying to see if the seller is the best option and exactly what is the value the seller provides vs. other options. At the same time, the seller is qualifying the suspect to determine if the problem the suspect is trying to solve is in the seller’s wheelhouse and if the value from the suspect’s view aligns with the value the seller needs to receive.

Business engages with other business much like singles on “Match.com.” Businesses want to review each other for integrity, culture, and strategy as well as the engagement basics to narrow down partner choices and to increase the probability for success.

Next, the businesses review what is important. Then they make some decisions, test common understandings, consider what the partnership might be like, do some validations all before they engage for the short-term and then commit for the long-term.

Starting minute one, both parties communicate to influence the other in order to achieve a mutually-beneficial commitment. This is based on clarification, evaluation, and learning about the other to create a long-term value-added partnership.

Pitches are tolerated when the buyer needs a car and this is the only dealership that has the model or will finance them. You don’t close buyers today (or not many). You communicate with the right buyers for the long-term.