Seller-based or Buyer-based Sales Process?

Seller-based or Buyer-based Sales Process?

Have you ever wondered why for some deals, sending a proposal means you're a few days away from closing the deal. But for other deals, the customer usually come back three or four times requesting for more information? And decision making is no-where in sight?

The most common sales processes I've seen are all seller-based. Typically this means the following:

1. Prospecting
2. Qualifying
3. Meeting
4. Proposal
5. Close
6. Win/Lose

Very common. In fact at least two sales CRM I've seen uses something similiar to this. This seller-based sales process is like a to-do list for the account. Have you done the prospecting? Have you qualified the account? Have you set up a meeting? Have you sent a proposal? Are you trying your absolute best to close the deal now? What is the outcome?

The question is, why does sales management track sales person on this process? It conjures an image of a team of farm animals sales executives not trusted by management to do their professional duties. Is this necessary? Is this effective?

Can I propose the buyer-based sales process?

1. Why do I need to buy?
2. Who can I buy this from?
3. How is buying from you different from buying from your competitors?

Or very simply:

1. Needs.
2. Options.
3. Concerns.

Every buying decision goes through these steps. And matching the sales process to these buyer-based stages is a more accurate estimate for the management team than using the seller-based process.

Here's why.

Say a sales person reported that for this particular account, he is at the Proposal stage. Under this model, it is very easy to assume the sales is already at the late stage. Management would think that the decision to go ahead or not would probably happen within the next two weeks.

Unfortunately, a proposal can be sent to the buyer during any of the three buyer-based stages, Needs, Options, Concerns. A proposal sent during the Needs phase will not see decision making any time soon.

Another important thing. A proposal sent during different stages of the buyer-based model must sell different things.

In the needs phase, the selling is on displacing the status quo of the buyer. The buyer must be sold that what he is doing now is not good enough. Or there exist a simply better solution than what he is doing now, at a cheaper price.

In the options phase, the selling is on the solutions itself. This is the part where the sales person has to displace competitors solutions, or "products" not sold by him. An irrefutable conclusion that this one particular solution will meet the needs of the buyer.

In the concerns phase, the selling is on convincing the buyer that you are the right partner to work with. You can meet their payment terms. Their global processes. Their service-level. You are available to support them based on their requirements. Your company will not fold down next year. You will still be around next year, or someone else will be there.

Only after these three phases, can the buying decision happen.

And in B2B sales, the sales person may have to follow through to the implementation stage. I know I do. I very often do the sales, pre-sales, set up the project kick-off, and sometimes even do some project management.

Digressing a bit further. I think I can safely claim that I have yet to close a deal solely based on the proposal alone. Almost all of my selling is done face-to-face, online with the customer. And often, a very long period of time is spent addressing their "final" concerns.

A seller-based sales process does not tell you when will the deal come in. It does not let you know at which stage of the customer's buying process the deal is in.

A buyer-based sales process lets you know exactly where is the buying process. It also tells you what you should be focusing your sales effort on.

What is your organisation's Sales Process?