Strategic Selling: The Art of Complex Sales (Book Digest)

Miller and Heiman's "The New Strategic Selling" argues that success in selling to large organizations comes down to building a coalition in favor of a purchase by speaking to the specific interests of each member of the buying committee.

This book is useful for sales reps seeking to sell to complex organizations because it provides a framework for understanding how to persuade different types of buyers.

The Four Buying Influences in the Complex Sale

Complex sales involve multiple approvers, numerous options for both parties, and decision processes that aren't transparent to outsiders. Each member of the buying team may focus on different criteria as they decide whether to support a purchase.

Buyers tend to fall into one of four categories, which Miller and Heiman call buying influences:

The Economic Buying Influence gives final approval to purchase has the power to allocate funds. They're typically high up in the organization's formal org chart. Economic buyers are persuaded by information related to long-term profitability; they're not very interested in features. Their time is limited, so always have a valid business reason for the meeting.

User Buying Influences judge how your product will affect their daily work. Users deserve attention because they're critical for successful implementation and repeat business. They focus on reliability, ease of use, downtime, and training requirements.

Technical Buying Influences screen proposals based on product specifications and applicable rules and policies. They could be technically oriented, like an IT team screening the product for compatibility with the organization's existing infrastructure. They could also be non-technical, like in-house counsel screening the product to be sure it's compliant with applicable regulations.

Coaches guide you through the sale by providing information and advice. Develop coaches by finding people with whom you have credibility, who have credibility with other buying influences, and who want your solution to succeed.

Creating Win-Win Relationships

The foundation of strategic selling is creating win-win relationships that benefit the seller, the buying company, and each buying influence. Win-win business relationships move forward and endure. Win-loss relationships don't progress or don't endure.

Successful salespeople identify both objective, corporate "results" and subjective, personal "wins" for each buying influence. Here's how to think about wins and results:

• Results are measurable impacts on a business process: a 10% increase in sales or reduced downtime.

• Wins are based on individual values: enhanced reputation, increased influence, better self-esteem, or improved performance.

Different buying influences prioritize different types of wins: Economic buyers typically care about ROI and profitability; user buyers value reliability and ease of use; technical buyers focus on specifications and reliability; and coaches seek recognition and problem-solving opportunities.

Getting to the Economic Buying Influence

It's hard to get access to the economic buyer: They're highly-placed in the organization and often prefer to delegate much of the buying process.

To get access, focus on what economic buyers care about: They are decision-makers paid to forecast trends and make judgments about organizational issues like profit and ROI. Provide them with information that helps them forecast and relates to long-term profitability.

If someone blocks your access to an economic buyer, don't go around them. This creates an enemy. Instead, show them how they'll get a personal win by bringing you on board and demonstrate the value you'll provide to the economic buyer.

These are some useful techniques for getting access to economic buyers: like-rank selling (having your executive meet with theirs), executive briefings, bringing in industry experts, and maintaining periodic contact with valid business reasons.

Response Modes Help You Qualify and Persuade

People buy when they perceive a gap between their current reality and their desired state. It's worth understanding whether each of your buying influences perceives such a gap.

Categorize each buying influence into one of four response modes:

• Growth: Wants to do more or better and sees your solution as helping

• Trouble: Needs to fix a problem quickly

• Even Keel: Sees no gap between current and desired state

• Overconfident: Believes they're exceeding goals even when they're not

Focus your efforts on buyers in growth or trouble modes and use them to influence even keel or overconfident colleagues. If an account has no buying influences in growth or trouble modes, it will be much harder to sell.

Creating Effective Action Plans

An action plan outlines your strategy for an account. It should capitalize on strengths, reduce the impact of red flags, or both.

To make a good action plan, you should:

1. Define a sales objective that's specific, measurable, and attached to a clear timeframe

2. Identify all buying influences and ensure that they're covered

3. Understand the response mode of each buying influence

4. Create a clear win-results statements for each buying influence

5. Assess competition, including inaction or internal resources

For important accounts (typically over $100,000), reps should spend about an hour creating a detailed action plan.

For smaller opportunities, take 10 minutes to consider these questions: Do you know the buying influences? Do you understand their win-results? Can you deliver those win-results? Are you capitalizing on strengths and addressing red flags?

Managing Your Sales Pipeline

Sales reps need to manage their time among four main activities:

• Prospecting: Finding potential customers who match your ideal customer profile (ICP)

• Qualifying: Verifying that prospects match your ICP and are interested in your product

• Covering the bases: Working with all buying influences

• End tasks: Closing deals that are 90% certain to close

Organized sales reps prioritize tasks in roughly this order (from highest priority to lowest): closing, prospecting, qualifying, and covering the bases.

The Takeaway

Strategic selling is not a one-time event but a methodical, ongoing process of positioning yourself for success by understanding and aligning with the interests of all buying influences. Success comes from following a methodical process and constantly reassessing your position.

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If you liked this article, check out P.S.I. Selling's thoughts on deal management here or have a look at our other book digests in our series Required Reading for Salespeople. You can also check out the P.S.I. Selling Content Page for more insights on sales communication, strategy, and leadership.

Want to build a sales process that proves value and a team that can execute? Get in touch.

For more about the author, check out Mike's bio.