WHEN YOU COLLABORATE, EVERYONE WINS
While we’ve established that collaborative selling focuses on the buyer and their POWNs, WiifT does not mean that the seller and the seller’s company are unimportant. Instead, the winning solution or outcome benefits everyone involved.
In a traditional win-win situation, the goal is for two stakeholders—typically the buyer and the selling company—to win. With collaborative selling, the salesperson is also an important stakeholder.
I often hear sellers talk about feeling unimportant, caught between their company and their buyers. They express frustrations about being pushed to sell certain products, when they know a different solution will fit their buyer’s POWNs better. This puts the seller in an uncomfortable situation where they can’t possibly win. (By the way, if you find yourself in a situation like this, you can use the collaborative selling skills you’ll learn throughout the pages of this book to also collaborate within your company to achieve a mutually beneficial result.)
When all parties work together, all the stakeholders win. It’s a win-win-win or Win3 (the “win-cubed”).
Figure 2–1 graphically represents the Win3™, illustrating the interconnectivity of the stakeholders. The center components of the model are the means for accomplishing the triple win, Win3.
How does each of these stakeholders win? Let’s identify the possibilities when the sale is made and the buyer’s POWNs are successfully addressed.
Your customer wins by having a solution to their POWNs. They may benefit in any number of ways, including more satisfaction in their work, less stress, more money or savings, more free time, peace of mind, an opportunity captured, an enhanced reputation, a problem resolved, a specific need or want fulfilled, and the ability to take on additional responsibilities and challenges.
Your company wins with increased revenue, additional sales, market share gains, customer retention, higher profit margins, higher employee retention, and a good reputation.
You, the seller, win by being gainfully employed and compensated, although that’s not unique to the collaborative selling approach. What makes collaborative selling unique is that stronger buyer relationships and value are provided that create loyalty and lead to more, and often larger, future sales. You also become a valuable part of the solution, as we discussed in Chapter 1, and that builds greater confidence and satisfaction. Now we’re talking Win3!
What’s more, the ripple effect of winning extends beyond the Win3. There are additional stakeholders who also win. These include the buyer’s company, your company’s shareholders, others in your company who build the product and deliver the service you sell, or those who simply keep their jobs because your sales contribute to the company’s bottom line. You can even add your personal stakeholders, including family and friends, because your well-being and financial success affect them, too. When a collaborative sale is made, and the buyer’s POWNs are addressed, it’s a string of wins all around.
About now you may be wondering, “Is it really possible for all the stakeholders to win?” It is possible when you focus on the components in the middle of the Win3 model.
Conversation by Conversation, What Collaboration Looks Like
While collaborative selling might sound good in theory, it may be hard for you to picture how it really works. Let me illustrate with an example from my own experience.
We began at the table—the buyer and I—engaged in a relevant conversation about his business problems and opportunities and his training wants and needs. After a high-level review of our training solution, he was interested in learning more. What he wanted was to know the final implementation recommendation and costs—now!
I could have gone back to my office to devise the plan for him; instead, recognizing his personality type (more about that in Chapter 4), I decided to include him in the process right then and there. I asked if he wanted to build it with me.
Together we sketched out the implementation plan on a white board. I then added the investments while he observed and asked clarifying questions. He was able to see how each piece worked and how the costs were calculated. He was able to ask questions and get immediate responses.
The buyer was pleased, and yet I didn’t get a yes that day. He wanted to finish his review of other vendors to determine if mine was indeed the best solution. Because we had built the solution together, I was confident that he wouldn’t find a better fit.
It was a long thirty days before he confirmed that he wanted to work with me, and that our collaborative process was the deciding factor. After seeing how other training consultants worked, he recognized he didn’t want his reps learning their techniques.
While not every selling situation requires the same level of collaboration, it was powerful in this case, and for this type of decision maker. If I had followed the typical path of taking in the information and then getting back to him later, I might not have earned his business, which I have now enjoyed for a productive—and profitable—ten years.
And just in case you think collaborative selling only applies in B2B sales, here’s an example from a consumer sale. Kurt, a financial advisor, sat at the kitchen table with a couple discussing their retirement dreams, their plan for funding their children’s education and weddings, and the vacation they wanted to take for their twenty-fifth anniversary.
Kurt asked questions of both the husband and wife for clarity, and facilitated the dialogue between them to prioritize. He then began to explain how he might help them achieve these financial goals. Kurt asked for their thoughts and feelings about various options, working with their existing financial investments and budget, and their needs for insurance. He helped them get in sync on their goals and their overall approach.
At the end of the conversation, Kurt made a commitment to put together a plan to achieve what they had discussed. Unlike what happened in my example, Kurt did go away to develop the plan; in this case it was necessary to develop the correct plan after researching options. At their next appointment, he illustrated the plan and connected it back to their goals and earlier discussion. He asked for their input, comments, and questions, and then asked if they were ready to move forward. They were.