QUICK TIPS FOR COLLABORATIVE SELLING

• To keep your focus on the buyer throughout the selling process, remember the acronym—WiifT—which stands for “What’s in it for Them?” Them is your buyer, spelled with a capital T because the focus is on Them.

• Keep a WiifT focus for each part of your selling process. This includes making their problems, opportunities, wants, and needs—POWNs, the items you work with your buyer to address or achieve—the focus of your conversations and the reason for your solution.

• Strive for a collaborative approach in your sales conversation by involving your buyer in connecting the solution to their POWNs; this will increase the probability of the triple win—Win³—for the stakeholders, which includes you, your buyer, and your company.

• Qualify the fit of your buyer early in the process. If the buyer is not willing to share information or is unable to give the time needed to your conversations, press the delete key or adjust the time and energy you have on higher-probability sales opportunities.

• For corporate procurement buying centers, use the commitment of your internal influencers and collaborators to navigate through the procurement process.

• To collaborate and involve your buyers as much as possible in e-relationship sales, focus on making your messages concise, include questions to involve Them, share specific examples, support information with documentation, reference and recap previous messages, and identify clear action items and timelines.