CHAPTER 9

Target Account Penetration

Your second Value-Added Selling strategy answers this question: “Am I talking to all the right people?”

While targeting value-added accounts is one part of focusing, target penetration is another part. Many salespeople enter the decision process late and limit their penetration to lower-level influencers. They fail to take advantage of a simple Value-Added Selling principle: few things are as powerful as the right idea, at the right time, in the right place, and for the right person.

This chapter is about timing and buying criteria, generating support for your ideas throughout the buyer’s organization, and making sure that you’re dealing with people who can say yes to your solution.

At the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

•   Name the three rules for account penetration

•   Describe the three levels of decision makers

•   Explain what is important to each level of decision maker

•   Discuss how your value proposition must appeal to each level of decision maker

THE THREE RULES OF ACCOUNT PENETRATION

There are three rules for account penetration. You must penetrate the account early, deep, and high. If you were to revisit every significant opportunity you have pursued to no avail, you would discover that you violated one or more of these three rules. Let’s examine them in depth.

Penetrate the Decision Process Early

According to an article by Google Marketing, B2B corporate buyers are already 57 percent of the way down the path before they reach out to potential suppliers for information.¹ This means they conduct online due diligence before meeting with suppliers. Most salespeople then are late to the game. Biases are set. Early cuts have been made. What is left are those that have been prescreened by the buyer. Further, 71 percent of those B2B searches are for generic queries, not branded searches. When the search is for generic solutions, commodity price resistance follows. Generic searches lead to generic prices. Early exclusions and a predisposed commodity search should haunt salespeople. These two numbers present a compelling argument for the early bird getting the worm.

If you enter the decision process early, you have an opportunity to sell the uniqueness of your solution in a way that overshadows the competition. When you enter the decision process late, the buyer places a greater emphasis on price, as you find yourself selling against a competitor’s product versus meeting the buyer’s needs.

In Chapter 4, you learned the importance of understanding the buyer’s Critical Buying Path. By penetrating the decision process early, you can help the buyer understand his or her needs along the CBP. Buyers make purchasing decisions based on their interpretation of their needs, wants, and constraints. Entering the decision process early means you can help buyers develop a more in-depth understanding of their needs and shape their perceptions of how your solution uniquely addresses their primary concerns. You may even have a chance to help write the specifications.

Early penetration in the budgeting phase also gives you the chance to shape buyer expectations about what they can get for their money. If they have underestimated their budget, now is the time to help them adjust it. This is an easier task to assess early versus later in the decision process.

We were sharing these thoughts one day in a client seminar when the president of the company stood and said to the group, “Ladies and gentlemen, every significant piece of business that we lost this year to price resulted from our entering the decision process too late. We were constantly selling from a defensive posture versus an offensive position. We never had a chance to shape the buyer’s criteria in a way that would call attention to our unique strengths.”

Entering the decision process early positions you as a team member. You’re there from the start, which means the buyer sees you as a partner—someone with an insider’s view and an in-depth understanding of his or her situation. As you establish trust early in the process and build a solid relationship with the buyer, you make it more difficult for the competition to gain a foothold in the account.

Penetrate the Account Deep

When you purchase a new home or automobile, how many people do you involve in that decision process? For most people, it normally involves input from spouses or significant others, trusted advisors like real estate agents or bankers, and oftentimes, family members. Your customers are no different. How many people are involved to one degree or another in the buying decision: purchasing, operations, sales and marketing, finance, administration, or more?

Your objective is to penetrate the account thoroughly. Surround the account. Become a professional mole and burrow your way deeply into the account. The more contacts you make within the account, the more supporters you have singing your praises. These are your internal champions.

Every successful sales and marketing campaign has both push and pull dynamics working in its favor. Push is the business you pursue, and pull is the business you attract. For salespeople, push means the direct selling activities in which you engage to drive the sales. Pull is the support you generate for your ideas inside the buyer’s organization. This support takes the form of internal champions who promote your solution from within the buyer’s company.

Our research shows that there are at least five people involved in B2B buying decisions, more for capital expenditures, and fewer for MRO purchases. MRO stands for maintenance, repair, and operation. These purchases are often viewed as reordering commodity-type, consumable items. It makes sense that for consumables, fewer people would be involved once a product is approved for use.

In Chapter 4, you read about the silo effect in organizations. Nowhere is it more felt than when it comes to purchasing something. Your challenge is to bridge the chasm that exists when various departments in the buyer’s organization do not communicate. It could be benign neglect or active sabotaging. It matters not. When the influences in your accounts fail to communicate, it hurts you as much as it does their organizations. Full account penetration is your remedy. Value-added salespeople help break down silos in their HVTs.

Penetrate the Account at the Highest Levels

The single greatest Value-Added Selling opportunity area for you is to call higher in your customer’s organization. Few salespeople feel comfortable with high-level calling. Fewer than 10 percent of salespeople call at this level, for one reason or another. They may not know how to penetrate at this level or how to talk to high-level decision makers. They may fear offending a lower-level contact. They may embrace the defeatist attitude that the high-level decision maker will not meet with them. Or simply, they may be intimidated by the thought of a high-level meeting. If you avoid these attitudes and penetrate at this level, you will find yourself in the minority of successful salespeople who penetrate from the shop floor to the top floor. We have found that top-achieving salespeople call on high-level (Level III) decision makers twice as often as the average salesperson calls at that level.

How high should you penetrate the account? You must call high enough that the person with whom you’re meeting can approve the funds for your ideas. Many people in a company can say no to an idea, but few can say yes. A great rule of thumb is to never accept a final no from someone who cannot give you an absolute yes. Why would you allow a lower-level decision maker to control your efforts or limit your sales destiny? If the buyer does not have budget authority, you’re not calling high enough in the account.

High-level decision makers (HLDMs) have the authority to create money for an idea they like. If you’re not calling on an HLDM, you’re not calling high enough, period. Ninety percent of your peers fail to do this. They get stuck at lower levels. Consider the wonderful opportunity that exists for you since most salespeople do not call on the HLDM. The noise level for calling on the HLDM is incredibly low. Value-added salespeople make it a habit to do what others can’t or won’t do.

Here’s an example. One day, we met with a vice president of sales along with his boss, who was the vice president of marketing, and the president of the company. We were proposing a training solution for 500 salespeople. Our fee is based on time and materials. While no one objected to the seminar fee, the vice president of sales and the vice president of marketing both challenged the materials cost because it exceeded their budget constraints. The president of the company countered, “The heck with the budget. I like the program. Find the money.” That’s high-level, Value-Added Selling. Had we met with only the two vice presidents, we would have fought a significant price battle. If you’re not calling on the HLDM—the one person able to give your price a nod—you’re not calling high enough.

LEVEL I-II-III DECISION MAKERS

The Level I-II-III concept is a simple way to explain the different levels of decision-making authority in a company. Assuming you penetrate the decision process early, you can use this Level I-II-III concept to plan your sales strategy. A decision maker in a given level perceives his or her situation differently from members of the other two levels. Each wants level-appropriate solutions. Your challenge is to frame your ideas within the context and content of the person’s level-specific perceptions, needs, wants, and concerns.

Level-I Decision Makers: Logistics Buyers

Level-I decision makers are logistics buyers. They concern themselves with the supply side of products and services. They may be purchasing agents, buyers, materials managers, storeroom clerks, office managers, or anyone else involved in the acquisition of products or services. Their common denominator is what they need in a solution. Level-I buyers focus on logistics: price, delivery, lead time, packaging, freight issues, credits, returns, payment terms, and so forth. They are the most price sensitive of the three levels, and salespeople ironically spend the most time with them.

These lower-level buyers have varying degrees of authority, depending on the organization. Level-I buyers may be able to shift business around depending on supplier relationships, but they rarely have the authority to create money for ideas they like. They process orders that someone else generates. They fill requests; they are responsive by their job description and function. They are the procurement arms for most organizations. Their time horizon is short term and transactional.

Even though Level-I’s have limited authority to buy on their own, you must establish a relationship with them. They are critical to your success. Level-I’s can make your company look bad if they don’t like you. Conversely, they can give you the benefit of the doubt when you need it. Can they create pull for your solution? The most underappreciated people in companies are Level-I buyers. They hear from their internal customers when their internal customers don’t have what they need when they need it. Your Level-I’s greatest fear is the phone call at 2 a.m. with the caller wanting to know where the inventory is.

Integrated supply, outsourcing, on-site vending machines, and online purchasing are presenting challenges for Level-I buyers, and many feel threatened by these trends. They are anxious about their futures. Help them look like heroes, and you have supporters for life. They need logistics support, but they want security, genuine appreciation, and a safe purchasing alternative.

Level-II Decision Makers: Influencers

Level-II decision makers are user influencers. These mid-level decision makers include maintenance people, safety officers, equipment operators, users of the product, technical influencers, resellers of your product (if you sell through distributors), and operations managers. These are the people who are most affected by change, and any time they buy something, it’s a change. The priority of Level-II influencers is usage: ease of operation, maintenance, efficiency, conformity to specifications, technical support, product performance, safety, and user-friendliness.

Level-II influencers have user-type concerns: quality, function, deployment, and operation. They use the product, operate it, maintain it, supervise others who work with it, must have it as a part of something they create, or resell it to their customers.

Level-II’s have influence over the sale because they can specify a product, a brand, or a supplier. They generate requests that the Level-I’s process. Level-II’s also create pull for your solution. Conversely, their rejection of a product on technical or functional grounds can be the kiss of death for a salesperson. The time horizon of Level-II’s is longer than that of the Level-I buyers. Unlike the Level-I buyer, Level-II’s think beyond the acquisition point to how the product or service will make their lives better as they use it. While the Level-I thinks acquisition, the Level-II buyer thinks utility. Their mindset is more operational and transformational than logistical and transactional—the mindset of the Level-I buyer.

With the Level-II on your side, you have an internal champion to sell for you when you’re not there to do the job yourself. The Level-II can be a sounding board for new ideas that you want to present to upper-level management. This person can be your guide through the organizational maze of decision making. Their power and value is that they can endorse your product.

Level-II decision makers may need a quality solution, but they want you to make their lives better, safer, and easier.

Level-III Decision Makers, the HLDMs

Level-III decision makers represent upper management. These HLDMs are company executives, high-level managers, business owners, and directors. Level-III’s think differently from Level-I’s and Level-II’s. Level-III’s focus on profitability and loss, cash flow, competitive posture, employee issues, customer satisfaction, industry trends, and shareholder value.

Level-III’s have the authority to use money any way they see fit to achieve organizational objectives. This is what determines a Level-III buyer—the authority to create funds for an idea. However, many will defer to a lower-level influencer for input. If a Level-III likes your idea, it’s a safe bet that you will get the business. That’s why you must penetrate the account at this level.

The time horizon for Level-III’s is long term. They think in years. They think, plan, and execute strategically. Fundamentally, they want to know how your solution fits into their long-range growth plans. Beware. They do not buy products. They form strategic partnerships.

HOW TO TALK LIKE A LEVEL I-II-III DECISION MAKER

Each level of decision maker speaks a different language. You can see that in Figure 9.1. Level-I buyers are logistics people and focus on short-term, transactional issues during acquisition. Level-II buyers are users, operators, mid-level managers, and resellers whose time horizon is more operational and transformational. Level-III buyers, the HLDMs, speak the language of money. Their long-term, strategic view offers a broader definition of money than simply acquisition price. Thus, the conversation with HLDMs is about partnerships, not products. It is a business-to-business conversation. The HLDM wants to know that you are first and foremost a good businessperson. Logistics and product discussions happen at Levels I and II respectively.

FIGURE 9.1 Levels I-II-II Needs Hierarchy

Your value proposition is different for each level of decision maker. The outcome of your value for Level-I buyers reflects their logistics concerns—price, delivery, availability, and so on. The outcome of your value for Level-II influencers reflects a technical solution. It may help them operate more efficiently, move product, or transform your ideas into value for their company. The outcome of your value for Level-III decision makers is money oriented in some fashion. Here are some sample value propositions by level of decision maker:

Level-I: The downline advantage of the purchasing power we offer you is complete access to a global supply network that can expedite shipments and stabilize materials cost.

Level-II: The result of your implementing our production solution will be increased product quality and greater manufacturing flexibility.

Level-III: The outcome of our partnership is opening up new global markets to your company.

Keep in mind that each one of these value propositions may refer to the same core product. The difference is how each level of decision maker views the outcome of this customer experience with your solution—your value proposition. You can combine the value proposition, level of decision maker, and the CBP. See Figure 9.2.

FIGURE 9.2 The Critical Buying Path and Decision-Maker Value Proposition

You’ll notice that Level-I decision makers focus on the front end of the CBP. This is because many of the front-end activities are transactional and logistical. The Level-II decision maker focuses more on the second half of the CBP because that’s where usage and/or transformation takes place, after the commitment to buy has been made. The Level-III decision maker takes a full-range view of the CBP and must consider the outcome of the entire path over the long haul. This view of the value proposition along the path simplifies your understanding of the outcome the buyer desires.

VALUE-ADDED SELLING REVIEW AND ACTION POINTS

1.   The three rules for account penetration are to get in there early, deep, and high. Penetrate your accounts early to help buyers understand their needs and write specs, deep to create pull for your ideas, and high to generate funding for your solution.

2.   You will call on three levels of decision makers to thoroughly penetrate your HVTs. Each level of decision maker has different priorities—needs, wants, and fears. Study their priorities and present your solution as it satisfies the level at which you’re calling.

3.   Your value proposition (the outcome of your solution) will vary by level of decision maker. Level-I buyers want a logistics outcome. Level-II buyers want a utility-based outcome. Level-III buyers look for a money-based outcome. Customize the presentation of your value proposition by the level of decision maker with whom you are meeting.