A good selling technique and a high level of self-motivation is no longer enough. In the past, if a sales person had some impressive sales techniques and was enthusiastic about their work, they would be great at selling.
Well, this is no longer true in the world of B2B sales. People used to say, ‘He’s a great negotiator’ or ‘She’s a fantastic closer’. But being remarkable at just a few selling skills no longer ensures success in today’s uncertain and complicated world.
If you want to be a success, you must have a whole arsenal of selling techniques that form an effective and integrated selling system. Thanks to the increasing accessibility of Internet research and the pressure to measure and demonstrate value for money with every purchase since the global financial crisis, buyers are becoming much more sophisticated than before.
Whether buying price-based commodities or strategic solutions, buyers expect sales people to show far more intelligent sales techniques and selling strategies in today’s marketplace.
Fortunately, there are selling systems out there that make all of the criteria for great selling accessible – and you don’t need a business degree or a diploma in marketing to succeed. All of the required selling techniques can be learned within a single system that can be applied to any scenario or market sector for immediate success.
The system I use and teach on my sales training courses is called Black Belt Selling and uses a highly effective consultative approach to selling.
The ‘MIDAS’ Syst em for Black Belt Selling
Black Belt Selling uses a tried-and-tested and easy-to-apply methodology called MIDAS to make the consultative selling process really work. So what is MIDAS?
Well, the ‘MID’ part of MIDAS represents the client’s world, while the ‘AS’ part represents what you are selling to them.
Sales professionals should open discussions by talking about the client’s world (MID) to develop and accelerate their customers’ needs and lead the sales process, before aligning the client’s needs with their solution (AS).
M-I-D: The Client’s World
The M-I-D of MIDAS stands for:
M: Macro and Micro (external) forces
These are external pressures, trends and events that have an impact on your target organisation. This is a crucial element of the consultative sales process because these external forces represent all of the known (and unknown) threats and opportunities that the senior decision-makers in your prospect’s organisation are faced with.
You should research their organisation and sector, as well as choosing two or three of the main external trends, pressures or upcoming events that are likely to combine to cause a real threat or opportunity in the near-to-medium term.
You should also determine which of these threats/opportunities your solution may be able to help with. A combination of M factors, for example, might be recent falls in consumer spending, increased competition and/or VAT hikes which are affecting high-street retailers.
A combination of pressures is a really powerful conversation point with a high-street retailer if you’ve got something that can help them counteract the negative effect that this powerful combination of forces will potentially cause.
I: Implications (or ‘Pain-Points’)
These are the impacts that the external forces have, or will have, on your target organisation and your target contact’s personal role in that organisation.
Your analysis of these implications should include some kind of calculation or estimate of the financial implications that could result from failure to respond to a specific combination of external threats and opportunities that you have identified.
In the high-street retailer example, this might include sales volumes falling, revenues falling, stock levels rising, marketing costs rising or profits falling – all of which will have a direct impact on (and cause pain for) the owner if that’s who you are targeting.
D: Desire (or ‘Need’)
This is the need for the decisionmakers in your target organisation to make changes to avoid the negative financial implications of ‘doing nothing’ or responding in the wrong way.
This ‘need for change’ may or may not be known by the client and this is why we use the term ‘need’ as well as ‘desire’ for this stage of MIDAS. In the high-street retailer example, this might mean attracting more customers, increasing the average purchase value per customer, reducing the cost per sale, or improving stock forecasting.
Now let’s look at how you actually use the Black Belt Selling approach and the MIDAS analysis to develop a consultative sale.
Developing, Shaping and Creating a Client’s Needs
To shape or develop a client’s needs, after your initial ‘sign-posting’* introductory statement, start a discussion by introducing your predetermined ‘ M-forces’ and asking the client what the internal pain-points are that result from these pressures, now and in the future, if they are not addressed.
Even though you’ve got a good idea what the implications are, keep the question open and be prepared to listen to the answer.
Once you’ve probed and agreed the potential cost implications of the pain-points, shift the conversation to a positive question. Ask the client what the positive results could be if the pain points are avoided or removed.
For instance, you could ask your contact, “What would the impact on the company be, and on you specifically, if we could reverse the falling number of shoppers or improve the cost of sale?”
This shifts the mood from negative ‘pain’ to positive ‘desire and need’ and this is crucial if you are going to get the client to associate your solution with positive thoughts. It also opens the client’s mind to other possibilities and you can ask “are there any other potential benefits?”
Once you’ve got the client to discuss and quantify the desire and need, remind them of both the pain of doing nothing and the value of making a change, then go for a trial close.
Ask: “If we could propose a solution that would deliver these benefits within your required timescale, would you be willing to commit time and a relatively small amount of money to start realising the benefits immediately?”
At this point, the client is likely to raise an objection which is actually a buying signal! He or she will probably say, “Tell me what you are thinking of proposing”. Now all you need to do is convince the client you can create real value and credibly.
A-S of MIDAS: Aligning your solution to the need to win the sale
This is where the A-S part of MIDAS comes in. The A-S part of MIDAS stands for:
A: Added Value (benefits and advantages)
In other words, the unique selling points that the client will get with a solution from your company. This includes the benefits and advantages the client will get from what your company can give them.
This might be your own insight into the client’s world, your design or integration capabilities, your service delivery capabilities, or your support capabilities.
However, they must be clearly aligned as benefits that directly contribute to satisfying the client’s needs. So if you were selling an online marketing solution to a high-street retailer, you would need to explain how the way you would design, implement and support your solution would directly increase the spend per customer, reduce the average cost of sale or grow revenues.
S: Solution
The last part of this five stage process is to introduce the actual Solution you would propose and the features that would enable the benefits and advantages you are offering.
This will ensure that the client’s desires and needs can be met. Make sure you directly align the benefits, advantages and features of your solution to the desires and needs you’ve just developed.
That’s how you create real value. Present the added-value benefits and advantages before talking about specific features. The features are only to be discussed to develop your credibility.
If what you propose is credible (and you may need a reference customer to make it completely credible), you should agree the next stages to move the solution forward in order to alleviate the pain and deliver the value for the customer.
You should spend at least half of your meeting with the decision-maker on the M-ID of MIDAS and only move to the A-S when the client is ready. Go too soon and you’ll frustrate the client and instantly lose credibility (and the deal!).
