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2. Sales Acceleration

Huge amounts of sales effort is wasted – and sometimes even counter-productive – because it’s not directed at removing friction-points in the buying process, but at increasing sales pressure.

The problem: Difficult to know what the friction-points are

The problem is that it’s difficult to know what the friction points are in any given situation – the customer seldom knows what they are him/herself. The result is slow, time-consuming and unpredictable sales cycle – and customer buying experience.

The solution: Simple friction-point diagnostic framework

The solution is to equip sales people with a simple diagnostic framework that maps common buying (not selling!) friction points to the appropriate friction-removing solutions. This equips them to focus on the lagging prerequisites for a successful purchase in a highly surgical way.

The trick is to provide them with a starting framework and engage them in the process of capturing and institutionalising their own expertise.

Here’s a starting framework to get you going:

1. Customer doesn't recognise the need (provide basic options of what they really need in order to evoke the insight within them).
2. Customer doesn't recognise the superior vaue of our offer (help them see how our offer maps to their needs, while competing offers map to different needs).
3. Customer doesn't have the budget (work with them to deliberately increase the budget by establishing the immediate and ongoing value of our offer. Stage or recalibrate our offer to meet the budget if we're unsuccessful or return them to the follow-up list).
4. Customer has a formal process that needs to be adhered to (work with them to follow their formal process).
5. Customer doesn't have the authority to purchase (work with them to present to someone who does).
6. Customer is too busy or disorganised (schedule meetings to advance the opportunity - always providing a value and urgency reminder).

The following Excel table lists a sales person's opportunities with each friction-point rated (0 is no friction; 3 is show-stopping friction; 1 is low; 2 is high).

In addition to the direct benefits of ranking, reporting and friction-point diagnosis and intervention, sales people can use this framework to batch-process opportunities.

People have a tendency to look for evidence that they're doing it already, so that they don't have to change anything. If they're doing it rigorously already - fine. If they're doing "effectively the same thing, in their heads", they aren't doing it and you're losing out on way more than 20% in monthly sales that you could get for free.

We’re keen to help you work out how this solution can be applied within your organisation’s situation. Phone or email us for help. It’s free – and obligation-free.