Name: Yusuf

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Bio: What prompted you to run a professional blog? I have always loved sharing what I know and learn. First of all, it is just fun in itself, and it gives me the satisfaction of seeing the other person understand something in a better way. Secondly, it is a great way for me to really understand the things I write about myself - because I have to really think about it before I put it out there. (Ok, I will admit, also it is because I love attention :) What could be your greatest moment of satisfaction in this blog? My greatest satisfaction is hearing from my colleagues, and from people who read the blog, that they have gotten something out of it. It really makes me feel proud! What have you gained from doing this blog? Firstly, I have gained knowledge about the topics I write about. I have also enjoyed a really good co-operation with my co-writers Francisco and Daniel! And I have discovered other blogs in the process of writing this and searching for information, which has led me to read more about CRM, the future of CRM and what different meanings CRM can have to different people. What have you been working on recently? Most of my time is dedicated to my work. I am currently completely sucked up in how to reach my maximum potential in my current job role. I have looked at different tools, read books about sales, read about how companies benefit from CRM in order to have better possibility of deep, interesting conversations with my customers. The second thing I am involved in is of course this blog. And finally, one more thing that only my closest friends know about currently :) In June it will either become official or discontinued, so you will have to wait until then to find out, but it is big (at least for me).. What are your long-term goals? Everybody has different sets of strengths, and I believe the best way to be happy and successful, to live in flow and to love what you do, is to focus on your strengths. My 5 greatest strengths are creativity, love of learning, perspective, curiosity and playfulness. I am looking for something where I can use all my strengths, and I am not yet sure what that is..

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Going deep into consultative selling interactions (2 of 4)

02:04 PM



Part 2: What is “Deep Understanding” and why do we need it?

Introduction to “Deep Understanding”

In part one, we understood that we first have to find a prospect who is open to discussing how a new CRM system can benefit them, and then find general pains that we are able to solve before we can get deeper into the conversation. I called the first of these “Finding Interest” (simply enough) and the ladder one “Basic Understanding”. The next step, then, is what I call “Deep Understanding”, and that is the main topic of this article series. In this part of the “deep understanding” phase, I will talk about general topics of discussion that lead to this deep understanding.




The main difference between the “Basic Understanding” phase and the “Deep Understanding” phases are that in the former one, we talk to the prospect about pains they have that are generally solvable by the functionalities of most CRM systems. In the “Deep Understanding” phase, instead, we talk about issues that allow us to understand what makes this specific prospect’s pains unique. This understanding is what makes it possible for us to customize the system and improve their processes, something a “standard solution implemented in a standard way” can not do. This is where consultative selling differs from transactional selling in a fundamental way.




Another way of seeing is that in transactional selling, we are just trying to find someone who is interested in a type of product and then trying to differentiate ourselves by talking about our product and in what ways it is better or different than the competitors’ products. In consultative selling, however, the approach is the other way around. We start by looking at what our prospect and what makes their situation unique, and then propose a customized way for them to improve it.




In my view, “Deep Understanding” is a collection of different aspects that we need to understand about our customer that will help us achieve this customization to their unique situation. I will go through each of these different aspects below.




Tools to understand our prospect

There are generally 5 topics that are applicable to the deep understanding phase. These are:
• Understanding their timeframe commitments and reasons to keep them…

… so that we can understand the real driving forces behind their needs.

• Getting information about their decision making process and influencers…

… so that we can see what different needs different people have and address them all.

• Where we stand compared to our competition and what they like/dislike about them/us…

… so that we can get a deeper understanding for what they are really looking for, and giving it to them. And finally,

• Getting deep, personal pains…

… which means that we get really personal and to the point where our contact says “I am worried that..” or “it is frustrating when…”, so that we see the true reasons they need a system so that we can solve the real problems.

Strategy and execution - the two final aspects of deep understanding

While the above topics of conversation were mainly tools to get a better understanding the direct pains that the customers suffer, the last two aspects of deep understanding that I will explain in coming chapters will be different in the sense that they are not directly about the pain. Instead, they are about helping the company reach it’s overall strategy, and how CRM can be a part of that. This is where we can really bring value to our prospect.

image: http://flickr.com/photos/notsogoodphotography/770557316/

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Going deep into consultative selling interactions (1 of 4)

08:07 PM

Part 1: The complete lifecycle of a lead

• Selling CRM - what is my methodology?


For a long time, I just couldn’t figure it out. Some sales people seemed to get so much deeper into the conversations with customers than I was able to, even after I was really happy with some of the conversations I had had. I made it my mission to find out how to do this, and what their secrets were. This article is the result of that.

My most profound understanding struck me after a conversation I had with a friend, who is incidentally also a sales person. We talked for a long time, and he helped me figure out some pieces of the puzzles I had been trying to figure out since I started the mission - how to get really deep into the understanding of customers situation, and how to use this knowledge to make the situation more effective.
This is a 4-part series, and in it I will explain what I call “The Deep Understanding” phase of an interaction that a sales person normally has with a potential customer (I will call it prospect in this article). This phase, if done and if done well, does not only help a sales person understand the prospect better, but it also helps the prospects get a more valuable experience from their conversations with the sales person, and in the end a better fitted solution for their needs. The Deep Understanding phase is, in my opinion, what consultative selling is really about.
The complete life cycle of a lead and where I will focus


Before getting into my hands, a prospect usually starts out as just a company name among many others in a campaign. The first step it goes through is profiling, where some contacts in the company are found. After that, I have to find the ones where there is a pain - something the customer is not satisfied with, and we can help them with. Generally, this would be “finding or creating interest”. However, CRM is so well known by now, that it really is more about the finding interest than the creating of it. In todays world, company decision makers are savvy enough about CRM to know whether or not they are interested in investigating other systems, without me convincing them. So for me, this is really about finding a prospect that is open to exploring how they would benefit from improved sales processes or from a new CRM system.
The next step is what most people call “qualifying”, but this is where transactional selling (at least in my mind) first separates itself from consultative selling. In my view, qualifying is really the step I just did - it is to see if someone is willing to talk to me about their needs in a particular area to see if I can help them. If they are, then in my view they are qualified, and it is time to go into the step I call “Basic Understanding”.
Basic understanding differs from the traditional meaning of “qualifying” in the literal sence. The word “qualify” implies that we are hostile towards our prospects until they have proved themselves worthy of us. Even if this is not how most (serious) sales people really view it, I believe that the words we use do affect the way we see the world. “Basic understanding” instead implies that we are all standing on equal ground, and I will do my best to understand what the prospect needs and if I can help them achieve it.
The “Basic understanding” phase is where we try to get a general understanding of the pains of the company and the prospect. For a CRM-related case, it might be things like “it’s difficult to have an overview of the data or what the salespeople are doing”, “I can’t forecast accurately”, “it is difficult to follow up the campaigns”, or “we don’t have firm sales processes in place, every sales rep does it his or her own way”. This is also where we ask all the typical questions about budget, timeframe, decision making process and number of users. This stage is often over fairly quickly - it can take anywhere between 5-10 minutes. Once we have found that they are in a situation where we would probably be able to make their lives easier, it is time to take it to the next level. And this is where things really get interesting.
Introduction to the “Deep Understanding” phase


After going throuch the Basic Understanding phase together with a prospect, it is time for the step I simply call the “Deep Understanding” phase. So to summarize, a prospect usually goes through the following stages:
1. Profiling.
2. Finding interest.
3. Basic understanding.
4. Deep understanding.
The Deep Understanding phase is what I really wrote this article series for - it is where consultative selling is really done, it is where we really differentiate ourselves from our competitors, and where we give the real value to the prospect. It consists of 3 main parts, and I will go through each of them in the coming 3 parts of this series.
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