The "Buyer's Journey" is very simple. There are two questions:
- "What'ya got?"
- "What's it cost?"
A salesperson who answers
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Order-Taker in Training |
those questions quickly and reliably will make a fine McDonalds counter clerk (and maybe even a fine commodities trader), but will fail in solution sales.
Why is that? Because the Buyer's Journey and the Seller's Journey are two completely different things.
A Quack
Imagine for a moment an extremely fast and responsive doctor. This person dispenses every prescription that's requested by their patients, and does it speedily and without question.
"Got a rash? Want steroid cream? No problem"
"Got the Flu? Want Penicillin? Sure thing"
"Headaches" Want an opioid? Here you go"
You can easily see why this doctor would be a quack. The rash could be caused by any number of issues, including diet, allergies, or contact with a poisonous plant. Steroids are the wrong medicine for many of those ailments.
The flu is caused by a virus, and antibiotics such as penicillin have no effect. They only work on bacterial infections. They can't possibly help fight a virus.
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Michael Jackson's doctor prescribed what he wanted, not what he needed
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The opioid prescription is even worse. While the opioid will certainly reduce the pain of a headache, it's highly addictive. Indiscriminate use will lead to dependency. This causes headaches in other places, like home and life.
So without proper testing, the doctor will never know if the diagnosis and prescriptions are right. They could even make the problem worse.
A Good Doctor
A skilled professional will insist on a proper exam before making a diagnosis. This may involve a Q&A with the patient, tests such as blood or urine, or more sophisticated tests such as an MRI, CAT scan, or EKG. No diagnosis without an exam and tests first.
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"I'm the sales doctor, and I'm writing you a prescription for kicking ass"
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Once the doctor gets the test results, there are three more steps.
- A Q&A with the patient that describes the findings of the tests.
- A set of possible courses of action. In any diagnosis, there are often a range of treatments ranging from conservative to aggressive
- Once the patient chooses the treatment approach, they agree on an action plan and timeline
A salesperson who cranks out proposals all day is a is no different than the quack doctor who cranks out prescriptions without proper examination.
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"The Fastest Quote Jockey in Town"
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The sad part is, these "Quote Jockeys" are often fast, responsive, and conscientious. they are doing exactly what the customers want them to do.
The Seller's Journey
A skilled salesperson will act like a doctor: sticking to their professional process and not cutting corners. But how can salespeople resist the customers who only want to know "whatya got?" and "what's it cost?"
The Small Account Sale
Think of an SMB sale like a visit to a Minute Clinic. Imagine your child gets bitten by a dog, and you need a quick trip for treatment. You don't to wait a week for your regular doctor's appointment, and it isn't serious enough to go to the hospital emergency room.
The selling steps might look something like this:
- What do you need?
- What are the different ways to address it?
- What's the best solution? (and cost)
Three steps. This aligns to the Nurse Practitioner looking at the dog bite, determining the severity, deciding on the degree of treatment necessary, and doing it. Fast, easy, and simple,
The Large Account Sale
The Enterprise sale also maps to a medical engagement, but this time to a more serious issue with more alternative courses of treatment. It's more like a trip to the Mayo Clinic.
- Why are you here?
- Who is involved?
- What are ALL the problems?
- What are the alternative solutions?
- Which solution is optimal for this patient?
- How are we going to roll out the treatment?
You can see the more sophisticated the solution, the more steps there will be in the selling process. In this case, there are six steps. Not three, like the Minute Clinic, and certainly not two, as the customer wants.
There is no single selling process that will work equally well with small, medium, and large sales. The enterprise sales process is too slow and cumbersome for small sales, and the short and fast approach won't work for large sales.
The Challenge for Salespeople
No matter what size sale, the process will be longer than what the customer wants and expects. So the Seller's Journey will always conflict with the Buyer's Journey. Deal with it. That's why we call it "sales", and not "order taking".
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"Ask your doctor if drinking is right for you.
Side effects may include dizziness, irrational exuberance, and loss of commissions" |
