“It doesn’t matter which selling method you use, just pick what works for you and stick with it.” Perhaps you have heard or read this somewhere before. It is a long-standing argument in favor of a random selling process. However, the facts simply don’t support the assertion.
A recent CSO Insights study clearly proved that companies that adopt formal and even dynamic selling processes deliver better results.
But does this mean that ANY formal/dynamic process will be equally effective? Absolutely not! We are AXIOM Sales Force Development and our Selling Sciences Program is the most logical, comprehensive, executable selling methodology ever created. For more than twenty years, AXIOM has helped sales people of all types transform their customer conversations, find more opportunities and win more often and with greater margins. During the past two decades, tens of thousands of sales people have attended AXIOM programs.
And they universally agree – if they sell this way they will have better sales performance, enhanced customer relationships and higher job satisfaction.
Perhaps this is why for over twenty years, when customer’s pilot AXIOM programs and the programs of other companies, they ALWAYS choose AXIOM – every time. But what is it that makes the AXIOM Selling Sciences methodology better?
Better Engagement, Deeper Understanding
How many times have you been taught that you need to understand your buyer if you are going to help them, and sell to them? Nearly every sales person has been taught this valuable lesson at one point or another. But listen to what your people are actually saying. Are they REALLY learning about your customers or just asking a couple obligatory questions to bridge them into questions about what they want in your product? In most cases, even sales people who know that they should do this aren’t capable. Why? Because they have never been provided with the three things that are essential to effective execution:
- A clear understanding of what information they require. Few sales people actually know what it is that they need to discuss in order to fully understand their buyers. Without some clear model for how the buyer operates and makes decisions, even a well-intentioned sales person won’t know where to begin.
- A model for questioning that facilitates a meaningful conversation instead of an interrogation. A list of topics won’t suffice; sales people need help with a model for meaningful follow-up questions so that they can become effective and natural.
- The knowledge of how to apply the information they uncover to differentiate their solutions. Without this, sales people lack the motivation to engage in the first place.
The AXIOM Selling Sciences Program provides your people with all three essentials-- finally allowing them to get beyond talking about knowing their customers to actually knowing their customers. Better conversations, better information and more opportunities; that’s what AXIOM can deliver.
Beyond Needs Satisfaction: Differentiated Decision Criteria
It is arguably the foundation for nearly all existing sales training programs and it initiated the first transformation of the sales profession. Needs satisfaction selling has a simple premise: Identify the customer’s needs and sell solutions that meet those needs. Revolutionary … effective … outdated. We need a new revolution, we need another transformation, we need a model for developing differentiated decision criteria.
Here’s why. In today’s competitive marketplace, the likelihood that a given buyer will have so granular and specific a need that it can only be addressed by one alternative solution is VERY SLIM. As a result, customers are typically evaluating multiple alternatives, all of which will meet their defined needs.
In that case, what the customer actually needs is help determining which solution is best.
For over two decades, AXIOM has helped sales professionals extend customer conversations beyond needs. We help your people ask the questions that will guide the customer through the development of criteria that sets the standards by which the competing alternatives will be judged. And when customers aren’t certain how to decide, AXIOM trained professionals can help benchmark differentiating criteria that will facilitate a better decision for the buyer, and increase the probability of winning for the seller.
No More Features and Benefits
Feature-benefit selling is dead, or at least it should be. Think about this for a moment: if you are a buyer, what do you care about most-- what my product does, or the impact it will have on your business? The impact, every time. Unfortunately, sales and marketing people have been taught for far too long that they should describe what their products and services DO first, and THEN describe the impact these capabilities will deliver to the customer.
Unfortunately, this feature-benefit approach, even when properly executed, puts the most important information last.
With this approach, buyers often “zone out” before the seller ever gets to the most critical information. It’s no wonder many sales people complain that they want to avoid a “feature war.” Who wants to watch their buyer lose interest in their solution? Absent a better presentation method, the only other alternative seems to be a price war – and you surely don’t want that.
What is needed is a new way to link your capabilities to meaningful impact.
Your people need an approach that puts the buyer’s interests first and keeps the buyer engaged. That’s where we come in. Our Problem, Cause, Solution, Benefit (PCSB) presentation method will allow your sales people to PROVE that you have the most powerful solutions for your customers. In addition, PCSB is designed to ensure your people NEVER talk about any capability without knowing it is important to your buyers. More compelling presentations that provide buyers with the information they need most – that’s the AXIOM way.
Handling Objections and Negotiations
You see it all too often- just one more concession and your sales person is certain he can get this deal closed. You make the concession, and end up with a sale that has little or no margin left. Or worse, you agree to the concession and still don’t get the deal. How on earth does this happen?
Most sales people are taught that they are supposed to OVERCOME buyer’s objections, often by explaining things the buyer apparently isn’t considering.
Unfortunately this often leads to a contentious, unproductive conversation where your buyer takes a position (“Your price is too high.”) Your sales person takes the opposing view (“No, you just aren’t seeing all our advantages.”) Then they play tug-o’-war to see who gives up the most. The problem with positional negotiating is that it often results in hard feelings for both parties. Not only that, because sales people often have a unique “story” they use to overcome every new objection, they never actually become truly proficient at handling customer concerns. We can change all of that.
At AXIOM Sales Force Development, we have created selling’s most logical, repeatable process for handling customer objections and negotiations.
AXIOM trained sales people learn ONE PROCESS FOR EVERY OBJECTION so they become significantly more proficient. This single process helps them collaborate with their buyer to remove obstacles. Using the AXIOM methodology, your people know exactly where they are in the process, so no time is wasted securing concessions that won’t result in orders. And when a concession really is required, this approach allows your sales people to determine the minimum needed in order to win – ensuring your customer is satisfied AND you protect your margins. AXIOM clients agree, handling objections and negotiations can and should be a gateway to happier customers- not an exercise in frustration and drain on your margins.
Strategic Framework for Complex Opportunities
Green sheet, blue sheet, yellow sheet, red and still can’t tell if it’s alive or dead! Of course complex sales are different. There are more people involved, often for the buyer and seller. There is considerably more information to obtain and assimilate. And politics and external factors can play a greater role in the outcome. But let’s face it; the act of winning a strategic opportunity is challenging enough.
The strategic selling process and tools should not make it more complex.
Your people don’t need some “advanced” program that they apply to only their most complex opportunities. What they really need is a strategic framework that leverages the same information and tactical methodology they use every day, in every customer conversation.
Welcome to AXIOM and our Selling Sciences Program. Indeed large deals are special, and you certainly want to win them. However, people make buying decisions and companies and people are very consistent – not in what they select, but in how they go about doing it. That’s why our strategic selling model builds on our tactical methodology. With AXIOM, your people acquire the skills to engage the customer first, then the framework for analyzing the information and developing winning strategies based on this engagement.
Leveraging AXIOM’s core 9 Information Objectives, “gut feeling” assessments are replaced with information-backed evaluations. Incoherent strategies are supplanted by logical, executable plans. You will also be able to conduct rich, meaningful deal reviews that identify danger zones and increase your probability of success. We invite you to look around and check us out. When you're ready to talk specifics about how we can help you win significantly more strategic opportunities, just let us know. At AXIOM, our mission is your success.