The Hidden Buyer By Steve
Waterhouse
How to protect yourself against the unseen enemy
The meeting ended with smiles and handshakes but the
next day you learned the truth. You had lost the deal.
What went wrong?
One possibility is your proposal. Most of us are
pretty good at selling. We do it face to face. We do it
over the phone. Some of us are even fairly talented at
selling in letters. But how many of us sell in our
proposals?
Sell in proposals?
You might have heard me lecture that proposals should
contain no surprises and that they should summarize the
agreement that was already reached by the parties. So
where does the selling come in? It comes in with the
hidden buyer….
Every sales person is trained to map out the
customers’ buying process and make sure they know every
person who will be influencing this deal. You ask all
the right questions of all the right people. You double
check what one person says against the others. You ask
other reps to tell you who was involved in their deals.
You’re covered. NOT!
The hidden buyer lurks in any large company and many
small ones. This is the person who has given the team
you are working with “full authority” to cut the deal
and write the check. This person said that there was no
reason to get them involved. They are master delegators.
Except when they change their mind or when the team
decides that they would like this person to “give it one
last look” before they sign. At that moment, the only
sales person in the room is your proposal.
How scared are you now?
Pull out one of your recent proposals and let’s see
what’s in there. If it is to stand on it’s own, it must
contain the following sections:
Summary of need – The customer must be
confident that you understand their problem. They must
know that you are both starting from the same place and
that you understand how they got there so you won’t dig
them deeper into the same hole. This section says, “I
heard you, I understood you, I believe you” to the
customer.
1. Statement of Objectives
The customer wants to know what you are going to do and
that it is the same list that you proposed in your
meetings. They want a check list to measure your work
against and something that begins to justify your price.
This is the first concrete evidence that the client can
see that gives them hope in a better future.
2. Task List or Methodologies
This is the path to the future and shows the client
how you will connect their need with their objectives.
It is the answer to the question, “What are you planning
to do” and needs to be clear enough to help the client
build faith in your ability to deliver.
3. Measures of Success
How will they know when you have succeeded? How will
they measure the improvement? What can they see, count,
measure? The easier it is for the client to see the
result, the easier it is to sell the deal. If you can’t
measure it, you can’t sell it.
4. Relevant Experience
You need to show that you have done this before and
that it’s like falling off a log for you and your
company to accomplish this or help the client reach
their goals. The more specific the better, for example:
“We have helped 15 pharmaceutical companies increase
sales by an average of over 15% in the first year of our
programs.” Think of this as your marketing kit and
reference letters digested down to a few sentences.
5. Timing
Time is money and everyone is late. That means no
one is worth what they are charging. You must show that
you understand and can make the target dates with ease.
Your client may have many times the cost of your product
or service resting on this deal. They may be much less
concerned about your price than your timing.
6. Value Statement
Here is the tough one. How do you articulate your
value to the client in the proposal? First, you ask
loads of questions. Second, you work with them to build
a success scenario early in the discussions. Lastly, you
use their numbers to make the case. This section should
be as numeric as possible and tied directly to the
client’s bottom line. Statements like, “Based on your
assessment that improved information systems of this
type will improve output by 10%, this system will pay
back $1.9 Million in the first year and $34.5 million
over the next 5 years.” Done correctly, the value dwarfs
the fee and makes your price a non-issue.
The value case is the one case that hidden buyers
always jump on. They ask, “Is this worth it?” and “How
are we going to pay for this?” If your value case is
missing, you are at the mercy of the person standing
there in the room to make your sales presentation for
you. If you weren’t scared before, you should be now.
With a strong case in the proposal, you have a prayer of
winning the day.
The Value Process is detailed in my book “The Team
Selling Solution: Creating and Managing Teams That Win
the Complex Sales” (McGraw-Hill, 2004). It is now
available on audio CD and hardcopy at:
http://www.waterhousegroup.com/store/team-selling-solution.htm
7. The Details
Ok, somewhere in here you must detail the
deliverables, the price, the terms and conditions. Once
again, these should not be surprises since you worked
them out long before you wrote the proposal. I love
clients who say, “Send me a proposal.” I say, “How about
if we talk it through right now and then I’ll send you a
summary of our agreement.” No one ever objects and I get
the benefit of hearing their reaction to my offerings.
So why did you lose that deal?
Because you forgot that proposals need to be
stand-along sale presentations, not simply pre-invoices.
Think of it this way: If the proposal I outlined above
was sitting next to yours, and the client had never
talked with either company, who do you think has the
best chance of winning?
Make your proposal sell and you’ll be building an
insurance policy behind every deal you close.
For a free copy of "How to Leave a Voice Mail That
Gets Results", please email article19@waterhousegroup.com
and ask for article #19.
Steve Waterhouse is Principal and Founder of Waterhouse
Group (www.waterhousegroup.com), a sales consulting and
training company that helps companies dramatically
increase their sales. He can be reached at
1-800-57-LEARN or
info@waterhousegroup.com.
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