Selling L & D Solutions: Start with a Needs Analysis

One of the things I often hear from learning and development professionals who are new to consulting is the challenge they have around “selling.” Like most people who go out on their own, they’re experts at (and inspired by) what they do, but they soon realize that there are other aspects of the business they need to attend to – the administrative, the financial, the marketing, and, of course, the selling.

My suggestion is to not think about it as “selling.” Instead, think about it as helping a client achieve goals, overcome challenges, and fulfill needs. It’s about asking good questions (needs analysis), communicating effectively, building relationships, and mapping learning solutions to performance needs – all the things learning and development professionals do on a daily basis.

But how do you get started? It helps to have structure. Step one is, of course, to identify an opportunity. Consider this scenario. You’re at a networking event and are introduced by a former colleague to the VP of Engineering at a large hi-tech company. After exchanging backgrounds and pleasantries, you ask what her current biggest challenge is. She shares that one of her project teams is struggling to meet deadlines for deliverables. There have been two instances so far on a current project where mistakes were identified too late, causing delays in the timeline, and additional cost. As the conversation continues, you learn that team members seem to operate independently, each focused on their part of the project, with little team synergy or communication along the way.

Learning and development opportunities generally fall into two categories. One is where the client just knows that development is a good thing and they have the budget to do it. They don’t necessarily have a problem, but they want to invest in a team development activity that’s more meaningful than bowling or a ropes course. The second category is where they know they have an issue, but they’re not sure of the cause or how to fix it.   

You’ve gleaned from your conversation at the networking event that the engineering project team falls into the second category. Through several follow up emails the next week, you manage to set up an initial meeting. The next step is to prepare for the meeting. What do you need to know before you go? What questions will you ask once you’re there?

Obviously, you want to know as much as possible about the organization and the individuals who will be in the meeting. Are you meeting with a decision maker or is this initial meeting at a different level? What is your goal for the meeting? What does your agenda need to be to get there?

Remember that this meeting is all about the client, not about sharing your menu of solutions. Prepare questions that will help you understand their goals, challenges and needs, as well as:

• The business goal that is not being met
• The impact of it not being met
• Skills and behaviors that are “mission critical” to the business, or impact all employees
• Performance deficiencies within these skills and behaviors that have the greatest negative impact
• Expected or desired performance levels

As you think about your goal for the meeting, include what you want the client to do after the meeting – Introduce you to the next level up? Schedule a next meeting? Connect you to others in the organization?

Making the time to thoroughly prepare your questions, agenda, and goal for the meeting will increase the likelihood of a positive outcome.

Lead on,

Rebecca

Adapting Your Sales Approach to the Buyer’s Journey

Today, by the time a B2B sales professional meets with a buyer, that buyer has already reviewed a vast amount of information about potential solutions to address their problem or need – through online searches, inbound emails, social media, etc. In fact, according to SiriusDecisions, 67% of the buyer’s journey is now done digitally.  What this means for sales professionals is that understanding your buyer – knowing what they know, understanding their needs, and learning how they buy -  has never been more important.

In her recent blog, Three New Facts You Need to Know about Your Buyer’s Journey, Alison Murdock, VP of Marketing at 6sense, highlighted three distinct buying scenarios, differentiated mainly by decision process, length of sales cycle, and purchase price. To succeed in selling into any one of these scenarios, sales professionals need to ask the right questions to determine their target’s buying scenario, and then map their approach and sales activities accordingly.

With control of the sales cycle now shifting to the buyer (Murdock: “The buyer is now in the driver’s seat”) it’s a good time for sales managers and teams to assess strengths and development areas in light of the new paradigm. What are the effective sales qualities and sales behaviors that will help sales professionals meet the client where they are in their buyer’s journey, rather than just checking boxes on the sales cycle worksheet?

Lumina Learning provides a research-based sales assessment, a state-of-the-art development tool based on the latest market research, called Lumina Sales.  Lumina Sales provides sales professionals with a highly customized report based their own personal strengths and weaknesses. Lumina Sales looks at 24 qualities of effective sales people, such as “competitor savvy”, “proactive networking”, “methodical prospecting”, and “reflective understanding” and assesses for the individual which of those qualities come naturally and which need development. The 24 qualities are mapped to a six-stage sales cycle, which is then mapped to the corresponding stages in a buyer’s cycle.  With this information, the sales professional, and their leader, can identify and address gaps that may be impacting sales success. For example, reflective understanding is a quality tied to “understand needs” in the sales cycle, and “buyer defines requirements & criteria” in the buyer’s cycle.  If the sales professional is weak in fully understanding the client’s goals and needs, they may struggle in adequately qualifying the client, or propose a solution that doesn’t directly meet their needs. 

Something that sets Lumina apart from other assessments is its identification of “overextended” behaviors. Overextended behaviors are those behaviors which, when under pressure or in stressful situations, become “too much of a good thing.” For example, when “competitor savvy” becomes “I-know-best research”; or when “stimulating ideas” become “creative overload”; or when “decisive close” becomes “forcing the close.” Understanding the triggers for these overextended behaviors, and which of the stages in the sales and buyer’s cycles are impacted by those behaviors, are key to creating an effective development plan and achieving sales success.

If you’d like to learn more about how Lumina Sales can improve your ability to adapt to your buyer’s journey and achieve sales success, please contact me at info-us@luminalearning.com or 888.827.8855.