Facilitating vs. Selling

I personally hate the term “selling.” There is an immediately implied tone of pushing and convincing people to buy something. I am not interested in pushing or convincing anyone to do anything. I see a lot of people who are responsible for developing new business put on this persona designed to convince and persuade. Or, I see people that don’t want to ever come across like this so they do nothing. Either way, what I see with most professionals is an extremely inefficient approach toward the goal of attracting more profitable, long-term clients. I see new business development as a process that you facilitate, to help a new prospect get clear about what they truly need, and explore who is the best fit to meet that need. We often assume the prospect knows what they need and has an effective process to get that need met or problem solved. This is a BAD assumption to make. Often, they have no idea.

Facilitating vs. Selling does not mean being passive. Quite the contrary. To facilitate well you actually have to be more prepared, more disciplined, and more mentally tough. Also, as a facilitator leading the new business development process, you can easily come off as manipulative and controlling UNLESS you have:

High Intent

•   A genuine interest to help them make the best decision to meet their needs (this can’t be faked)

Strong Process

• Your engagement process is designed to uncover the truth, get all the info on the table (willingness to ask tough questions & suggest next steps that might be different from their regular process)

Detachment

• Willingness to respectfully walk away at any point if the prospect is unwilling to follow certain key steps of your process (such as: your ability to talk to key stakeholder(s) before presenting solution)

Are you selling or facilitating? What key skills do you need to work on in order to better control the new business development process? Much of this is easier said than done. I talk with clients every day that are good at this, but it takes time. If there were three things you can do to start getting better at this over the next few weeks, I suggest:

1. Start seeing yourself as a facilitator, whose job it is to uncover the truth about a prospect’s true needs and who is going to be the best fit to serve these needs.

2. Get more prepared before every new business call / meeting. Make sure you have an idea what the next step is (or what the options are) at all times, and get yourself mentally prepared for any outcome.

3. Conquer your fear by asking that next most difficult question – the one that you are thinking, but not asking. Just ask. This will give you both more information than any of your competition and help you stand out as different from the rest.

As you head into the new year, take an inventory of your mindset and process for developing new business. Now is the time to strengthen your skills and approach to ensure a more profitable 2008.

If you have comments, questions or success stories, email me directly any time tom@perficency.com.

Thursday, December 20, 2007  | Permalink |