Am I in a Sales Process or a Buying Process?
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Am I in a sales process or a buying process?
That may sound a simple question to a
sales team or sales leader. Our immediate
response would probably be, “Of course
a sales process!”. This question is not as
straightforward as it first appears.
Irrespective of the fact we are in sales when a buying
company contacts us, we are in a buying process.
Furthermore, they are some way along that process.
According to the Corporate Executive Board, buyers
typically do not contact us until 57% of their way
through their purchase decision.
Being in a buying process is itself not a bad thing;
there will be a deal to be won. What is bad is the
fact we think we are in a selling process. Misjudging
where we are will make it harder to persuade and
influence others.
Let us take the most extreme example, a Response
For Information (RFI) or Response For Proposal
(RFP). Who is in control of that RFI or RFP process?
Of course, it is the buyer controlling the process.
Only the company helping the buyer develop the RFI
or RFP is close to being in a sales process.
If you regularly respond to an RFI and RFP, take a
look at your Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) data.
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What is your RFP wins to lose ratio?
If we are to improve our success rate for any sales
engagement, we must move it into a sales process.
Here is guidance from my own experience how we
can achieve this.
• First, slow down and pause for a moment.
Did we help the buying organisation prepare this
RFI, RFP or sales engagement? If not, there is
a higher probability we will not win this deal if
we remain in their buying process. Here is the
reason why. The buying organisation has worked
hard preparing this project and will probably have
past their project mid-point. At the point in time
is when they become less open to new ideas.
Their attention will be focused on execution.
The incumbent seller will also have laid traps
that favour their RFI / RFP response or sales
engagement.
• Is this an ideal opportunity we can win?
Do not engage unless this is an ideal RFI / RFP or
sales opportunity; we are confident we can win.
Ok, so that makes a lot of sense for RFIs and RFPs.
What about all those other sales engagements, surely
we are managing those as a sales process?
Not necessarily. If buyers are not contacting us until
57% of their way through their purchase decision, we
will be in a buying process. So how do we them into
our sales process? We need to consider the buyer’s
mindset and their behaviour at different stages of their
project.
• During the beginning, they will be more open
to new ideas.
Assuming we are asking the right questions, and
our solution is an ideal fit to address their priority
needs, we will move through the discovery phase
fast. Doing so allows us to focus on building and
strengthening relationships with all those involved
in the buying process. To better understand their
priority needs and competitively position our
proposed solution.
 These represent our ideal sales leads
engagements that Marketing supports us to find.
Getting in early means we have more control in
managing the sales engagement.
• During the midpoint, buyers realise time is
running out.
Midpoints are also the stage when most buyers
reach out to sellers. If we engage at this stage,
we must do our discovery quickly. Once again,
if our solution is an ideal fit, my experience
is the discovery phase completes quickly. If
discovering the information we need is dragging
its feet, our solution is probably not an ideal fit.
That, of course, assumes we are asking the right
questions.
Buyers who contact us at this stage most buyers
know what they need, or think they know what
they need. To become more relevant and offer
value, we need to find problems they are not
expecting.
Be careful. These are challenging times to
introduce a new problem. Fear-arousing
communications will not motivate our audience to
take action. We must pair our message conveying
a potential problem with a clear, specific, easy to
follow the plan of action. Include an equally clear,
specific and easy to follow plan how we will deal
with their priority problem.
Do this, and we have a greater opportunity to
move the buyer into our sales process.
• Towards the end of the project, buyers are
focused on execution.
Engaging with a sales lead at this stage can be
challenging. If we decide to adopt a price discount
strategy, we risk remaining in a buying process.
To take more control moving the engagement
towards a sales process, we need to be masters
of persuasion. Here are four persuasion tactics
I have found to be very effective. I provide many
more during our training courses. If you decide
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to use one or more of these tactics, they may be
equally applicable to the other sales stages.
1. Avoid presenting yourself as the only viable
choice who can help them avoid the threats
ahead. Positioning yourself as the only viable
choice will only force them to dig their heels in.
Objectively present the threats we see ahead with
a specific, clear plan of action how we can help
avoid them.
2. If this is an ideal opportunity and the price is
our only option, consider using what I call the
‘Bookend Pricing Strategy’. I am not a fan of
price discounting because it ties up downstream
resources that should focus on delivering higher
profit and revenue deals. This strategy has helped
me avoid price discounting. Always accompany
this strategy with strong testimonials reinforcing
why you are the ideal choice.
There are two ways you can use the Bookend
Pricing.
My preferred approach is to bookend our
solution between a competitive high and low
priced alternative. We need to avoid positioning
ourselves as the lower cost alternative. People
tend to lean towards the compromise choice
falling between what they need at a minimum and
what they could spend at a maximum.
If we do not know our competitor pricing,
use market research to bookend three price
alternatives we present. Chances are our
competitors’ pricing will fall within this range.
By constructing this set of alternatives, we
increase the likelihood they will select our ideal
solution as their best choice.
3. Be careful in offering too much choice. We are
working to manage this engagement in our sales
process. Often prospects do not know precisely
what they want until they have surveyed what is
available to them.

Offering too much choice, especially when we

are entering a buying process late can frustrate
the buyer. The bookend strategy presenting no About the Author
more than three alternatives with our ideal solution
positioned as the compromise choice works well Treve Wearne is the founder of Nazca Services
here too. Limited. Treve supports businesses and sales
teams, positioning themselves and increasing
4. Take our ego out of the buying and sales process. sales revenues. Improving sales forecasts, talent
We usually have a couple of testimonials we development and retention in the most challenging
are most proud and want to share. They may business environments.
demonstrate the best use of our solution, but if
they do not relate to our sales lead’s situation, Contact Nazca Services
they can work against us.

Present only those testimonials whose

circumstances are most comparable to our sales
lead.

No matter at what stage we engage with a sales

lead, we can always influence and persuade. Doing
so helps us move a sales lead out of their buying
process into our own sales process.

We have created a Guide that will help you take

greater control of your sales engagements. Download
the Guide Using Sales Prospecting Tools to Improve
Sales Pipeline Reviews.

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Am I in a Sales Process or a Buying Process v1.1