Purchasing and Negotiation Training

Linda Byars Swindling, negotiation authority, former employment attorney, and author

Editor’s note: Linda Swindling is a frequent contributor to this blog. 

Surprises can be both pleasant and unpleasant. Be ready for both. Here are three surprises you might encounter. 

The Gift

Occasionally you are thrown a gift, a very pleasant surprise. A gift occurs when the other party gives you a much better opening position than you anticipate. Before accepting, make sure that you have analyzed the bargain properly. For instance, if the initial offer of the other party is much higher or lower than you first anticipated, review your position before making your counter offer. An unexpected response may signal you have not realized exactly what the deal entails or even that you and the other party are talking about different expectations. 

The Shock

If someone rejects an unattractive offer, don’t immediately dismiss it or get aggravated. Instead start asking questions in a courteous and inquisitive manner. “Just so I understand, what were you including when you came up with that offer? How did you get to that number? What is that amount based on?”  Good negotiators remember that you discuss any offer that is made. They determine the reasoning behind an offer they didn’t expect. Remember that it is rare to ask too many questions.  

 Always remember to leave yourself an out or an escape. Some of the biggest negotiation nightmares occur when there isn’t enough time to reflect or you are forced to make an uninformed decision. Negotiate the deadline before you negotiate a deal. Ask for a break. Get back to them if necessary but collect yourself first.

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The Deadline 

 Whether you’re surprised by the Gift, the Shock or the Deadline, you can always respond with the words, “That isn’t what I expected.” I’ll need to get back with you. It’s the truth. It gives you time (even thirty minutes) to think and you can regroup. Surprises, good and bad, can actually enhance an opportunity and give you time to improve your results. Accept going in that you will be surprised at some part of the process. This will put you far ahead of most negotiators. It will help you not get thrown and make you look like a pro. Go ahead…surprise me. 

"Shorten your sales cycle & increase your win rate through competitive excellence"

Editor’s note: Stu Schlackman is a frequent contributor to this blog.  

In Part I of a four part series, Stu reveals the Obective reasons that customers buy.  In Part II, he addresses Subjective reasons for customer purchases, while  Part III and Part IV detail the personality styles that drive buying decisions.

It’s not what people buy, but why they buy.  Your customer’s personality style is a key to understanding the buying decision.  A customer has business reasons and personal reasons to seek a new product or service.  Additionally, both objective and subjective factors are assessed as the customer decides whether to buy and from which seller.  By understanding how the different personality color types influence these decision criteria, you can influence the decision to buy.

Objective reasons to buy

The buying cycle starts with an identified need exists within the buying company.  Customers purchase products and solutions to impact specific factors in their business model or to reach specific business goals.  Some of the most typical of these are, depending upoon industry and company maturuty:

• Increase profits and revenue
• Reduce operational costs
• Increase productivity
• Improve cash flow
• Reduce inventory
• Improve customer delivery
• Lower product defect rates
• Reduce whole life total cost of ownership of equipment
• Bring new products to market faster
• Open new markets for products

Once the purchase is complete, the impact on these factors is both objective and measurable. For the purchase to be successful, some measurable and beneficial shift must be observed.  But at the time of the decision to buy, these are “potential” effects and the salesman can influence the perception of how the product will perform.  

Five common criteria weighed by the purchasing team, when making a decision to buy a product or service, are cost, capability, quality, service and risk. Whether it’s a product or a project, these are key factors your customers consider when making a decision. Cost is the Total Cost of Ownership including the return on the investment. This TCO includes the immediate price, the deferred downstream costs such as maintenance and service, and indirect costs such as any warranties involved.

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Objective buying-decision criteria  

• Capability is the functionality of your product or service and the technology that’s used. “What is the product or service able to do?”  “What’s the breadth of the solution and how can it expand in the future as we grow?”  “How easy will it be to install and integrate with other parts of our business process?”
• Quality is the reliability of your product. “Will it last?”  “Will it have problems?”   “Will it consistently perform as promised?”
• Service is how well you will take care of the customer if problems arise.  “What hours are you available?”  “What is your response time?”  Service is all about your company’s attitude on customer care and your ability to perform when issues arise.
• Risk measures the probability that you will live up to your agreements, direct and implied, and additionally that the product is all they expect it to be.  Some risk is inherent in any decision to buy or not to buy.  Have they learned enough to be comfortable with a decision to purchase? Will their risk be reduced if they wait and weigh more issues and look at more products?  Will the solution perform as promised and will the return on investment be what was expected?

Each of the four personality styles, as they consider the solution you are offering, will give a different weighting to each of these criteria.  In Part II, we’ll look at the subjective factors.

Robert Menard, Certified Purchasing Professional, Certified Professional Purchasing Consultant

Editor’s note: this is Part I of a 5 part series on the importance of verbal communication in negotiations.  Part I deals with open mind assumptions.  Part II with questioning techniques.  Part III deals with word usage while Part IV addresses common statements while Part 5 wraps up the lose ends.

Listening and speaking are the literal nuts and bolts of negotiation but they are accompanied by the more mysterious figurative elements of body language and an open mind.  Mastery of both the figurative and the literal is essential to negotiate effectively.  Other posts in this blog have treated the open mind concept.  For those fascinated by body language, a highly visual and arcane study, please refer to this online course.The open mind brings a bonanza of techniques that are beyond the reach of our closed minded brethren.     

 1    Dumbness 

Without any doubt, dumbness is every negotiator’s best friend.  It represents the most beneficial effect of having an open mind.  Dumbness does not mean abject, knuckle dragging ignorance, but the surrender of one’s prejudices, beliefs and ego.  As an entertaining ice breaker in negotiation training, I often ask “Is anyone here as smart as they look?”  Suspecting a joke, an occasional brave soul will raise his or her hand, to which I remark that “You couldn’t be – you’d have to be twins!”  We are not as smart as we look.  As Clarence Darrow is said to have once noted, “I don’t pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of.”      

 2    Never agree nor disagree with explanations or opening positions 

This caveat is especially true of statements of opening position.  Openers are notoriously overstated (High Initial Demands or HID ), sometimes intended to inflame, and sometimes as a counter wrought of over estimated assessments of the other side’s position.  It is far better to understand the motivation rather than to argue with the position, at least at first.  When you are presented with a seemingly outrageous position, think to yourself, “What an interesting attempt.”  You may well be ready to laugh or walk out in a huff, but that would not exhibit much open mindedness. 

Suppose that you are presented with this position statement.  “You know as well as I do that our product is making you a ton of money and costing us a fortune  We have to get double what you are paying now.”  Our concern should be for the motivation, not the position.  Is this supplier losing money?  Are we at fault, or did this supplier willingly low ball us for internal purposes?  Were they trying to trap us on the boat and then raise the fare?  

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First, we know from the dumbness technique that we don’t even know for sure what we think we know, so how does this other guy know that he knows what we know as well as he does?  Secondly, double the price sure sounds like a lot, but they just mentioned price and cost problems, so let’s make them prove their case before we do anything.  This leads to the next technique.   

 3    “Tell me about it.”

The ‘never agree nor disagree technique above has just presented you with a Broadway opening for sweeping questions about the supplier’s cost and price structure.  The course of any negotiation is virtually unpredictable and thus the stress we place on planning.  In this instance, seize the opportunity to inquire, with our sophisticated questioning techniques, about the Cost Analysis  and Price Analysis angles.  In fact, a flatly stated, matter of course response should be. “Tell me about it.”  We should use this sentence as often as a plumber uses a wrench.

Steve Hague, author, speaker, and Certified Purchasing Manager

Editor’s note: Steve Hague is a frequent contributor to this blog.

For most people, buying a car is the 2nd largest purchase they’ll make in their lives, their home being the largest.  If your automobile purchase will be financed with borrowed money, invest as much time shopping for the best rate as  shopping for the car itself. The finance rate and borrowing terms wisely can save hundreds or even one thousand dollars or more on the total cost of ownership.

The first steps are to know your credit history and if there are more than a couple of credit problems that show up on the report, it’s a good idea to check your credit score.  You also need to establish your budget and how much you can spend on the purchase when taking into account all other debt and your present and future expected income. 

Once you know what you can spend and what your credit score or history is, it’s time to begin shopping.  Unless the car manufacturer (not the dealer) is offering special financing rates, you probably won’t find the best rate at the dealership. They may work with a handful of banks and finance companies to find the best rate, but whatever they offer to you they are taking a small piece for themselves. It’s another way for them to make money. 

Start with the bank that you use for local savings and checking. Sometimes there may be special rates if you do a good deal of business with them. Also look at credit unions locally as well as AAA or other consumer agencies that to which you may belong. 

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Make sure that you don’t have any of these companies’ run a credit check on you until you decide that they are the institution that you will use. You can tell them your credit score or that your credit is excellent, good, fair, etc. Just ask for the rate based on this information. Your credit score can actually go down if there are multiple checks on it. 

Once you’ve gotten the best rate locally, it’s time to expand your search throughout the country. Yes, you can and should check outside of your local area. There are many banks and financial institutions that work online and have outstanding rates. They are safe and quite effective.  You can also check with BankRate.com and other finance related websites for the best borrowing rates nationally. 

Buying a new vehicle is expensive enough. Make sure that you do all that you can to save if you’re financing by shopping the rate.

Robert Menard, Certified Purchasing Professional, Certified Professional Purchasing Consultant

Win-Win negotiation has its evangelical adherents and doubting Thomas’.  If we could transfer the matter from the ill defined fog of interpretation to the precisely defined strictures of science, perhaps the doubters might have a new and more tangible perspective.  

An Open Mind

We will use the concept of an open mind for starters.  Were a seated crowd asked to stand if they refuse to have an open mind, every one would remain with butts in place.  However, suppose that this equivalent question is posed to the same seated crowd, “Who here is nothing but a closed minded bigot?”  The result would be the same. 

Most of us like to think of ourselves as open minded.  We are we are not sure what it means, but it sounds good.  Diplomats joke that tact is the ability to tell someone he is open-minded when they really think the fellow has holes in his head.  For negotiators, open mindedness is an essential quality for Win-Win.  It means recognizing that many outcomes, including both sides winning, are possible, depending upon your point of view.  

Let’s challenge our open mindedness with a quiz.  Is it possible for a real physical tangible object to be moving backward and forward at the same point in space and time?  

In negotiation training seminars, participants will cite walking backward in a forward moving train, but the resultant vector is about 100 km/h moving forward.  Others will use a rubber band analogy, but individual particles are either moving forward or backward.  

For assistance in answering this weighty question, we invoke the expertise of no less an authority on such things than Albert Einstein, the 20^th century physics and philosophy genius.  The story of Einstein’s inspiration for his theory of special relativity is as follows.  Einstein was standing on the quay of the train station waiting for his laboratory assistant traveling on the approaching train.  Nearing the station, it became clear that the express train, which his assistant had mistakenly boarded, would not stop at the local station.  

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Albert Einstien’s point of view

 At the exact point in space and time that the express train traveled at 100 km/h past Einstein’s point of view, the assistant’s suit case lashed to the top of the train became dislodged.  Einstein witnessed the suitcase hurtling forward, in the direction of its imparted motion and momentum.  At that very same point in space and time, the lab assistant traveling on the train looked up and saw his suitcase hurtling backward, away from the direction of his motion, decelerating from its previously imparted velocity of 100 km/h. 

Clearly, both Einstein and his lab assistant were correct in their observations.  The suitcase was moving forward and backward at the same point in space and time – it all depended upon the observer’s point of view. 

The business equivalent 

In the business world, the exact parallel to Einstein’s Special Relativity is negotiation.  Buyers and sellers have their own points of view – indeed, they do not want the same thing.  Simply but incontrovertibly stated, the buyer wants the stuff and the seller wants the money!  This fact makes Win-Win attainable in most all commercial negotiations. 

If buyers and sellers bring an open mind to negotiation, they will conclude that they can each achieve a Win.  We can move forward and achieve our agenda without moving the other guy backward.  This fact makes negotiation one of the most rewarding pursuits in business.

Editor’s note: Steve writes, speaks, and consults on customer service.

Encouraging service professionals to allow an upset customer to vent as a key strategy towards building rapport. When customers vent, they need to tell their whole story. “Venting is therapeutic,” I would say. My admonition is based on what I had learned during years of handling challenging telephone calls.

What makes the telephone such a powerful therapy tool? It is the amount of imaging that a good telephone voice is able to convey. Eighty percent of what a telephone service professional conveys is in his or her tone of voice. The content or words comprise the remaining 20%. The tone of voice reveals much about an individual, their intent, and their demeanor.

Don’t take my word, take JAMA’s

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an elaborate study on the benefits of psychotherapy using the telephone. A psychiatrist at the Group Health Cooperative in Seattle reported that 80 percent of patients who received telephone therapy along with antidepressants indicated that their depression was “much improved” six months later, compared to 55 percent of those who received medication alone.

The inception of the telephone therapy study was in response to the increasing number of patients who failed to maintain their in-person counseling sessions long enough to detect any benefits. One out of every four patients attending in-person psychotherapy drop out after just one session; fully half would cease treatment altogether by the fourth session. A psychiatrist responded to this trend by contacting their patients by telephone to find out whether that method made it easier for them to continue with their treatment sessions. It did. The resulting telephone therapy study provided clinical proof about something that I have known intrinsically for decades.

What do you think…

Service organizations not leveraging their telephone therapy potential are costing their company money. It is my firm conviction that the cost of ignorance is far greater than the cost of training. Improve the skills level at your service operations and maximize the ability of your employees to provide psychotherapy over the telephone. So the next time you sense that you are providing therapy to one of your customers – you are.

Linda Byars Swindling, negotiation authority, former employment attorney, and author

Editor’s note: Linda Swindling is a frequent contributor to this blog. 

It is difficult not to examine and re-examine the deal you made. However, once you’ve looked at your outcomes and how you got to the result, you must move on. Paralysis by analysis does not serve someone who wants to improve their ability to influence. Here are five questions to help you review how you did, learn from those results and put them to use for the next deal coming up. 

Were you creative?

Here are the magic questions that will help you be creative. Ask yourself what others have done in the same circumstances. Ask peers, your boss, even the person you are attempting to influence what people have done in the past. Then, ask yourself, what you could offer that the other party would value a lot that doesn’t isn’t expensive or time-consuming for you to provide. Ask yourself the same question about the other person’s position. What could they offer you that you would value a ton that doesn’t cost them much in time or resources. You will be surprised at how much value can be created by these questions. 

Did you beat your BATNA?

In the book Getting to Yes, by Roger Fisher and William Ury, the term BATNA is an acronym for the Best Alternative to The Negotiated Agreement. It is a scholarly way of saying, examine your back up plan or a Plan B. If the agreement you’re facing isn’t better than your BATNA or your Plan B, choose your Plan B. If your current deal is better than your BATNA, proceed knowing you’ve done a good job.   

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Was it the best deal with the information you knew?

Another question you should be able to answer is, “Was this the best deal you could achieve at the time with the people present and the information you knew?” While it is true that you can always find out more information later that could enhance your results, there is a lost opportunity cost while you delay reaching an agreement. Also, that new information could work against you and in favor of the other party.

What did you learn that will be useful next time?

Where did you have significant learning that will be useful next time? Determine where or what you are going to change the next time you attempt to persuade or influence. Many bargains are struck that suit the facts that are present at the time. This same fact scenario, stakeholders and limitations may not ever be present again. 

Were you realistic?

You may have set your desires too high or too low. You may have given yourself a shorten deadline or expected a result that the other person could never agree to meet.  Be realistic. Not every deal happens the way we anticipate. Not every deal should happen at all. 

Finally, give yourself a break. No one is perfect. Forgive yourself for what you did wrong. Reflect on what you did to correct the mistakes you made. Celebrate if you took a risk or tried something differently. Learn from this deal and MOVE ON!

Robert Menard, Certified Purchasing Professional, Certified Professional Purchasing Consultant

Editor’s note: this is Part II of a two part series.  Part I identifies the Golden Rule of Negotiation and Part II explains how to apply it. 

Fortunately, we do not need to be social science experts to be effective in our negotiations in the same way that one need not be a nutritionist to know how to eat healthy.  Our communication skills matter far more than do our ability to identify and manage personalities.  Expressed in relative terms, communication skills are more useful than personality skills in negotiation.  Nevertheless, personalities are important to the extent that they dictate how people communicate so we need to know more about the subject.  

Interpersonal skills matter because they identify a negotiator’s signature communication style.  Negotiation is a stressful event.  Under stress, we resort to our strongest behavior type or dominant personality.   

A personality is a composite of multiple styles.  The style in force depends upon the stimuli of the situation.  For instance, aggression surfaces naturally when we play competitive contact sports, but not when we watch the graduation ceremony at the day care center.  The personality of the CEO is probably much different than the research engineer.  So too will be their communication styles.  The Golden Rule of Negotiation tells us that we need to approach them, sell to them and buy from them in the manner that they, not we, find appropriate.  Resort to a graphic is helpful.

The chart below is an iteration of thousands of similar graphics you have probably seen.  It shows four basic personality types defined by the extremes at each end of the axes. 

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This adaptation of personality studies applies to negotiation for a specific reason.  We know that a personality is a complex composite of multiple types.  Negotiation requires and resolves conflict and conflict involves stress.  Stress invokes the fight or flight response.  Greatly simplified, we resort to our strength when facing stress.  Our dominant personality type tends to be the major force we summon to confront important challenges.  Therefore, if we can identify the dominant personality type of our negotiation counterpart, we are able to estimate how best to communicate with them. 

 Refer to the chart.  The personality types are organized along the horizontal and vertical axes.  Call the vertical axis the Reason/Emotion line.  It is the rough equivalent of left brain at the top, and right brain at the bottom.  Logicals have strong scientific traits, favoring thoughts over feelings.  They withhold feelings.  Emotionals have strong humanistic traits and favor feelings over thought.  They display emotions.

 Call the horizontal axis the Assertiveness line.  The Reserved folk prefer asking, even when making demands, while the Assertive ones prefer to tell, even when asking.  The axes intersect to create four personality zones.  These zones provided ample clues to their communication preferences.

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In the upper left live the Analytics.  This zone’s markings are high reason and low assertiveness.  They think carefully and methodically and favor charts, graphs, and reams of supporting documentation.  They prefer to read and study in advance rather than to hear the information on the spot.  They do not get very excited, are cautious about their vulnerability, act consistently, and generally hold their cards close to the vest.  Plenty of engineers, accountants and other process oriented personnel fall into this zone.

 In the upper right dwell the Practical who are high on reason and assertiveness.  These are the fellows who are prone to snap decisions.  Typically, they are in a hurry, even while relaxing.  This commander does not let facts stand in the way of a decision because instinct is a good substitute.  Their driving personalities dispose them toward goals and competition; they welcome challenges, take control, question authority and want immediate results.  Bosses, leaders, and high level managers in positions of responsibility populate this zone.

 In the lower right reside the Extraverts reside.  This zone has both high emotionalism and high assertiveness.  The Expresser types share some traits with the Practicals in that they too are impulsive, and competitive.  They however enjoy limelight and excitement more than results and prefer creativity over reality in problem solving.  They value feelings and relationships.  HR, customer service, and sales professions are comfortable in this zone.  

 In the lower left, the Amiables thrive on high emotionalism and low assertiveness.  They like conformity to the groups and they follow rules readily, do not follow through and need reassurance.  They ask many questions, including personal ones, in order to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings.  Agreeable, supportive and polite, they have difficulty making decisions because they want to please people.  They often change their conclusion because the last viewpoint was the most influential.  Negotiation is not high on the list for folks in this zone to pursue. 

 I offer am empiric observation about personality types.  The plurality of purchasing and sales pro personalities is in the Analytical, Practical and Extravert zones.  Further, more purchasing types trend toward the two logical zones (Analytical and Practical) and more sales types trend toward the two assertive zones (Practical and Extravert).  It makes eminent sense in the traditional roles that buyers would be the engineers, accountants, bosses and high level managers who favor processes while sales pros are assertive, people oriented relationship types.

Editor’s note : Dr. Hough is a frequent contributor to this blog. 

Harry Hough, PhD, founder of the American Purchasing Society

Opinions on the ideal salesperson’s profile vary; the sales manager has one viewpoint, the purchasing manager another. Each is primarily concerned with his or her own objectives. Traditionally the sales manager wants salespeople to maximize the return on their time invested. He doesn’t want them to waste effort on unqualified prospects or obtain troublesome orders of little value. The buyer wants easily obtained complete information in order to make an informed decision. The seller wants to obtain as much profit as possible. The buyer wants to spend as little as possible to obtain the products or services desired.

Is it ever possible that these two sides can agree on what the ideal salesperson should be? Yes, if the objectives can be clarified and embraced from the long-term point of view. Both sides are interested in profitable transactions. Both sides probably would prefer a long-term relationship. It would certainly be easier for the salesperson to get repeat business than to struggle to get the first order. It is certainly easier for the buyer to place business with a proven capable existing supplier than to shop and negotiate all the details with a new supplier. So the objectives are not entirely different.

Thousands of salespeople don’t realize this, and they start off on the wrong foot by calling on potential customers without an appointment or by starting off an interview with the buyer by asking what the company does. They show a complete ignorance of the customer’s business. They waste the buyer’s time as well as their own because often there is no possibility that the buyer would be interested in the product or service that the salesperson has to offer. It is simply not a suitable product for their business.

Some years ago a purchasing manager for a manufacturer in the automobile parts business had display cases placed in the lobby showing the parts and various components of products that his company purchased or produced. Then he placed a small sign on each display inviting salespeople to offer suggestions or submit proposals regarding the items on display. The manager reported that only one in ten even mentioned the displays let alone offered any helpful suggestions.

An example of an especially good salesperson from another company told us about his success. He would tour the customers’ facilities and search for ways of making suggestions and improvements. His contribution was so helpful that the customers were willing to pay more for his products and reward him with large orders just to be sure to get his ideas.

There are many ways that a salesperson can impress buyers, and buyers can help salespeople in return. In recent years we have noticed a trend that salespeople arrive late for appointments or continually cancel and reschedule. This practice shows a disregard for the buyer’s time. Salespeople should arrive when scheduled. In return buyers should respect the salespeople’s time and not keep them waiting.

Five Positive Behaviors of the Ideal Sales Pro

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Ideal sales professionals exemplifyand diligently engage in these in these five behaviors. 

1. Have all the information about their product and know something about the competition so they can intelligently compare their product with the competitors. The buyers will need to use their own evaluations and compare them with information from all competitors, but the input from each is helpful.
2. Respond to questions from the buyer or admit when they don’t know the answer. They should indicate that they will try to find the answer. In return buyers should provide essential information about actual needs.
3. Learn and understand purchasing policies and procedures to get the buyer’s point of view. Avoid back-door selling and work through the authorized buyer when contacting others within the customer organization
4. Continue to serve the buyer after the order is placed. Ensure that the order has been processed and follow its progress or delegate someone to do so, until the order is delivered. Advise of any problems before or after delivery.
5. Whenever discrepancies occur in billing or in product specifications or in regard to any other aspect of the order, promptly investigate why the problem happened, correct it immediately and take steps to prevent future occurrences of a similar problem.

"Shorten your sales cycle & increase your win rate through competitive excellence"

Editor’s note: Stu Schlackman is a frequent contributor to this blog.

What’s the difference between the sales cycle and the buying cycle and why is it critical? In a nutshell, it is another point-of-view (POV) issue.  POV of the people and teams involved determines your strategy.  Your role as the seller is different from their role as the buyer – leading to different POVs.   Understanding this, how can we impact these?

Processes

Two separate processes are linked but not identical.  You are engaged in a sales process as you interact with the buyer.  Call this process the “sales cycle.”  The seller’s role in this cycle is to discover candidates, provide information, influence their decisions, and facilitate the closure of the purchase.  This process proceeds in a generally sequential flow.  Buyers are engaged in their own process called the “buying cycle”.  They discover a need, seek information on products/solutions, qualify candidates, weigh the alternatives, make a decision, and acquire the product/service.  These processes intersect in meetings and information exchanges during which you each have separate POVs linked to your goals – but these goals are not necessarily the same. 

Sales cycle

We see a progression of the customer moving in steps toward making a decision to purchase. The sales cycle takes this process toward our goal of making the sale. How we set our strategy and actions in the sales cycle directly impact the progress we make. We control a portion of the interlinked processes in the sales cycle, but the customer controls the buying cycle. This leads to a problem we, as sales professionals, have in forecasting the time when the sales cycle will end, when the purchase order will be awarded.  We predict closure from our POV. How many times have you seen the sales cycle slip? Nearly every forecast of a business opportunity slips out from the time they are expected to close. Closing business as forecasted has become the exception. Why? We do not control when the business is awarded, the customer does!  Just as with personality color, we must consider the customers POV.  

Stu's Four People You Should Know

Buying cycle

The customers see the sales cycle as just a segment of the entire buying cycle. The buying cycle process includes the following: 

• Client’s needs and budgeting for a solution
• Evaluating solutions- both internal and external
• Making the purchasing decision
• Implementation
• Evaluation of how the solution is performing.

In the sales cycle all we see the customer evaluating our solution and asking questions. We qualify the opportunity and ask about their timing and (mistakenly) take that as a firm commitment as to when they will make their decision. The problem is that we are not involved with the customer when they make their decision. The more engaged and participative we are in the buying process, the better our chances are of winning the business. If we come into the process at the beginning of the buying cycle, we better understand their complete needs, the expected impact and return on investment which will lead to more influence during the sales cycle.  We can begin to see this from their POV – a POV that is never fully captured in documents. How often have you responded to a request for proposal you received and won? Consider: who assisted in writing the proposal? Possibly one of your competitors who helped assess the needs in the beginning of the customer’s buying cycle.

What can we do to impact the sales and buying cycle?

• Understand their POV which will be different from yours
• Get involved with the customer in the earliest possible stage where they are assessing their needs and budgets
• Create a value proposition from their POV that differentiates you in their eyes from your competitors
• Build relationships with the key decision makers and influencers that are in control
• Expect changes and be flexible
• Understand the personality “color” styles of the decision makers

Many times in the sales cycle we try to create a sense of urgency. We see a situation from our perspective and not the customers. It’s impossible to find out everything that’s gong on behind the scene.  Our knowledge is imperfect and our access is limited. Any sense of urgency is created within the customer’s organization from their goals, priorities, and time constraints. We’re fooling ourselves if we think we can create urgency! Realize that something of high priority to us is not always the same priority for the customer.  

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 The role of personalities

 Yet inside each “role” they are playing in the buying process, is a real, live human with a specific personality.  Understanding the decision makers personality styles can make the difference in winning the business or not. Playing to what each decision maker values is critical. We also need to understand that each personality style evaluates making decisions differently and that difference will affect their own process timing.

Gold and Green personalities tend to be more objective when making a decision while Orange and Blue personalities lean towards the subjective side. When evaluating the five key considerations for a decision; cost, service, quality, capability and risk, each personality tends to prioritize two of the five more so than the others. 

• Blue   =         Quality & Service
• Orange =     Cost & Service
• Green =       Capability & Quality
• Gold  =         Cost & Risk

Consider the timing for business to close. Gold and Orange personalities are more apt to make a decision in a timely manner.  Blue and Green personalities are slower to commit.  Adjust your timing expectations, modify your interaction strategy, play to their values, and work within their POV of their buying process – and become the strategic seller.