Goals/Challenges/Pains

For those of you who have been following my writings here and on LinkedIn, you will see that I use the term that is the title of this blog, quite a bit. The reason I use all three words is that depending on which "process" you subscribe to, you will use a different term, but I believe that many of the different processes are really talking about the same thing. If there were one common term that everyone used, then I would use it, but there isn't, so I use all three to represent the central concept.

'Nuff said about the words, what is the concept? Why this focus on goals/challenges/pains?

As a salesperson, we need to find something that the prospect will pay for. They don't want to pay for new software or a box of widgets. As I have told my teams in the past, no Audit Manager wakes up in the morning saying, "If I could buy some data analytics software today, I would be a HERO!!" No, they wake up thinking, "If I could prove that the control is not being violated, beyond a shadow of a doubt, then I will be a HERO today!!"

On a regular basis, good companies set goals and objectives. They do this because they know or expect that achieving this goal will produce profits. Most often, the goals are actually stated in terms of profits. So, if we can find out what those goals are, then we can expect that they will make investments (pay money) to ensure that the goals are achieved.

Or if they have challenges (usually people look at this as barriers to achieving goals) then if we have a solution to help them get around the barrier or to remove the barrier, then by the same token they are more likely to invest in order to achieve the goal.

And pains, well, they are just the frustrations around the barriers to achieving the goals.

So, you can see how they are all really leading to the same thing. Figure out what the prospect will pay money to achieve, what will make them a hero today, and that is what they will invest in since being a hero in business means achieving profits.

From an accounting standpoint, buying a CRM system is a cost. But buying the ability to increase revenue by 10% without increasing the sales team size is an investment.

Wow! I have gone from goals to ROI. How did that happen? The reality is that they are inextricably connected. If you are finding it hard to build an ROI or payback for the prospect, you can probably trace it back to weak goal development.

Homework for today: Go back to your customers and ask them what goals they achieved because of whatever you sold to them (or challenges that went away or pains that disappeared). Get exhaustive about it. And make sure they are business goals, not "wants" ( a "want" sounds suspiciously like a feature list, a goal sounds like an action). If the goal is not started with "increase", "decrease", "improve" or something similar, then it is not likely a goal. Get exhaustive with it and document it all. Then keep that list nearby and make sure you get your prospects to express as many of them as possible on your next sales call (without showing them the list).

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 19, 2009 at 5:55 PM

    Great article! Without the setting of goals we are running blind, and therefore "it's all good".

    Harvey Schiller - Corporate Kinetics - Management consultants creating Focused, Integrated and Tactical companies - hschiller@corporatekinetics.ca

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris BorowskiOctober 16, 2009 at 7:43 PM

    I agree, the big picture always needs to be kept in the forefront, if not the actual focus. This would pertain to both strategical and tactical aspects of maintaining a successful business. Kudos for a on the money article.

    Chris Borowski
    csboro@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bernie MachtNovember 28, 2009 at 9:29 AM

    Thank you for the great comments, guys. It is sometimes hard to write when you don't know if others are reading or not. I appreciate your readership, and the support.

    Bernie.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sales Benchmarking

I have been reading about shrinking pipelines, questions by sales management and trainers on how to focus development efforts, and a number of other general ailments in sales teams. For each one, there are many different ways to approach solutions, but the central question when things are going wrong is, where do I start in order to fix the situation? Without good data on what is currently happening, it is hard to determine what you need to fix in order to achieve what you do want to happen. In my experience, starting with the metrics and numbers is the first place to go. Let me tell you a story... There was a sales team that I had set out to provide some training for, quite a few years ago. They were all grossly under-performing. They seemed to know the product and were all really nice people, but the revenue numbers weren't good enough to support their office. The reps were complaining that there were not enough leads. Common comment. So, I wanted to get their focus onto ...
Read more

What type of customer are you serving?

Customers don't all come in one shape and size. However, depending on what you are selling and what your market is, you are likely to get relatively high consistency in general traits. Particularly in B2B selling. Selling data analytics solutions to auditors? Expect highly analytical people who will want to know everything there is to know about the subject and are not likely to be impressed by a Closer type salesperson. Be ready to have a complete needs analysis mapped out and a proposal that would put War and Peace to shame. Selling iPhones? Be ready for the technical questions and being able to show how the light sabre app works on it, then stand back and let them figure it out for themself. If you try to dig into goals/objectives/pains, you won't get enough of their attention to show them how the lighter works or how they can get a random restaurant in downtown NYC with four stars and two $$. These are just the two ends of the spectrum. There is every infinitely different m...
Read more

Who are you talking to in your network?

Let's do a quick little review of my blog in general, so far, to put Howard Stevens' ( http://www.chally.com/thosewho1.htm ) third rule into perspective, along with my focus for this blog. If you checked out this blog on day 1, and again today, you will likely have noticed that my introduction at the top of the page changed significantly . In fact, it changed three times. Why? Because I have been trying to figure out a focus for this blog. Why? Because, as my introduction now suggests, being professional is to do what you do with some sort of intent. You may then ask, "So, why did it change over three days? Did you not have an intent to begin with?" Well, yes, I did have an original intent, and that intent still exists. The reason things have changed is that I have added intent to the original. Let me explain. In the context of Stevens' third rule, "Salespeople use networking to develop quality contacts", my original intent for this blog was to contin...
Read more