Sharon Drew Morgen - Buying Facilitation

I wanted to start a thread where members can ask Sharon Drew questions about "Buying Facilitation". If anyone has a question or questions feel free to post them in this thread.

I'll start.

Sharon Drew, many salespeople are happy with the skills they are using. Why would they want to change if they think they are working for them?

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How necessary, or unnecessary, is buying facilitation if you're working with someone who is ready, willing, and able to buy?

two questions to be answered. i'll take gilbert's first.

the only people who are totally ready, willing, and able to buy are people buying toothpaste, or something simple that doesn't demand any input from internal criteria.

the question to ask yourself is: is it working? the way you'll know is if they call you, place and order, and it's all done in one call. once you need to follow up, or they need to call back, or you need to do ANYTHING other than take an order, they need some sort of help being let through their decision process.

just because people recognize and understand their Identified Problem doesn't mean they know how to resolve it - or they would have already! once people exhibit a need, it means they haven't decided to resolve it yet. either they can't, or they don't know how. so knowing the problem, knowing the solution, having the money, being ready and willing, doesn't mean they'll buy. unless in your case they do. then you certainly don't need Buying Facilitation.

that sort of answers jeff's question as well: sellers think that protracted sales cycles, and closing 10% or less is normal. and indeed it's the norm for the sales model and the entire field has adjusted to it.

remember: the time it takes buyers to come up with their OWN ANSWERS (which are absolutely hidden from us, and often at first hidden from them as well) is the length of the sales cycle. we've attempted to sell by understanding needs, solving problems, and placing product. but the buyer has an entire series of strange, unique issues they need to manage, and there has never been a way in to manage these issues before now.

i did some work with IBM a few years ago. we did a pilot with folks who had the same clients for 3 years - they were Relationship Managers. they were complaining that they didn't need to learn anything new cuz they knew their clients well and were in constant contact with them. during the training, we had 2 days of real time phone coaching, and i made some calls to their clients and they did as well. using Buying Facilitation, they actually discovered, AND CLOSED, $6,400,000 (that's six point four million dollars) of undiscovered business lying right there, on the table, and they would have lost the business, and the client's would either have not had their needs met at all, or would have used another vendor.

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Are buying facilitation questions like spin selling questions?

antithetical. two different animals. spin is a way to help place product and questions are directed toward problem solving. my facilitative questions are based on leading buyers through all of their decision criteria based on how the Identified Problem got created and maintained through time, and all of the internal issues (stakeholders, vendor issues, initiative past and future, personality problems, etc) that must be managed before they'll purchase. i have a pdf file that i think jeff just put up that you can print off (3 pages) that lays out the model. it's a decision facilitation tool that is unbiased and uses systems thinking; i've also sequenced the way decisions get made (brain function, etc) and use that to help buyers unravel what needs to happen for them to decide, using their own criteria.

questions like: what has stopped you from making that change until now? and how would you and your decision team know when they would be ready to consider adding a new vendor relationship to the ones you're already using?

it's not about you, or your product. it's about their decision.and my questions position questions to offer support in enlisting the buyer's own criteria for change.

sd

That looks very complicated.

walking is complicated for a baby. it's just new and different. and we've not been trained to think that way.

i've coded the sequence. and i teach people how to formulate the questions. the hardest thing when i teach is to get folks to listen differently. it's about listening to the SYSTEM behind what is being said rather than the content.

when i hear someone say "we didn't realize this solution would cost so much and we're going to have to wait 'til next year" i hear something different than what sellers hear. they usually start talking about price,thinking that there is a price objection. i hear that there are systems issues too large to be managed (it's almost never about price). so i ask a facilitative question here:
"What would you and your decision team need to be considering between now and then, so when the time is right everything will be ready and in place for you to implement without time wastage?"

once you learn it, like walking, it's not so complicated. just new and different.

Can it really be learned in three days?

yes and kinda.

1. i have developed a new modality for training that uses the same brain function sequencing that Buying Facilitation uses, so we're working with your learning centers rather than me doing lectures and info dumps to a brain that is already set up the way it's set up. so we can get pretty far along into the learning process as we open up possibilities and capapbility that didn't exist previously. every single student i've trained has learned. no exceptions. the training is just set up that way. it's a learning model rather than a training model. a bit more uncomfortable than regular training as the learner has much more work to do that it's always pleasant (i.e. you might learn that you don't really listen for what is being said vs what you want to hear, and then we have to move from there....but you might have feelings about what you are 'learning' that you wouldn't have if just taking notes).

2. you'll have to practice for a few weeks afterwards and i haven't figured out how to miss this step. imagine you are learning a new swing from Tiger Woods, or backhand from Chris Everett. you'd have to practice.and i can't make that any easier. but you walk away from the 3 days with about 50% of what you need. some people find that enough. some practice. it's what you want.

3. all that said, i've developed a second program that just teaches the 6 Facilitative Questions that will get you pretty far a lot of the time, and teach you how to understand all of the buyer's buying patterns. this course is much easier, without the learning curve. but you won't have the tools/skills to formulate the questions yourself.

so if you want EASY, take the Facilitating Buying Decisions program.
if you want to learn the entire model, take the Buying Facilitation program.

i happen to be running these next month here in austin. i don't generally run public trainings cuz my work is in organizations, but i'm running a Licensing Partner's program and you could take one of the modules if you don't want to be a licensee.

hope that all helps.

Are the two systems compatible?