Insider Competition – Customers make Plans (Part 2)

For B2B decisions, do “budgets” actually drive the money? Not really. Competition for resources is always there – driving allocation or re-allocation of management support and scarce funding. For your champion, personal credibility is put on the line when a vendor proposal is recommended (yours, we hope…!). The customer internal situation is often chaotic and messy. Budgets don’t matter. We need to think about “alignment”. This means alignment of the major forces which lead to decisions; business drivers as well as personal and political drivers, within a specific unique organization. Without alignment, deals stall. When deals stall, we do not usually get told – until much later. This leads to lower sales results, and dangerously low forecast accuracy.

So, stalled deals are an important signal. Momentum may still be there, yet it is often hard to find and hard to confirm. We will do better taking a proposal approach that captures momentum information in real time, by operating inside the insider circle. Yes, we should boldly aim to operate inside the chaos.

Let’s assume we have requested and received agreement to co-author the ‘internal proposal’. As we explore the “Business Drivers” we must gather info about existing initiatives and funded projects. We need to show, for our proposal, the cause/effect line of reasoning to prove our offer will support established goals. Even better, we need to show how we increase the success of other specific initiatives (already approved & funded).

Customer Context is nuanced – become an insider

Sales conversations with a buyer often start with a simple question, “we have a problem X … can you solve it?” Then, if a recommendation is prepared, by you or your champion, it goes into a long game of evaluation, with the real “end game” not visible to the sales team. The idea that we have a problem X may not even be agreed by all stakeholders. This is not a surprise. All B2B sales people know about the rocky road to approval, and there are certain basic techniques that must be deployed – e.g. do background research on customer organization, vision and mission, company organization and culture. Anything which has a “time foundation” can be a gold mine – e.g. the current annual plan, new products or expanded operations (with planned completion dates), special projects, etc. All this discovery can generate many points of support for your new idea. But what about points of resistance? Opposition to any proposal is common.

So, for an insider advancing your proposal, they need an intimate understanding of all these currents. Below the surface, there may be opposition to your general offer – often indirect in the form of other ways of spending money, or comfort with the status quo. Your champion needs to have genuine interest in reading the political tea leaves, and deeply understand the organizational culture. That is why they will generally accept your offer to assist in preparing the internal proposal – rather than be left alone among conflicting agendas.

Insider perspective – move from insight to influence

Initial B2B research and discovery conversations include some basic information about the customer’s business – to confirm that the “problem-you-can-solve” is actually relevant:
– Overview 1-year and 2 year business plans
– Current year priorities – both operating plans and improvement projects
– The specific primary problems and downstream secondary problems
– Culture of this business? (i.e., how do people work together, to get things done?…)
All this will identify if there is a real need, and also the other high-level initiatives that may compete with you for resources.

Secondly, let’s dig a bit deeper, to learn more about the people – and identify personal agendas:
– Who gains from your proposal?
– Who will be involved in formal approval?
– Who could be an informal approver or opponent?
Don’t be shy to talk with opponents as well as supporters – you need to have relationships with all camps, and insights on the various motivators to decide whether to continue, or take an off ramp. Even an initial opponent can become a supporter once you understand their perspective, and show what’s in it for them.

Third – this is really about creating “change momentum” with all stake-holders. Even terrific improvement ideas start with NO momentum – ouch! To get the wheels turning you need to identify selected situations that have people’s attention – and problems you can actually solve – and the value of solving these problems. Also, figure out how to show the negative value of leaving the problems unsolved.

One hotel chain I worked with had dithered over the question of installing high speed Internet for guests – for over 6 months! When we (finally…) requested a joint internal proposal project, they agreed. We tied in Hotels undergoing renovations as well as new Hotels under construction – and the timetables for those important projects demanded a decision on the Internet installations. It was not just an Internet product evaluation, it was a larger question of supporting the hotel business plan. We got the project un-stalled, and won an important order and a new client. The win came directly from asking if we could help prepare an internal proposal, then working with them through an agreed list of structured questions. The decision in our favor came from the insights which flowed from that internal proposal, essentially enabling a new way to create B2B sales progress.

More on working with your champions in the chapters to follow, including the secrets of how to avoid putting in a Proposal too early.