3.1 Three elements in every sale
Inception is creating an idea created in the minds of the audience that aligns to an outcome you want to engineer. As the creator of an inception device, whether you are in Sales or Marketing, your goal is to communicate context, create resonance for your core truth and drive action. The goal is to create inception in the mind of the audience for an idea that ticks three needs:
1. I need to do something. I need to change some part of organisation that isn’t right.
2. I need to do it with company X. They’re the only people that can solve this problem I have.
3. I need to do it now. I have to act or I will miss the opportunity.
These three needs should be the focus of planning communications to target audiences. Any marketing or sales campaign that does not address all three of these requirements will miss its potential. An activity that does not create an emotional attachment will find itself subject to slower pipeline progression and lower win rates. An activity without a connection to your company will not capture it’s full pipeline potential and will lose out to competitors. And a campaign that does not create a compelling reason to act will appeal only to limited organisations or people that are interested in strength of brand rather than capability.
1. Create a reason to act
A compelling reason to act is one that breaks the status quo. Doing nothing needs to be unacceptable. The need to change you create must resonate with your target audience and stick with them. The classic technology adoption curve may be simple but can give some good guidance on audience reasons. Early in a product or service’s lifecycle case studies and customer success stories are less likely to exist or may be more generic. Innovators and early adopters may not be so concerned, though, and may be more open to buying based upon potential – potential returns, potential advantages. The reason to change can be to get ahead of the competition, predicated on the position that to do nothing is to hand the advantage to a competitor that will be moving forwards. Later, during the Late Majority and Laggards stages you may be dealing with people who have low tolerances of risk or negative past experiences but could fear falling too far behind in capability so customer examples – both individual stories and breadth and volume of adoption and the benefits they’ve already been recognising – may be necessary.
Cultural considerations need to play an important factor in creating this reason to change. A common mistake made by many global enterprises is to assume that centrally-developed corporate activities – be they marketing campaigns or sales messaging – apply with equal relevance to all markets. Some cultures and industries exist more comfortably in the early-stage space than others, and where some markets embrace grand potential for growth allied with fear of missing out (FOMO), other markets may simply see a high-risk of failure and lack of long-term perspective. High-growth organisations need to read their market very carefully if they are to understand when their early adopter pool has dried up and must evolve their messaging if they are to continue their growth trajectory. Similarly, in some cultures, fear of missing out and potential outcomes need to be messaged by using evidence rather than possibilities. Market understanding is essential.
2. Create a product in the mind of the buyer
To sell an idea that someone desires is to create a clear image of your unique product or solution in their mind. It is wonderfully benevolent of you if you chose to create demand for a product – slaving to convert people and grow mindshare as you do – while allowing a competitor, presumably unencumbered with the marketing costs you’ve had to incur to steal business away from you because the image of your product is non-specific. The image that needs to be created in the mind of the buyer is one exclusively shaped to your solution. There is a well-trodden route where good sales people that engage early enough with a customer can help the project business lead write their RFP by providing unique insights that add value. Of course, the fact that this insight is uniquely aligned to the seller’s solution differentiation and so conveniently frames the RFP in their favour is only coincidental. ‘Independent’ (quotes used intentionally) firms that offer consultancy can also be important influencers in this early stage of refining the brief.
Many different sales techniques have been developed over the years with advocates and detractors of each. Of these, it’s worth looking at some common trends that emerge from them: Solution Selling, Value Selling and The Challenger Sale all look to create an image in the mind of the buyer of a solution that uniquely aligns to the organisation doing the selling. Of course, the mind of the buyer may also be driven by emotion. Are they the type of organisation that buys from a brand like you? If they know of you, if they think positively of you – in other words, if they like you – then it’s probable that they’ll want to buy from you. It’s not unknown for people to want to buy from organisations they like simply because they like them. Liking is a powerful action driver so building a brand, building a perception of industry leadership, low-risk, user-adoration, time-to-value or whatever you want to differentiate yourself with can make you look like the product in their mind even before they’re really clear on their requirements. When you’re receiving a consistent volume of inbound RFPs that you go on to win, you know your brand is working.
3. Support the rational facts with emotional weight.
Emotional weight need not be limited to happy or sad. Anyone that has been to any supermarket has experienced the allure of limited-time discounts. FOMO is very real. ‘Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM’ is a recognised by-line for this trend; the implication being that even though IBM may not be superior or the lowest priced, it is the safe, low risk option that no-one could be punished for selecting. Lower risk, aligned values, a feeling of being part of a movement, that sense of working with the best-of-the-best, a sense of partnership or meeting of minds, understanding of a shared higher-purpose – these are all emotional opportunities that can be connected to the rational facts that may underly a decision.