I have been spending a lot of time lately with clients on the
challenge of Opportunity Identification within both accounts and prospects. The
challenge often boils down to “How do we identify interesting conversations
with key account stakeholders that can result in eventual sales?” And, of
course, how can we do this in a customer-centric way?
There are a number of strategies that I have putting in place at our accounts, but
one consistent theme emerges across most of my client engagements: Org Chart
Insight. Often salespeople use a client’s organisation chart to think about who
might be involved in a decision. This is obviously important, and if you’re not
doing this you need to be.
But true Org Chart Insight requires another step: it requires the
salesperson to really consider each function within the org chart, and what
they care about. If the sales team can genuinely put themselves in the shoes of
each function within the client organisation, then they can generate insights
as to how the selling organisation might be able to help.
Start by mapping out all of the functions in the organisation.
This can be a trick, because often we don’t think beyond the one or two
functions that we traditionally sell to. Try to get them all out. This
might include Purchasing, Market Research, Sales, Distribution, Manufacturing,
and more. These will vary by company (and, more broadly, by
sector).
Then step back and think about what a person in each
function really cares about. Here’s where a lot of salespeople struggle: this
is not about your product or service, or even what that role thinks about your
product or service. To gain real insight you need to think about what the role
really cares about on a day-to-day basis. Consider the following questions to
inspire you:
- How is someone in that role measured? What are their Key Performance Indicators?
- In their annual review with their own manager, what data do they bring to prove their performance? What achievements would they point to?
- What internal challenges do they face, day to day?
- What key opportunities are they tasked with pursuing?
- What big projects are ongoing within the function?
Notice that these issues are all about the client function and what
they are trying to achieve. It is NOT about how they might use your solution. Also
notice that you may need to take some educated guesses in some places. It is a
good idea to socialise your thinking internally and externally to validate your
first pass.
Once you get a sense of what matters to the various
functions within the account, THEN we can try to map our products, solutions,
capabilities, experiences, etc onto those issues. For each of the issues,
metrics, and challenges that the contact faces, consider how your solutions might help
the function address them. The ideas might be very different from how you help
your typical buying within an account – that is part of what makes this process
insightful. Generate as many ideas as you can – these are the potential
conversations that might create value, and generate sales.
Use your analysis to translate your ideas and solutions into
a language that reflect what each function cares about. If you can’t
translate your ideas into something that matters, you’ll likely destroy value
if you go in to talk to them. At the very least, you are likely to waste their time!
We will talk more in the future about how to approach
individuals and how to start those conversations, but if you use Org Chart
Insight you will have more, and better, opportunities to discuss with your
accounts!
What should you do
- Map out your account's Org Chart. Ask your existing account contacts for information, though sometimes you have to start with educated guesses.
- For each function in the Org Chart, consider what they really care about. This will get harder the further you get from the functions that you typically sell into.
- Challenge your sales team with the questions above. Make sure they are really thinking about what matters to their account.
- Get the language right. Use the Org Chart Insights to coach your team to get the positioning right: it’s all about the account.
