How does a salesperson work with those who are cooler — 7 ways of proposition packaging
Establishing contact with a decision-maker can sometimes even be accidental. But what to do afterwards? In the face of lengthy approvals from the buying company, how do you maintain interest in your offer? How do you finally work with those who are, by definition, cooler than you? Andrew Pometun, founder of Selvery, a service for the instant generation of segmented sales presentations, talks about all this.
When reaching out to a buyer in B2C, or a decision-maker in the case of B2B, a salesperson acts like a hunter. They need to find a target in order to make their case. The more information the seller has about the buyer, the faster he completes the deal. It is an understandable stance of the taker: tell me something that will help me sell you something. This happens a lot in sales. However, the buyer is often intimidated by this “information hunt” and is put in a position of automatic rejection.
In order to receive, the seller needs to give. It is, therefore, a question of quality exchange. And any request to the buyer by the seller should be packaged in such a way that it contains an offer of something useful. Packaging is something that the recipient usually throws away. But in the case of corporate sales, the packaging itself can become a value for the future buyer.
Any kind of request packaging in corporate sales is built around the requirements of two cognitive principles. The first is the friendship formula formulated by CIA agents when describing how to recruit and re-recruit specialists from enemy services. The formula states that it is not a man who makes friends, but one’s brain. And the brain will be friends with the person who often and for a long time appears in the field of vision and gives positive emotions.The more often we appear in the field of view of the corporate client, the faster their brain begins to consider us first as safe, then interesting, then arousing curiosity, and then friendly.
The second principle is cognitive ease. The human brain makes a positive decision the more familiar the subject is to it. Using the formula of friendship and cognitive lightness allows the seller to get a kind of “pass to the VIP-club”. For example, if the buyer is not satisfied with his or her current supplier or if the deal is off for some reason, he or she will not look for a replacement, because the replacement is already in front of him or her.
What are the packaging types in corporate sales? They can be divided into 7 types.
Wow-packaging
Introduce something into your workflow that buyers ask for and the vast majority of salespeople don’t do. Surprise the prospective buyer with regular colourful reports of past meetings, for example. A tour of the buyer’s company’s production facility is also an example of wow-packaging.
VIP-packaging
VIP packaging confirms the importance of the customer. Such packaging could be, for example, a request for advice, an evaluation of a particular job, a comment on a situation. VIP packaging works better if you have your own corporate blog, where you can confirm the high status of the buyer.
Expert packaging
Expert enquiry packaging is the interaction of the seller as an expert with the buyer, not directly related to the future transaction. It can be a series of articles, a survey, participation in a study, a quote. One event organised by the seller can lead to dozens of expert touches with the buyer.
Business packaging
Any chore requires resources. A salesperson can build a relationship with a buyer by taking over some of the tasks. These tasks can be developing the TOR for the buyer, checking contacts, auditing work or mystery shopping, justifying to management, third-party references, market surveys and so on. When it comes to buying, you will have already established yourself as a useful and necessary business partner.
Entertaining packaging
Work takes up most of the time of corporate buyers. All the more valuable are the minutes of breaks for entertainment. The salesperson has a chance to exploit this human need, but this type of packaging is very risky because it requires tact and an understanding of the buyer’s sense of humour.
Gift packaging
Everyone receives industry holiday greetings. Unique greetings are a hundred times more valuable because, like Selvery, they hit the exact target, setting aside the routine. In corporate sales, it is possible to congratulate the birth of children, non-obvious dates, or themed executive days. For example, the director of an oil company can be congratulated on Samhain, because in her spare time, she venerates the Triple Goddess. And everyone else can be congratulated on Oilman’s Day.
Service packaging
Completing a transaction is not the end of a relationship. Rarely do you ask a buyer for estimates of the work done. The seller has a number of “legitimate” reasons to contact your buyer about the work done. And the only one that will remain on their radar is the one that is “not all”.
Whichever type of touch the salesperson chooses, it is important to work in such a way that along with the enquiry, the prospective buyer receives a positive emotion. An important nuance: in trying to warm up the buyer, you need to keep a balance so as not to overheat them. Balance is the skill that always allows you to be cooler, even in the event of rejection.
If you would like to know more, you can email Andrew Pometun on LinkedIn at this link.
