Selling has a bad rep (and let’s face it, some bad reps!) but making Sales is the only way you can make a difference. You need to inspire people to see that your ideas and products are worth buying.
SellingLean is for people who want to make more Sales but are fed up with Selling. This is for people who never want to read about a bunch of uncomfortable and forgettable tactics that are rich in promise and poor in delivery.
This is for you if you feel your products and services are not achieving the Sales they deserve. This is for you if you are struggling to grow beyond the start up phase and you are not yet hitting the hockey stick growth curve.
SellingLean is for people who want to help customers buy from them. We want to help you develop fans and not just customers. We believe that when you put the right strategies in place you can build a sales culture that will have customers knocking on your door and the sort of people you want working for you asking to join your company.
We believe Selling isn’t something you ”Do” to other people. We believe you should Help People Buy from You. So, more helping and less selling…How is that going to work? Give me a couple of minutes and I will explain…
At the highest level, all the companies I talk to have three main problems. They want more sales, they want to spend less time “selling” and they would like to enjoy the whole process more. Solving these problems are at the core of Selling Lean and what motivates all of my coaching and training.
I have combined these goals with the Lean Thinking Strategy which is all about delivering Value to your Customers and pursuing continuous improvement of processes and products.
SellingLean is a Strategy that can deliver very fast results but this is not for people who want some get rich quick scheme. If you want to build a sales culture that is focussed on your customers and delivering value to them then this is for you.
If you would like a more detailed explanation of the SellingLean Strategy please click here for the Strategy Ebook.
To implement the Selling Lean Strategy there are 5 Core Modules that form the basis of my training and coaching.
1. We first focus on How People Buy From You. This is the “bones” of SellingLean and provides the structure. There are 7 steps to any purchase and you need to be able to address each step with equal care and focus or you will find yourself losing deals just when you thought you were winning.
Everybody in your organisation should understand How People Buy From You and their part in the process. We want to help People buy from you and to do that you need to know How.
2. Next we focus on Value. Whatever your product or service provides it all hinges on the Value that it delivers. We have a three stage process for Hacking, Mapping and Stacking Value.
In other words we first look to see what the customer thinks the value of a given solution might be. We then dig a little deeper (Hack) and and try to see if there are other hidden stores of value that the customer might receive from your solution. For example, how will this affect your customer’s customers and what about their competition?
We then look at the process for delivering value (the Map). This might take in resources, timescales and other competing or complementary projects (you can’t deliver a production line to a factory that hasn’t been built).
Finally we pull all the pieces together (Stack) to see if we have a compelling and irresistible case. Does the value the customer is going to receive and the timetable for delivery outweigh the costs and risks, or do you need to do more?
For large projects and programs or truly transformational products we employ a Value Blueprinting methodology. This is a process that makes it easy for the customer to see all the stages of the program delivery and to map what benefits will be received and when.
3. Stage 3 is examining Your Customer’s Kingdom - We have all heard the expression “your customer is king (or queen)” but we really need to look at the whole kingdom if we are going to succeed. This means understanding who influences, who partners, who can help and who are common enemies or competitors. It is about building a picture of who your customers really are and how you might fit into their world.
Understanding existing customers also helps us build profiles for prospective customers. This information is used in the Risk Adoption Profile (RAP) for new prospects.
4. Elevate Your Pitch - The objective is for people to be knocking at your door. Here we examine how the power of story can magnetise and attract. We use a proven story template that has long been used by screen writers and playwrights and explain how both the science of story telling and the magic of the moment can share the same page.
We also look to the power of persuasion and how the marketing material you produce answers the needs of your sales team. This means looking at How People Buy From You and mapping your marketing materials against the 7 stages of the purchasing cycle.
5. Finally we look to Process Makes Perfect. There is no point in having a killer sales strategy if the Process lets it down. You need a Closed Loop Sales and Marketing System which leaves no room for gaps. This is not so much the CRM system you are using but a continuous improvement strategy.
To introduce Selling Lean into your organisation will take time. Inevitably some strategies will offer a faster and bigger payback depending on your individual circumstance. We recommend operating on a quarterly goal driven cycle and we can work with you to determine the optimum implementation plan.
My name is Roger Puttick and I was in sales in the corporate IT world for about twenty years with over $100 million in sales. For the last 10 years I have been an entrepreneur with a mixed bag of success and failures that taught me lessons and sent me searching for answers that I now want to share with you.
I have also raised over $30 million in funds from various Venture Capital Funds and sat on quite a few start up boards and created successful partnerships with some of the biggest companies in the IT industry. Working with third parties like VC Investors or large corporate partners is made a lot easier if you have a strong sales strategy in place and Selling Lean can help in this process.
I have learnt that start-ups are not the same as established corporations. I have been fortunate in working for a company that went from zero to a billion dollar turn over in a little over six years. At the time (late eighties, early nineties) this was the fastest growing company in the world and it did it in an established market against some fierce competition. The focus on the customer and delivering outstanding value were two of core components of this company’s success and perhaps the most valuable lesson that I learnt.
When I started out, I was actually a pretty poor excuse for a salesman. In fact during my first 9 months I sold nothing and was very lucky to still have a job. I went on training course after training course and hated every minute of it. I realised that whilst I enjoyed talking one on one to people, the act of standing up and giving sales presentations was some sort of hell designed to torture my introvert nature.
Well, I hate losing and I loved my product. I knew that the systems I was selling could provide huge benefits to thousands of businesses. I realised that I was never going to be the sort of salesman that the training courses wanted me to become, but I also knew that if I could help people understand what our product could do for them, then they would buy.
This is one of this “aha” moments that is easy to see in hindsight but harder to recognise at the time. The significance of this change from trying to become the course salesman to becoming someone who helped people buy from me was dramatic. From not selling anything I was top salesman in my group. I went on to sell more than $100 million and was always in the top 10% of sales people.
Now I have taken all the experience I have gained and married it to a lot of learning. Specifically I have developed SellingLean to embody the Lean principles of delivering value and to combine this with a powerful sales strategy that respects the buyers and delivers sales.
I believe there are lots of companies who are not getting the sales their products deserve and as a result having a much harder time than is warranted. If you believe in the value of your product but think that it is not generating the customers that it should, then perhaps SellingLean can help.
I have a number of offerings that are built around SellingLean for you to consider:
If you would like to know more please download the ebook by clicking here
If you would like to book a free strategy session to see if we might work together please click here
If you would like to review the SellingLean training please click here