FACE–TO–FACE VS. PHONE SALES: A CASE STUDY

I recently was halfway around the world, meeting a new business
partner, and found myself in the midst of a seller’s nightmare: I had to do
an in-person prospecting call on one of the world’s largest banks,
with an unfamiliar business partner, with no idea of the reason behind
the cold call, or the people who would be there.

When I was picked up from the airport I was told of this meeting, and
there was no one available to discuss anything with me until we were at
the client site. Nightmare.

As we entered the building, I quickly asked the history of the prospect
relationship, the expected outcome, and the level of the folks we were
meeting with. The news wasn’t good: this was the first prospecting
call and they weren’t sure who would be attending, but they hoped I
could help them open the account by using my Buying Facilitation model to
encourage a working relationship.

Great. Just great. Unprepared. No data. No strategic planning. The
prospect would see an unknown vendor, coming for an unknown reason,
dragging along a very tired – and unknown – foreigner. They’d most
likely know nothing about my work, models, or books. They wouldn’t know
how to differentiate me from the competition, or how to choose me.

What would success even look like? And other than what I’d read and
heard about this Middle Eastern country I didn’t even understand the
cultural norms of vendor/client communication, not to mention if my
being a woman would be a negative.

THE NEED FOR FACE MEETINGS

When Dale Carnegie introduced the need for face meetings, face time was
vital due to the difficulty in getting broad exposure for products.
Now, we can take it for granted that the next seller who stands in front
of our prospect – if we can even get an appointment! - will be just as
charming, caring, well-dressed, smart, and professional. And if a
personal relationship is the only criteria for a prospect choosing a vendor,
then the seller has a truly long slog here, to find only those buyers
with buying patterns and personalities that match the seller’s selling
patterns and personality.

I don’t believe in using my body as a prospecting tool. I believe
that if it’s important to a seller to have a face meeting, they should
first become part of the prospect’s decision team and have already
decided collaboratively, with the prospect, how they plan on working
together and how best to use a face meeting. Then, a face meeting cements
the relationship and brings together the rest of the decision team, even
on the first meeting. Otherwise, the only prospects who will agree to a
face meeting are those already in the market, and interviewing untold
others. Not to mention that when several things seem the same, the only
differentiator is price.

But I didn't have much choice in this instance, and there was no
agreement, action plan, or stated outcome that a prospecting call using
Buying Facilitation would have ensured.

I realized that I would be out of control during this call, even if my
training would solve their business problem: there was no prior
decision on who should attend the meeting and an untold number of people from
the decision team wouldn't be present (and would need to be managed
afterwards somehow); and if they were willing to see us on a cold call,
they were certainly seeing others.

CASE STUDY OF A FACE-TO-FACE PROSPECTING CALL

Given that my choices were limited, our meeting proved interesting. I
believe I made a difference in our ultimate outcome, but I’m not sure
that a face meeting was any more successful than if I had used
Facilitative Questions on the phone.

I’ll describe the face visit conversation, and then offer a mock
Buying Facilitation conversation as to a phone call I might have had prior
to the meeting.

Meeting

At the prospect's site, a large man with a gentle persona, followed by
a smaller, local, man, came out to bring us to a small office in which
sat a very professionally attired woman. The large man sat down in a
tiny chair, and the smaller man went behind a very large desk. As they
introduced themselves, I barely had time to peruse the 2 business cards
handed to me – the men gave me cards, but not the woman.

I addressed my first Facilitative Question to the man behind the desk:
“How are you currently adding new sales skills to the ones you’re
already offering your
staff?” I realized that I had addressed the question to the wrong
man, as I noticed everyone looked to the large man in the small chair for
an answer. I quickly glanced down at the business cards and noticed
this man was the big big boss. He began telling a charming story of how he
was just in the country for a few weeks, and newly brought in to head
up this division and bring in new thinking. He said he was delighted
that I asked that question.

OK. I was on the right track but there was a major problem: the local
man at the big desk had been at the bank for a long time, and was the
sales manager for 5 years. If he had been doing a good job, the new man
wouldn’t have been brought in! Not to mention that the smaller man
most likely had a team of loyal followers (in countries outside the US,
folks stay at their jobs for decades) who would have some strong feelings
about a new man, from another country, coming in with big ideas that
would certainly change their status quo.

The problem was much, much bigger than needing new sales skills. All of
the brilliance I offered would be moot if they couldn’t manage the
internal politics that this problem created. And, obviously, I couldn’t
manage the internal politics for them: while their Identified Problem
was something I could solve with my product, until they could manage
their internal politics, they weren’t going to take any action.

The internal problem

Once I recognized the elephant in the room, I decided to ask a tactical
Facilitative Question to help my prospects begin to make sense of their
main issue:

“Since you (the man at the desk) have been around for some time and
have a loyal team behind you, how can you bring in new thinking (which
he obviously had failed to do) that might represent change, and have the
team remain loyal?”

The man behind the desk nodded:

“No problem. No problem. We can handle this. We are very excited to
have someone new join us with new ideas. We look forward to change and
hearing how you could help us.”

Right.

The boss quietly said:

“That is why I’m here: to bring in new thinking, and manage
implementations. I’m sure that we can all get on board here and there
shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve done this sort of thing in other banks, and
we’ve been successful. I have met the folks here and they are great.
It will be fine.”

OK. Now I had a larger problem. They were either really going to be
fine, they were doing denial, or just giving me, the outsider, the company
view. I had no way of knowing. I turned to the woman (turns out she was
the training manager) seated, quietly, next to me and said to her:

“I’m so glad that everyone is getting on so well, and I’m sure
that it will work out fine. I’m wondering what you would need from a
vendor to ensure an easy implementation?”

She briefly opened her eyes wide, and quickly returned to her very very
composed, professional behavior.

“Thanks for bringing that up and caring. I’m sure that there
won’t be a problem, like the gentlemen said (smart woman). In case there
is, maybe you could explain to us what you have done in the past when
bringing in new material? And possibly give us a run-down on what you have
that might be interesting to us to help us differentiate ourselves from
our competitors, as I saw on your website (Ah. The woman had done her
homework.)? If what you have has value for us, maybe you and I could
have further conversations about the content. Along the way, if any
internal issues come up – which I don’t think there will be – we can
discuss them at the time.”

Good. I just got onto the decision team.

“Great. It seems to me there are several issues here. One: how will
you all decide on the specific type of new thinking you would be willing
to bring in; Two: how you’ll know that one specific set of skills
would work better than another since you wouldn’t have a way to
understand the outcome before you start; Three: how you could ensure, before
you start, that a new skill set would work comfortably with that your
folks are already using; Four: how will you know when it’s time to
address implementation issues; Five: how would you know we would be the type
of partner who could help you manage all of these issues?”

Follow-up action

The boss nodded vigorously and smiled. He asked me to write down the
points I’d just made, email them to him, and contact him in two weeks
to move the conversation forward. Sounded great – until I called him
at the appropriate time, and he told me that he had handed everything
over to the training manager. I had to ask permission to speak with her
as no one had given me her number. I have left a message for her and
have gotten no response yet.

I believe my ‘relationship’ with them all is as good as their
memory. Did they like me? Appreciate me and my questions? Yes. Did that move
the sale along? Not convinced – they still have too many internal
issues to manage. And now I have to find ways to maintain the relationship
and conversation, while living half-way around the world.

Because there was so much going on in the room, I'm not convinced they
understood the difference between Buying Facilitation and a more
conventional selling model. I have started a conversation, and we have
developed some rapport. I believe they trust me a bit, and might consider a
pilot – but I’m also sure they will pilot other programs as well.

Since I teach that it’s not necessary to make a face-to-face visit
until the internal decision team has agreed to change and has a model for
the specifics of how to bring in a new idea/product/vendor, I was
curious if what happened in this interaction could have been managed better
on the phone. I think so.

MOCK CONVERSATION OF TYPICAL BUYING FACILITATION SEQUENCE

I've never had a face meeting prior to signing a contract with a major
corporation, and yet on a second or third conference call, I've met
with the entire decision team and made collaborative decisions involving a
great deal of buy-in and change. I will create a similar conversation
here, much like I've done (literally) thousands of times before. Note
the difference with the absence of the political issues, and how far I
can get using these Facilitative Questions on the phone:

SDM: How are you currently offering new selling skills to your sales
people?

Boss: We haven’t been. I’m just here a few weeks, and I was brought
in to help us differentiate ourselves from the competition. I’m
actually seeking new material to trial now as part of my purview.

SDM: That sounds exciting. What fun! What has stopped your group from
achieving this until now?

Boss: The past manager was very good at keeping the status quo and
managing the office politics. My job is to find new thinking and bring it
in. Do you have something new for us?

SDM: Well, I’ve got a new sales model, but let’s discuss that in a
few moments as I think there are other issues we’d need to manage
first. I suspect you’ll have to manage some internal, personal issues
with the old manager and his team with whatever material you choose. How
would you need to work with a new vendor to ensure that you, the
decision team, and the vendor, would all work well together while
implementing a trial?

Boss: We’d all have to get on board here, make some team agreements,
and monitor the implementation from the beginning. I would bring in the
training manager to help with this as I believe her to be very
committed to success. I’d also have to understand that your material, over
the more conventional material, would bring me the new skills that I’m
seeking while not creating too much confusion for our sales folks who
have been using SPIN for a long time.

SDM: So as we move forward, we’d have to ensure that there is buy in
from the decision team, and be aware of any danger signs. We could work
that out between us. Before I give you data about my Buying
Facilitation Method®, can you tell me what would new skills give you that you
don’t have already?

Boss: We’re having great difficulty differentiating ourselves in this
market: our products appear similar to our competitors, and clients
don’t know how to buy us. We’ve tried educating them, but that
doesn’t seem to make much of a difference in our numbers.

SDM: My model, Buying Facilitation, helps buyers know how to choose you
over the competition. It’s a collaborative decision making model,
rather than a product placement or problem solving model – it gives
sellers the tools to teaches buyers how to buy, rather than approaching it
through the product sale. How would you know, before we were to do a
pilot, that you and the rest of the team would be willing to consider a
model this unusual?

Boss: I’d have to understand it better, and the team would have to
agree to consider it. How can we get a hold of material that would help
us learn more about it?

SDM: In addition to sending you some reading material, I’m actually
coming to that part of the world in a few weeks. I would love to stop in
and meet with all of you. What would be the best use of our time
together once I’m there? And, given all of the political issues you’re
facing in your new assignment, who should be at the meeting, what would
you need to see from me, and what sort of an outcome would we be
seeking? I think it would be best to plan all of this before I get there.

Different outcomes

In my estimation, had I been able to use Facilitative Questions on the
phone prior to our face meeting as I did in the mock conversation
above, I could have helped the Boss recognize the internal issues (politics,
relationship issues, and management issues, etc.) that needed to be
managed outside of the purview of the Identified Problem and accelerate
his decision cycle accordingly. I would have become his decision partner
and eschewed the uncomfortable relationship issues that came up during
our meeting. By the time it was relevant to discuss and pitch my
product, he and the team would have been in a position to make a purchasing
decision - or not, and I would have known that prior to making a face
visit. [Note: Buy the book that breaks down the decision segment from the
product sale segment: Buying Facilitation: the new way to sell that
expands and influences decisions, at www.buyingfacilitation.com]

Use face-to-face meetings to cement the decisions the entire decision
team needs to make with you; use the phone to help the early decisions
get made and the decision teams coalesce and start taking the action
they need to take anyway. It’s the internal, unique, and idiosyncratic
systems end of the buying decision that’s been hidden from us for so
long, but is now able to be managed with the Buying Facilitation
Method®.

The time it takes buyers to come up with their own answers is the
length of the sales cycle, whether it's a decision to buy an insurance
policy or a company-wide implementation. By leading the buyer through the
entire range of necessary decisions, you can reduce the length of the
sales cycle by 75% and you can do much of this on the phone. By sticking
to Dale Carnegie's belief that sales calls need to be face-to-face,
you're 1. helping delay the sales cycle, 2. not getting to partner with the
decision team in a truly supportive way until farther into the sales
cycle than necessary, 3. wasting unnecessary time on prospects who won't
buy, 4. keeping yourself solidly in a price, product, and service
competition, and 5. waiting in the dark as the decision team figures out the
decisions they need to make that you could have sequentially walked
them through much more quickly.

Use the phone as a smart business tool. Save the face visits for when
it will actually support a closed sale with a ready prospect. Do you
want to sell? or have someone buy?

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ABOUT MORGEN FACILITATIONS

COACHING

Do you need a thinking partner to help you walk through your own
decisions around how to manage your sales team? Choose new sales people?
Carry out new initiatives? Rebrand a product line and help sellers position
it in the market? Help your sales folks use the phone better? Sharon
Drew is available to do hourly coaching. Contact her at:
sdm@austin.rr.com to set up an appointment.

PRODUCTS

Many of our products can help you learn how to develop the Facilitative
Questions. While you can learn about the mode in full by buying the
ebook (or MP3) Buying Facilitation: the new way to sell that expands and
influences decisions (www.buyingfacilitations.com you can also listen to
Sharon Drew make prospecting, qualifying, fund raising, and customer
service calls for over 2 hours on her audio CD’s. Visit
www.buyingfacilitation.com and purchase a product to help you understand the model and
take away some action items. Of course, training is also available for
long or short programs, should you wish your team to learn the Model.

BLOG

Sharon Drew welcomes active participation in her blog, at
www.sharondrewmorgen.com/blog/. She is also supporting conversations on,
www.salespractice.com/forums/t-3547.html. We hope to see you there