The Complex Sale: 101

Complex Sales are, by nature… Complex. And that means this is a big topic. In the late 1990s, I went on a 2-day course, so this video is, necessarily, the 101 version of what has stuck with me.
The Book of the Course!
Sales Skills: A Management Courses Introduction
This book gives a broad introduction to the topic, for managers and professionals who don’t want or intend to specialize in sales and selling. And as a fast start for someone needing to make a start in selling, for whatever reason.
Get the kindle Exclusive book from: https://geni.us/TL5BKeD
Watching this video is worth 6 Management Courses CPD Points.
See below for details
Sales and Selling Skills
This video is part of course module 8.4.3
Program 8: Managing Customers and Clients
Course 4: Sales / Selling Skills
Section 3: Selling Techniques
Other videos in this section include:
You Need a Sales Strategy: Which One? https://youtu.be/oOsZg7tQcII
Cold Calling to Get a Sales Appointment https://youtu.be/WKL1IcRZzLk
The 1-2-3 of a Successful Written Sales Proposal https://youtu.be/WSQkW0MrFPE
Pricing and Fear of Price https://youtu.be/Sp6NTiFtzQE
Account Management: Account based Selling https://youtu.be/YfyQFfEOCyk
Sales optimization: Upselling, Down-selling, and Cross-selling https://youtu.be/hBmriRpdWkc
LESSON NOTES
What makes a sale complex?
• Multiple geographies (vendor or customer)
• Multiple products or services
• Potentially multiple partners
• Many leaders trying to get a share
• Long sales cycle with multiple stages
• Multiple decision-makers
• Huge information load
• Complex politics
Michael Porter - Core market Strategies:
1. Cost leadership
2. Differentiation (unique products/services)
3. Niche focus
In a complex sale, you are likely to be dealing with different buyers with different needs and approaches to evaluating the offer, as a:
- commodity
- competition
- solution to a problem
- opportunity for a partnership
The right sales strategy is often a Partnership Approach. Grow your partnership relationship to outcompete your commercial rivals.
Understanding Power and Influence
• The decision maker
• Financial controllers and CFOs
• Financial analysts
• Procurement executives
• Contract managers
• Subject matter experts
• Gatekeepers and other administrators
• Trusted advisors and consultants
• Formal evaluators
• Internal review, audit, and QA teams
• Users
• Political players with agendas
‘The crucible’ refers to the point where you are close to making a sale, and all the reason and logic that have got you this far start to fade away, and become replaced by emotion and political agenda. This is the most dangerous point in the complex sale process.
RECOMMENDED EXERCISE
If you are, or are likely to be, involved in a complex sale process.
1. What makes this a complex sale? (1 MC CPD Point)
2. What are your competitive advantages - or what advantages can you create? (2 MC CPD Points)
3. What do you know about your prospective customer? (2 MC CPD Points)
4. What strategies will you be considering - and why? (4 MC CPD Points)
Take a look at our video on French & Raven’s Power Bases: https://youtu.be/wLtTu8B0aek This and, indeed, other videos in our course on the Nature of Organizations (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?listPL6vWkk9L7LeGF14eUwmzg6rcqj8T_6W9U), will be very helpful.
DOWNLOADS
Free Resources
CPD Tools - https://gum.co/MC-CPD
Paid resources
Management Courses Onboarding Kit - https://gum.co/MC-ObK ($3)
RECOMMENDED READING
There are many books that introduce sales and selling. These are the ones I have, and can recommend:
To Sell Is Human https://geni.us/L2EQmt
The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need https://geni.us/AEAVD5
The New Strategic Selling https://geni.us/Zt2Z9n3
SPIN Selling https://geni.us/Ir5xu
The Psychology of Selling https://geni.us/AjR8AA
Links to our book recommendations are affiliated through Amazon and help support our free videos
Managers Need a Basic set of kit to do your job well. Here are my top recommendations: https://kit.co/MikeClayton/manager-s-work-kit (the links are affiliated)
MANAGEMENT COURSES CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD) POINTS
You can record your Management Courses CPD points on our free, downloadable CPD record log.
Download it at: https://gum.co/MC-CPD
Each video has two levels of MC CPD points. For this video:
- If you simply watched the video, record 6 MC CPD points
- If you also carried out all of the recommended exercises, score a total of 15 MC CPD points
CHAPTER MARKERS
00:00 - The Complex Sale process
00:36 - What makes a sale complex?
01:41 - The potential client
02:16 - Competitive advantage
02:54 - Market strategies
04:08 - The complex customer
05:31 - A team effort
07:11 - The master strategy
08:38 - The benefits of a partnership approach
09:14 - Competitive strategy
11:41 - Complex sale - tactics
13:20 - Understanding power and influence
15:10 - The Crucible
#ManagementCourses #Sales #ComplexSale