Sales As A Form Of Change Management

sales-change-managementAs sellers, we forget that when buyers make a purchasing decision, they are bringing our solution into their environment. And, trust me on this, their environment is not sitting and waiting around for us to show up.

The Identified Problem – need, or pain, as some of you may call it – has been there for some time, and the culture has already developed work-arounds for it. So if they have needed an accounting package, someone is doing that while waiting for the new software. If they need a leadership training, the folks are doing ‘leading’ in the best way they know how until the training.

What happens when they finally decide to purchase a solution is that the solution enters a system that has people, policies, rules, and initiatives in place that are managing the ‘need’  in some way. Sure, it’s not as effective or elegant as our solution, but it has worked – well, the way it’s worked –  until the purchase.

Within the buyer’s system, there is fallout that must be managed prior to them choosing a solution. What happens to the accounting clerk – will he be out of a job? Will he be taught the new software? Will he move to a different department?

As sellers, we forget that: we just see a need, have the right solution, and barrel forward in our sales effort. But the time it takes buyers to figure out how to manage their work-arounds is the length of the sales cycle. Make no mistake: no matter how necessary your solution is, without internal buy-in the buyer will not buy.

How ’bout if you use some of your time during your sales job to help buyers do their necessary change management, and facilitate all of those implicit decisions that sales doesn’t handle.

You can read how to do this in my ebook Buying Facilitation: the new way to sell that influences and expands decisions. www.buyingfacilitation.com Remember: until or unless the buyer is able to ensure that there will not be unmanageable fallout from a buying decision, they will do nothing.

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