As partners and sales professionals, Wayne Moloney and I spent many years throwing pebbles into the ocean of B2B selling organisations, hoping for positive change.
The impact for the few companies close to us, and their customers, has been gratifying. Many achieved significant, sustainable growth in sales and revenue. But a pebble does not cause a tsunami, and that is what is needed to create widespread, sustainable change.
As buyers have become more empowered, they no longer value sellers and their advice the way they used to. They don’t expect sellers to help them explore the current state of their business, or peel back the layers of their problems. That is because too many sellers focus on themselves and their product, not on genuinely helping the customer reach a valuable outcome.
The result: buyers only open conversations once they have made their own decision on what they need — far too late for a seller to be of any real help.
We saw that an earthquake was needed to drive a tsunami of change. Another sales textbook was never going to be the answer — there are thousands already. Our friend Mike Adams pointed out that the best way to change thinking and behaviour is with stories. So we decided a sales novel was the way to go, and tried for years to write it. Then along came Jeff Clulow, advertising writer and novelist, and the vision came alive.
If you are striving to be a great salesperson, or to transform the way your organisation sells, we think this novel might be the catalyst for your own tsunami.
— John Smibert, co-author
Why do we need to change the way we sell?
Buying organisations have changed the way they buy. Buyers investigate their situation more thoroughly, with more information available than ever — from the web, peers, consultants and their industry. More executives are now drawn into the decision-making unit.
Does that make buying easier? No — it has made it more complex and confusing, reflected in the rising number of ‘no decision’ outcomes, where the process stalls or the buying group cannot reach consensus. Buyers need more third-party help than ever, yet a selling organisation is rarely their first port of call, because we have trained them to see us as product-floggers rather than consulting partners. We need to enter the buyer’s journey earlier, as a trusted adviser providing genuine help.
The Authentic Selling model
Moving to a more authentic selling culture means learning to consult with the customer through the process, independent of our offering — conducting valuable, peer-to-peer conversations with senior decision-makers, using questions and stories that bring insight without preaching. We take the customer on a thinking journey that constructively disrupts their thinking in a way they value, while keeping their interests uppermost and our own company and product out of the conversation until late in the journey. We call this Authentic Selling, and it is why we wrote the book.
“There are tremors in this industry, and now I see the cracks appearing underfoot. This journal outlines a new methodology — a way we can gain early involvement and exert positive influence right from the start of the buyer’s journey. I call this framework EDVANCE.”
— Doug Churchill, from The Wentworth Prospect