Software Selling – R they listening or interrupting?
Solution Explorers on February 22nd, 2010. Under Uncategorized
When you are talking is the other person on the other end of the can listening or also talking? Be honest, haven’t you wanted to put duct tape over the mouth of a salesperson before? In some cases, we buyers may need to share in some of the blame.
This is a really brief post but one that fits well in between the two software Discovery phases – Needs Analysis and Solution Exploration. I’ve been guilty so many times of moving on to discovery phase two before I and the buyer were ready. Let’s demo! Yippee! In fact, I’ve been guilty many times of interrupting the buyer just as they were explaining their issues, pains, frustrations, etc. Why? Because, as the article below illustrates, I could see where the conversation was going and was ready to talk about MY solution.
Read more at – http://www.smartsellingtools.com/3questions.html
Here’s the key point I want to make before moving on to the next post in the Find Software – Tips for Buyers series: Discovery – Solution Exploration. That is, as a buyer you really can open yourself up to software sellers too early. When you do, many of these sellers, not all though, are all too ready to TALK about THEIR solution and why you should buy from them. Again, this reality supports the importance for buyers to thoroughly consider their business and functional needs – see http://bit.ly/brliKa – BEFORE making their search public. As the article illustrates so well, even us well-meaning salespeople fall into the trap of interrupting you quickly and once that happens it is easy to become distracted (pulled in, sold, consider irrelevant systems, etc.) and frustrated (give up, delay, buy the wrong system, etc.). Don’t let this happen to your business.
Remember – Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance – so be sure and brainstorm, collaborate, and document YOUR needs before moving on to the exploration phase of searching for the business software system that meets YOUR needs. Even if you don’t talk directly with a person, Exploring online can still drain your resources if you don’t have a proper Needs Analysis in place to guide your search. Be a good steward of your time and of the time of those working for you.
