Random Walk - The Paradigm Shift in Enterprise Solutions Sales

The Crisis that started with Lehman fall, really did change a lot of things on the ground...the way people looked at their businesses, the kinds of risks they were prepared to build in into their decisions, the casualness with which purchase decisions were made (all in the hope that this boom is going to go on forever), including even the sales presentations they gave and received! Yes, trust me, I have seen this difference although it took me some time figure out the shifts in patterns. However, whether this transition in sales presentations had started before the crisis and only got the final push post crisis, or it started only after the crisis and gained traction as time passed...is difficult to say, but a paradigm shift in the entire approach of Enterprise Solution Sales has been there for sure.

As a part of the Random Walk series on this blog, I thought I'd cover this intriguing topic about how not just the presentations, but the entire approach towards Enterprise Solution Sales has undergone a sea change. But before that, just to bring everyone on the same page, let me define what I understand by Sales of Enterprise Solutions...

• Enterprise Solution Sales

Enterprise Solutions are typically high value deals, (between USD 1 mn to 1 bn) with decision makers as the C-suite people of the organization. These are also far more complex than their smaller counterparts and each sales cycle can typically last anywhere between 6 months to 2-3 years before fructifying into a deal. There are deals above these levels of value and time as well, but then those are far more strategic in nature.

• What went wrong?

In the pre-crisis days, focus used to be purely on selling, on "This is what I want to sell you..." approach rather than "Is this what you need...?". This approach also involved wining and dining, relationships beyond work, and an aggressive and crude action to quickly convert that relationship into hard cash...(or wire transfers ;)). Not only was the focus on features / benefits in the offering low, the focus on converting the leads quickly and moving on to the next one was inordinately high. And as the markets went up in a tizzy, this practice only gathered pace, faster, even more faster conversions became the new mantra. The high degree of focus on quick conversions naturally diluted the other most critical steps of the sales cycle - that of building long-lasting relationships with the customer, being a trusted adviser to clients, and focusing on what the requirement is and how much the current product / service being sold can actually accommodate.

• The New Paradigm in Sales

Off late, this trend is taking a U turn in many ways. Focus is coming back on solving customer problems rather than selling solutions. And the people who are doing this just because they are unable to convert leads quickly anyways, are still lagging behind those who actually recognize the significance of getting in the door with a real solution rather than glib talk. "We've always maintained high standards in every area of customer service" OR "Our products and services have long maintained highest quality standards worldwide and we assure you of the same...." somehow don't mean anything in a sales pitch anymore.

What's far more important than wining and dining now, is the connect with the prospect...a connect that tells him / her that these guys listen, and understand, and are trustworthy enough to be sure that they'll do what it takes to solve our business problem. The ironical part, however, is that these words, if said, no longer mean much...these words have to be felt on the other side of the table.

The sales presentations are also changing accordingly, from jargon to real content, from flashy stuff to real ROI (return on investment), from empty talk to demonstrations of how exactly a relevant business problem is solved, from giving faff and getting away with it, to realizing the customer can actually make out when you're lying...and he doesn't need factual data to prove it. The point is about getting real, not just in terms of the best / lacuna that your offering has, but also with the trust that your prospect has on you, the effort that you're willing to put to solve their business problem, the responsibility of being a trusted adviser to the prospect ...

Ask yourself this - would you really give the name / USPs of your biggest competitor if your prospect asked you? Would you really tell your prospect that you don't offer X, Y, Z things as part of your product / service even if they did not mean much to your prospect? Would you ask your prospect to stop evaluating you any further if you realized that your offering is not going to be able to solve a good part of their business problem? ...there are numerous such questions, but you get the drift...

For all this to happen effectively, the sales team really has to upgrade themselves on operational capabilities of their offerings. Its imperative to know A-Z of your product / service, each and everything that it can or cannot do...even those which your offerings can be tweaked into doing...! Most of the times, the operations people, the delivery managers, the analysts, etc. are brought in into the picture to bridge the domain gap between prospects' questions and sales guy's knowledge about the offerings. While this is a stop-gap, it still doesn't allow the sales people to build that "connect" with the prospective clients which is perhaps one of the biggest necessities for closing a deal. With the marketing team already taking care of opening the leads, apart from branding, advertising, conferences, etc., the sales team has no other choice but to bring themselves up to speed on what's on offer.

An in-depth discussion on domain / offering allows the sales guy to build a rapport with the prospects...which allows entry into the deeper alleys of the complexities that are a part and parcel of the enterprise solution sales. If only these sales were as easy as "1. I like you product / service. 2. I like the price. 3. I'm ok with the Terms and Conditions. 4. Deal Done." There are usually multiple people involved in these sales discussions who have inclinations, motivations and aspirations which are complex for a sales guy to understand almost immediately. Each and every person involved in the decision making, is an institution within himself, which has to be connected with, assured and trusted. All these, along with varying price expectations within the group, make it all a fairly complex affair, which also has to be taken care of...once the connect is in place.

[I'm probably oversimplifying this at the risk of make an erroneous statement. But the fact of the matter is there are so many variables involved, that managing all of them simultaneously and successfully most of the times is almost an art + some gifted talent.]

• Will it last?

Though at times it looks like this new evolved practice of enterprise solution sales will go back to the one during the pre-crisis days if we get in a boom again (though that's a BIG IF!), but somehow, to me, it looks like the shift is here to stay...'coz its a shift in philosophy of measuring people and their offerings, its a fundamental shift, a lot like evolution... just as we're unlikely to get back to being apes again anytime soon....

Also, it would be wrong to say that all corporates followed the pre-crisis practice (as described in this post) earlier, or that all corporates have changed tack now. But one thing is increasingly getting clear, that those who do not adopt the changed paradigm of enterprise solution sales, may have a good offering, but it will not reflect in their growth.