Empowered with research, customers expect sales teams to not only match their expertise and knowledge but to raise it in ways that help them address or even anticipate business imperatives. CSO Insight reports that rising customer expectations were rated as the top issue impacting sales teams: The salesperson’s ability to help solve business objectives is a major influence on a full 72 percent of decision makers’ buying decision. That’s a weighty responsibility—and a tremendous oppor- tunity. Don’t let it slip out of your grasp. Make Their Cares Your Cares Discover what customers care about most to give you the understanding you need to engage in meaningful and relevant conversations. Business awareness is the foundation that allows sales professionals to provide perspective—one that sets a top performer apart from the rest. Prepare conversations that provide perspective and which map out the acquired customer knowledge to your own portfolio and capabilities. The Rising Tide Customer Demands of Customer Expectations: Increasing noticeably Increasing significantly 52 % 13 % The Right Stuff: Getting to Perspective STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 Understand the environmental context and map it to the specific customer situation to create situational context. Every selling situation is different. Uncover what the individual concepts are currently. Analyze them, and then synthesize them into a buying vision that includes the buyers’ desired results and personal wins. © 2015 MHI Global, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Then Use It! Gain the Upper Hand WHERE? WHEN? WHY? WHO? WHAT? THE PLATFORM RESULTS READY TM Sources: “Optimizing Sales Engagements: Selling At The Speed Of Change,” CSO Insights, 2014 “Winning at Sales in a Buyer-Empowered World,” A Report by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, May 2014, https://hbr.org/resources/pdfs/tools/SAP_Sales_May2014.pdf MHI Research Institute, “Providing Perspective,” Research Note, Tamara Schenk, 2014 https://www.mhiresearchinstitute.com/research-library/research-notes/2014/providing-prospective To learn more how you can make the right conversations, visit mhiglobal.com/resultsready K ee p i n g I t R e a l: P urposeful C u sto m er C o nversatio n s K ee p i n g I t R e a l: P urposeful C u sto m er C o nversatio n s