The authors of this article are:
Bob Spence Director of International Business Development for C4DI.
Kasia Łanucha Cambridge University lecturer and communication specialist.
Kaja Szczygieł International Business Development Lead at C4DI also working in the U.S. Commercial Service at the U.S. Embassy Warsaw as a Commercial Assistant.
Are you involved in International business development? These articles are aimed at supporting you develop the right sales skills and approach to create revenue.
This content will be edited into a comprehensive ePublication for release later in 2021 by C4DI entitled ‘20/20 vision- the post-pandemic sales approach’.
Every individual article has been designed to support CEE businesses succeed in the English-speaking western economies. It is aimed especially to those CEE businesses that are focusing on making SaaS sales to UK and US decision-makers.
Kasia: Our team explored the impact of national culture on sales methodology and business development. This was from a ‘CEE to Western perspective’. We used the culture models of Geert Hofstede. Prof Hofstede is renowned for his thinking and research on cross-cultural thinking. This is our main reference point although we refer to other thinkers throughout the series.
The evolution of sales in the late 1950s and why this is important to you!
Bob: Throughout the 1950s business development strategy and tactics are still being sourced from the US. There were some tremendous thinkers in this space. I am very happy to reference J. Douglas Edwards who was ‘the’ sales trainer of the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s. If you search for his material much of it can still be used today.
Kaja: In the later 1950s motivational material is recognised as the number one driver for business development results. The mantra of ‘winners make it happen’. Over time this strategy of improving sales results through high octane bursts of motivation would be eroded by the law of diminishing returns. Diminishing returns is also called the law of diminishing returns or principle of diminishing marginal productivity. It is an economic law that states that if one input in the production of a commodity is increased while all other inputs are held fixed, a point will eventually be reached at which additions of the input yield progressively smaller, or diminishing, increases in output.
Bob: Whether this sales motivation was delivered via regular sessions, occasional meetings or by some form of inspirational leadership the results from this would wear off if everything else within the sales model remained the same.
The power of motivation is still recognised within sales today but is unlikely to be the key to achieving results within the SaaS sector.
First reflection:
Where does this high valuation placed on 'the mantra-of-motivation' fit in with the sophisticated environment of selling SaaS into the business-to-business market?
Kasia: Our definition and understanding of making a SaaS sale is built around a structured process of selling web-based processes and platforms within an environment that typically involves multiple decision makers. This is an environment that requires excellent communication ability. Not only the ability to communicate a benefit case but the ability to listen with intent to understand exactly where the other person is coming from. The ability to listen with intent of understanding rather than the ability to listen with the intent to reply separates the top business development leads from the median group. Bob Spence has shared with me that at the enterprise level this usually requires interacting with more than one person in more than one meeting. It could also require three separate approaches within the same relationship. There may be the sales-point or sales-lead who has the focus on opening up the conversation. There may be a development-point who has the focus on upselling to an existing client and a point-executive who is the key to retaining the same client.
Bob: Because SaaS can be so complex especially at an enterprise level it is typical to involve software engineers, sales professionals and product marketers into all or some meetings to communicate the case to buy, upgrade or remain with the offer. What role could the mantra-of-motivation play across such a broad field of communication?
Kasia: The root of motivational emphasis is the concept that ‘people-buy-people’, is a fundamental truth in business development. However, this will not generate the entire transaction. If you were to assign values of importance within a transaction, then perhaps 20% of the SaaS sale is that ‘people-buy-people’. This opens the door for the sales-point personality who makes the initial representation. However, from that point your offer must be referable within the SaaS sales opportunity and this represents perhaps 80% of the value of constructing a transaction.
Kaja: Our SaaS sales model; ‘20/20 the post-pandemic approach’ highlights recognition that there is a sequence of specific selling events or buying cues that have the potential to occur in a sales cycle. The front-end impact of ‘people-buy-people’ declines as the transaction develops. For example, there is often a tipping point where it must be ‘tech-to-tech’ in terms of professional interaction.
Going back to the mantra of motivation; selecting the right person only based on a measurement of their ‘will-to-win’, identified through assessments and their ‘people-buy-people’ skills might produce the wrong person at the wrong point in the sales cycle.
Second reflection:
How do sales professionals within CEE consider the statement: ‘sales professionals are born not made'? Would the evaluation from the CEE on this comment be different to the UK or US buyer? How helpful is this thinking in terms of selling SaaS? Your personal approach would affect which SaaS sales model you eventually embrace.
Kasia: Arguably across CEE there has been an historical notion of the sales professional being tough, focused, a strong negotiator and a personality that never shows weakness. This stereotype has existed for quite a while.
It is possible the ‘people-buy-people’ approach is relatively new and seems an attractive alternative but in SaaS it might be accidentally overvalued.
There has been a recent uptake in the popularity of business networking and recognising it as a skill. This has created a focus on developing relationships as opposed to the process of ‘hard selling’. This has resulted in a growing number of large networking events. Knowing lots of people through swapping business cards in a pleasant and vibrant manner is unlikely to be the key driver in selling SaaS in the UK or the US. This is a relatively small part but necessary part of the process.
There is truth in the ‘people buy people’ approach and this assumes that there can be a rapid chemistry between two people. This does help but it typically requires buy-in from more than one role within the Western buying cycle:
Operations Management considering the impact on the business.
HR input on the on-boarding and induction considerations.
Finance having an opinion regarding ROI and pricing.
Procurement may have devised a measurement interpreting the value of the offer.
Board representation or shareholder input into the final decision.
It may be some of these or all, or another group of professionals assessing your offer. The earlier model repeated below gives you an overview as to how this might perform.
In ‘20/20’ the focus is on how you engage with the buying arguments of these roles during a sales meeting. It is a pivot from focusing on how you engage the buyers with your sales your arguments via the mantra-of-motivation and ‘people-buy-people’
If this late 1950’s thinking is the key basis of your tactics then mostly you will leave a meeting with very little tangible gain. Regardless of your robust winning mentality this may be difficult to accept or measure by your management. People do not buy people to a degree that they will consider an International transaction based on this alone.
Third impression:
How do you measure potential interest from a first meeting? How do you balance that initial interest that in reality they are just buying into you?
Our next article?
This engages with sales models from the early 1960s to the mid 1960s as we enter the period of presentation-selling. We also investigate a typical SaaS sales obstacle with this question about your offer:
‘Are you an aspirin looking for a headache’?
(Quote Tony Cox of Peppermint Technology).
© 2021