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2011 The Forum Corporation
Ideas-Based Selling
July 20, 2011
www.forum.com 1
What If Your Sales Force Could
Consistently …
Call on senior decision-makers with
discretionary budget?
— and —
Guide their thinking?
www.forum.com 2
Your Sales Force Would Mobilize Their
Customers to Buy
Improve win rates
Increase deal size and profitability
Differentiate from competition
Increase customer loyalty
www.forum.com 3
Use Ideas-Based Selling and
Flip the Selling Process
Traditional Consultative Selling
Ideas-Based Selling
Find Prospect with a Need
Propose Your Solution
Gain Prospect’s
Commitment
Initiate Idea Discussion with
Prospect
Gain Prospect’s Commitment to Implementing
Idea
Propose Your Solution
www.forum.com 4
Ideas-Based Selling
Why?
To what extent is this
idea relevant to my
business?
How?
What are the possible
solutions?
Who
can best deliver the
right solution?
A key to this approach is understanding how a customer
executive makes decisions—including potential purchase
decisions
www.forum.com 5
Polling Question
Where is your typical entry point into a customer sales
conversation?
Why?
To what extent is this
idea relevant to my
business?
How?
What are the possible
solutions?
Who can best deliver
the right solution?
www.forum.com 6
Entry point for an
ideas-based approach
Entry point for
traditional selling
Ideas-Based Selling
Why?
To what extent is this
idea relevant to my
business?
How?
What are the possible
solutions?
Who can best deliver
the right solution?
A key to this approach is understanding how a customer
executive makes decisions—including potential purchase
decisions
www.forum.com 7
What Do We Mean By “Ideas?”
Ideas are perspectives on and approaches to addressing customer
problems that can be solved and that are worth solving
Solving them is hard—or at least not easy or self-evident for the
customer
Customer value realized from your idea could include:
Achieving profitable revenue growth and market share
Eliminating or mitigating a serious threat to business
Enhancing the experience/improving the loyalty of the end
customer
www.forum.com 8
“Focus on the hole, not the drill!”
Customer problem or opportunity
“Talk Track” for Articulating Your IdeaDescribe the business opportunity and a compelling vision for the future—
not your products and capabilities
New vision of the future
Potential paths for achieving the vision
www.forum.com 9
Potential paths for
achieving the vision
New vision of
the future
Example of an IBM Idea
Counterfeit shipping containers costs European
wholesale distributors hundreds of millions of euros
each year
Solutions based on radio-frequency identification (RFID)
technology can provide in immediate in-the-field
detection of counterfeit containers
Detection of counterfeit containers and removal from the
supply chain can reduce costs while strengthening
brand image
Customer problem
or opportunity1
2
3
www.forum.com 10
Example of a GE Healthcare Idea
Low bed-utilization rates threaten the ROI of newly built
hospitals in the high-growth region of Dubai/Abu Dhabi
Streamlining hospital processes—both clinical care and
administrative processes—can reduce patient wait-time and
increase bed-utilization rates
Optimizing key hospital functions will improve the patient
experience, helping hospitals deliver world-class health
care and improve financial performance
Potential paths for
achieving the vision
New vision of
the future
Customer problem
or opportunity1
2
3
www.forum.com 11
Where would you expect these ideas to come from?
Polling Question
o Sales
o Marketing
o Product Management
o Research & Development
o External resources
www.forum.com 12
Preparing Ideas
Address specific value
Apply best thinking
Develop tight script
www.forum.com 13
Forum Investigates Decision-Maker
Preferences
Global survey June 2011
234 qualified respondents
– Access to budget
– Actions impact profit
Revenues: <$100 million to >$1 billion
Cross-section of industries
15%
28%
20%
33%
4%
Respondents by Level
C-level
Senior manager
Mid manager
Front line mgr
Indiv. Contributor
37%
48%
15%
Respondents by Region
North America
APAC
EMEA
www.forum.com 14
Which criterion do you think is most important to
decision-makers in deciding whether to meet with an
outside resource?
Polling Question
o Knows my industry
o Knows me
o Has strong reputation
o Provides low cost solutions
o Calculates ROI
www.forum.com 15
How Decision Makers Choose
Who Gets to Help Them
“Knows my industry
and business” is
essential.
“Knows me” is least
important;
understanding business
trumps personal
relationship.
“Low-cost solutions”
ranked in bottom third.
3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 4 4.1 4.2
Knows me
Knows business leaders
Calculates ROI
Reinforces my existing thinking
Educates my colleagues and me
Knows my customers
Challenges my thinking
Provides low-cost solutions
Considers my needs
Presents complete solutions
Helps me evaluate solutions
Strong reputation
Offers new or unique insights
Expertise
Diagnoses the root cause
Identifies risks to my business
Is accessible
Shows me alternative solutions
Knows my business
Is easy to work with
Knows my industry
1=Not at all important/5=Critically important
In consulting outside resources to help you address this and other critical business issues, what criteria were
most important to you in deciding to work with them?
www.forum.com 16
Decision-Makers Expect Ideas to Be
Relevant and Significant
0 20 40 60 80 100
Regulatory compliance
Employee retention
Competitiveness
Speed
Customer loyalty
Innovation
Revenue
Efficiency
Quality
Profit
Percent of Respondents
What Do Decision Makers Focus on Most?
N=234
Forum global survey of decision makers, June 2011
www.forum.com 17
Gained insight into most
important problems or new
opportunities of which was
unaware
Guided through complex
decision process
Introduced to “thinking
partner” for advice and
ideas
Reduced risks of
implementation failures
Enabled selling higher in
organization
Gained customer insights
and built customer intimacy
Positioned as business
partner and trusted advisor
Allowed higher margin
pricing of products and
services
Ideas-Based Selling Is a Win-Win
For Solution ProviderFor Customer
www.forum.com 18
Match Your Selling Capabilities
to the Way Your Customers Buy
Single Product/
Service Offer
Full
Business
Solution
Bundled
Services/
Products
High
Medium
Low
Seller’s Knowledge of Customer’s Business and Industry
Opportunity for
Educating
Customer About
Business Ideas
Low Medium High
TRANSACTIONAL
SELLING
CONSULTATIVE
SELLING
IDEAS-BASED
SELLING
www.forum.com 19
How the Sales Cadence Shifts
Lots of product collateral
―Death by PowerPoint‖
Discount schedules
Blank sheet of paper
Whitepaper
Validation methods
Tools
Interaction
Style
Talk at the customer
Focus on our product
Everyone is a potential
customer
Educate and discuss
Focus on the value of the
opportunity
Evaluate customer fit
―Are you interested in our
product?‖
―Is this problem/opportunity
worth exploring?‖Key
Question
FROM TO
www.forum.com 20
Forum Responds to the Research
Ideas-Based Selling
2-day instructor-led classroom program
Process, skills, tools
For experienced salespeople
Sales manager companion program
Available globally in Fall 2011
www.forum.com 21
Strategy. Accelerated.Forum mobilizes people to embrace
the critical strategies of their
organization and accelerate results.
When you need to swiftly align your
people to tackle an opportunity or
tear down a roadblock, Forum is an
essential business asset.www.forum.com
800.FORUM.11
www.forum.com/blog
@TheForumCorp
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Jeffrey Baker
VP & Practice Leader
Michael Collins
VP & Executive
Consultant