![]()
Chapter 1
Collaboration
Changing the World
Randall K. Murphy
Acclivus R3 Solutions
Â
Â
Â
Collaboration. What do we mean by collaboration, and why would a book on sales training start with a chapter on collaboration?
The reason is simple. Collaboration is all around us. Frequently still in the concept stage, often not fully understood, and sometimes awkwardly situated between rhetoric and reality, collaboration is nonetheless steadily emerging as the new model or paradigm for individuals and groups working productively together. It is becoming the preferred method for successful sales and customer relationships.
From Newsweek and Time to Harvard Business Review and Fortune to The Futurist, articles abound promoting collaboration, âthe collaborative mind-set,â and âthe collaborative advantage.â Collaboration is being recommended for applications ranging from relationships between individuals to relationships between organizations to relationships between and among nations.
What is collaboration? Where does it come from? What does it mean? Where is it going?
Collaboration is the most promising approach for building productive, long-term relationships, both personal and professional. As an approach, collaboration is based upon interdependent needs. To be interdependent, the needs of one individual do not have to be exactly the same as the needs of another; they must, however, be so aligned that when one individual benefits, both benefit, and if one individual is harmed, the other is also harmed.
The perception of interdependent needs allows for (1) a driving motivation to achieve an optimal return for both, or all, parties involved; (2) a high level of implicit trust; and (3) a sharing of power. The seller and the buyer must have this collaborative mind-set to be successful.
Where did collaboration come from as a term, as a concept, and as an approach for building productive, long-term relationships? If you search through books and articles from 20 years ago, you will find no mention of collaboration other than in reference to musical composers. Under the headings of conflict resolution, negotiation, interpersonal communication, professional selling, management, and leadership, there is no mention of sharing power, no mention of interdependent needs, and no mention of collaboration.
Twenty years ago Acclivus R3 Solutions launched an intensive, ongoing study of relationships in the workplace. The initial focus for this study was the process of negotiation, particularly business-to-business negotiation, between a sales or consulting professional and a customer or client. The study evolved into an effort to determine (1) the optimal form of a working relationship and how to build it, (2) methods for preventing damage to the relationship during negotiation and conflict resolution, and (3) approaches for strengthening the relationship through the negotiating process.
What Acclivus R3 Solutions discovered was a form of working relationship vastly more productive than competition, and with potential considerably beyond that of simple cooperation. We discovered collaborationâa higher level of relationship, communication, and negotiation.
Collaboration is the best approach, not for every individual or organization and not for every relationship, but for those individuals and organizations that want to work together as partners toward the achievement of optimal results.
Collaborative relationships are built, not simply formed, and alignment of needs requires continuing effort. Most of us have more experience as competitors than as collaborators, and there is a strong tendency to follow our competitive instinctsâespecially under pressure. Because collaboration is a relatively new way, it is not always the most comfortable or natural way.
Collaboration, though, provides us with the opportunity to escape the bounds and limitations of the traditional supplier/ customer, consultant/client, and manager/individual contributor relationships. Collaboration is truly working together. In order for salespeople, sales teams, and companies to be successful in this new environment, we must focus on building and achieving a true collaboration between ourselves and our customers. With this mind-set, instead of being perceived as one of many vendors, you are seen as a collaborative partner, changing the way you do business.
Â
Â
Name: Randall K. Murphy
Company: Acclivus R3 Solutions
Web Site: www.acclivus.com
Biography: Randall K. Murphy is the founder and president of Acclivus R3 Solutions, a global performance development and consulting organization. He is the primary author and architect of the 17-program integrated curriculum utilized by clients of Acclivus R3 Solutions. He introduced the concept and application of the word cocreate and gave the word collaboration meaning in the organizational workplace. He conceived the Consultative Approach and has taught more than 30,000 professionals and managers in workshops worldwide.
Leading organizations in more than 80 countries worldwide rely on Acclivus R3 Solutions to assist them with the training of their sales, support, and service professionals, managers, and executives.
Selling Philosophy: The Consultative Approach
Target Industries: Computer hardware and software, consulting and financial, telecommunications, medical equipment, manufacturing, consumer products
Best Sellers: R3 Sales Excellence, Inside R3 Sales, Acclivus Sales Negotiation, R3 Service, R3 Strategic Sales Presentations, Acclivus Coaching, R3 Interaction, MAPS (Major Account Planning and Strategy) TP&M (Territory Planning & Management), AIM Services
Sales Tip One: First diagnose, then prescribe.
Sales Tip Two: Plan your opening; the opening sets the stage for the entire meeting.
Sales Tip Three: Qualifying is forever; anything and everything can change.
Product One: R3 Sales Excellence
Product Two: R3 Service
Product Three: Acclivus Sales Negotiation and Dr. Azul (online follow-through)
![]()
Chapter 2
Living Your Vows in a Whirlwind Economy
Seleste Lunsford
AchieveGlobal
In todayâs economy, selling needs to be more like a marriage and less like a whirlwind romance.
The concept is fairly basic: Predictable long-term revenue growth requires enduring, mutually beneficial customer relationships.
The challenge lies neither in grasping that point, nor in popping the question, but in doing what it takes to live up to your vows.
⢠FIND THE RIGHT CUSTOMERS
To reach and exceed their revenue goals, salespeople need customers who value what you sellâwhich is ideally expressed in a clear value proposition. Whether product-centered (âWe sell world-class widgetsâ) or service-centered (âWe grow your businessâ), a value propositionâlike a marriage proposalâframes the kind of relationship you want.
Yet a recent AchieveGlobal study found at least two trends that complicate your customer relationships. Increased competition has made commodities of many products and services, and savvy customers now rely on armâs-length buying modelsârequests for proposal (RFPs), reverse auctions, procurement teams, and others. To weather these challenges, itâs important to segment and prioritize customers based on the value they find in you, not just the value you find in them. Then sift this data for the specific customers most likely to value what you sell.
⢠DEFINE A RELATIONSHIP PROCESS
Even among organizations that sell on price or convenience, few realize long-term success without equally long-term relationships. Our study found that leading sales organizations now support these relationships by matching salespeople to specific market segments, allocating resources to the best opportunities, and leveraging multiple sales channels, such as distributors and e-commerce.
In addition, these organizations often tailor a relationship process for each customer segment. As a result, theyâre far more likely to send the right salesperson to the right customer to generate the right return.
Relationships thrive or fail based on defining moments in every customer interaction. Make these moments positive with a relationship process that matches your activities and resources to the buying patterns and expectations of each market segment. A tailored process benefits customers through your solution, of course, and equally through the expert counsel of your salespeople. The process benefits you through longer-term revenue streams and protection from competitors and price pressures.
⢠BUILD A WELCOMING HOME
Customers tend to stick around when your house is in order. A welcoming home begins with a coherent sales strategy that tells everyone what to sell, to whom, and how to sell it. A mismatched sales culture or support system can sabotage even the best-laid strategy.
At the heart of your sales culture, values and beliefs drive decisions, activities, motivation, performance, and turnover. Even so, our research found that mergers, acquisitions, other big changes, and related short-term thinking can crush the effort to maintain long-term customer relationships.
Promote the needed values and practices by making relationships a strategic centerpiece and by making learning and development a cultural norm. Once your team agrees on the beliefs that guide decisions, reward information sharing and celebrate success.
Like cultural challenges, overwrought systems and policies can weaken customer relationships. For example, if you think your customer relationship management (CRM) or sales force automation (SFA) software hasnât lived up to the hype, perhaps people simply donât know how to use it.
To remove systemic obstacles, streamline your market, territory, account, opportunity, and sales-call planning. Align compensation and incentives to strategy. Recalibrate coaching and performance management to support desired behaviors. Find and use effective CRM or SFA software. Finally, select or create essential collateral, return-on-investment (ROI) calculators, and other selling toolsâand deep-six the rest.
⢠LEARN FROM EACH OTHER
Strategy, culture, and systems support customer relationships. Building relationships requires salespeople who can demonstrate knowledge in a number of areas that affect the customerâs perception of them and of your organization:
⢠Global and national business issues
⢠Industry trends and events affecting you and your customers
⢠Product features and benefits
⢠Customersâboth organizations and people
⢠Each stage of your relationship processes
⢠Politics in the customerâs organization
Help everyone see the wider context and nitty-gritty details for each market segment. The payoff is nothing less than mutual understanding, without which no customer relationship can survive. Besides applying this knowledge, salespeople need to be obsessive about maintaining each customer relationship. Support that daily effort by giving salespeople the âwhyâ behind your expectations. Provide frequent developmental opportunities, and then recognize and reward the desired behaviors. Just as critical, give people the skills to cultivate long-term relationshipsânot only in-the-moment sales skills, but prospecting, presentation, negotiation, service, strategic, and other skills as well.
⢠TO HAVE AND TO HOLD
While itâs mainly salespeople who interact directly with custo...
