Embracing the Buying Revolution: A Fresh Approach to Enterprise Sales

By Kenneth Flood

The Buying Revolution has changed forever the landscape of complex, high-value sales. Traditional approaches are no longer appropriate in this new commercial environment. Fresh perspectives and innovative strategies are essential for success.

This book serves as the ultimate roadmap, guiding readers through the uncharted territory of the new Buying Arena. By embracing change and adopting forward-thinking methodologies, leaders and sales professionals can confidently navigate these transformative times, to position themselves for success in the new Enterprise Sales era.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Apr 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9781035819843

Kenneth Flood

It is the powerful grip of fear—fear of losing control, fear of the unknown, fear of risk and loss—coupled with a lack of understanding and the allure of the familiar yet limiting inertia of habit that obstructs individuals from embracing transformation in the face of a reshaped world order. Although the evolution in selling commenced later than expected, its terrain has undergone profound and irreversible changes. The worldview that guided our journey thus far offers neither sustenance nor a path forward. Ken possesses a wealth of experience, spanning various sales genres and processes. Yet, it is his perspective honed over decades in process consulting that furnishes the essential insights needed to confront the challenges posed by emancipated buyers. Hailing from Ireland, Ken has left his mark in Europe and the USA, specialising in Systems Thinking and Change Management. Currently residing near Stratford in Avon, he discovers joy in the arenas of Rugby and Tennis. Actively engaged in supporting local communities, Ken has celebrated 50 years of marriage with Liz and takes pride in being a grandparent to seven grandchildren. Jonathan’s story begins in a coastal town in Tuscany, Italy, where he was born and raised. After pursuing a scientific education in the Netherlands, his career path led him to London. The years spent in commercial roles in the capital offered him a first-hand experience of the evolving landscape of B2B. Discovering Sales Enablement, he found a role where he could amalgamate his sales experience with structured thinking to assist organisations in building a competitive advantage. In this capacity, he naturally found himself designing processes aligned with the concepts Ken was formalising in his mind. To quote Rick in Casablanca, “it was the start of a beautiful friendship” and this book “Embracing the Buying Revolution” was born.

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About the Author

It is the powerful grip of fear—fear of losing control, fear of the unknown, fear of risk and loss—coupled with a lack of understanding and the allure of the familiar yet limiting inertia of habit that obstructs individuals from embracing transformation in the face of a reshaped world order. Although the evolution in selling commenced later than expected, its terrain has undergone profound and irreversible changes. The worldview that guided our journey thus far offers neither sustenance nor a path forward.

Ken possesses a wealth of experience, spanning various sales genres and processes. Yet, it is his perspective honed over decades in process consulting that furnishes the essential insights needed to confront the challenges posed by emancipated buyers. Hailing from Ireland, Ken has left his mark in Europe and the USA, specialising in Systems Thinking and Change Management. Currently residing near Stratford in Avon, he discovers joy in the arenas of Rugby and Tennis. Actively engaged in supporting local communities, Ken has celebrated 50 years of marriage with Liz and takes pride in being a grandparent to seven grandchildren.

Jonathan’s story begins in a coastal town in Tuscany, Italy, where he was born and raised. After pursuing a scientific education in the Netherlands, his career path led him to London. The years spent in commercial roles in the capital offered him a first-hand experience of the evolving landscape of B2B. Discovering Sales Enablement, he found a role where he could amalgamate his sales experience with structured thinking to assist organisations in building a competitive advantage. In this capacity, he naturally found himself designing processes aligned with the concepts Ken was formalising in his mind.

To quote Rick in Casablanca, it was the start of a beautiful friendship and this book Embracing the Buying Revolution was born.

Copyright Information ©

Kenneth Flood and Jonathan Tavella 2024

The right of Kenneth Flood and Jonathan Tavella to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781035819836 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781035819843 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2024

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

My gratitude goes to my co-author Jonathan Tavella who has put to work the new ideas and approaches as part of his sales enablement strategy.

Foreword

In autumn 1911, the Washington Post printed the following:

Nor would a wise man, seeing that he was in a hole, go to work and blindly dig it deeper. The language used is of its day; the sentiment is timeless! In due course, the piece spawned the Law of Holes:

Know you’re in a hole – don’t stick your head in the sand and operate blindly.

Stop digging – don’t do things that would make your situation worse.

It’s not enough to stop digging – you’re still in the hole.

Understand the thinking and action that put you in the hole – stop saying and doing those things.

Adopt the thinking and action that will get you out of the hole.

Help others to avoid falling into the same hole.

B2B selling is in a hole. It’s there because technology enabled buyers to change the way they buy and selling hasn’t adapted to that change. Part of the reason for our inertia is down to the fact that we’re still in denial. Additionally, sales leaders are super reluctant to make any change that means they have to relinquish control. Sales leaders prize control above all else, even if that control isn’t real. Also, sellers have not yet been able to work out how to get out of the hole without feeling compromised. So, in there we remain and we busy ourselves digging the hole deeper. It wasn’t wise in 1911 and it’s still not wise today!

Any marketer will confirm the importance of segmentation. Market segmentation is breaking down a complete market into approachable subgroups based on what each subgroup wants. Such clarity of insight enables sales to tailor its approach discreetly to each subgroup. Segmentation can be based on where customers are, on who they are or what they need. It can also be based on how buyers behave. In B2B, segmentation that is based on where and who buyers are is much less important than basing it on what they need and how they operate. Because of complexity, Enterprise buyers operate differently to everyday transactional B2B buyers. Enterprise buyers need much greater levels of support than transactional buyers. For example, purchasing a new ERP system is very different to changing an office stationery supplier.

Enterprise and transactional buyers may now share common views about the value of salespeople and they may each spend a good deal of time online doing independent research; however, none of that justifies putting Enterprise and Transactional B2B in the same segment to approach them in the same way!

Gartner tells us that by 2025, 80% of B2B buyers will purchase directly, circumventing salespeople completely. That prediction is simply not valid for Enterprise! If we had taken the trouble to segment B2B, the differences would be crystal clear to everyone. Emulating what is happening in the transactional segment and taking action to reduce salesforce numbers in Enterprise would be disastrous!

Equally disastrous would be to allow Enterprise to become stranded in the no-man’s land between the Sales Journey and the Buying Journey. Carrying on in Enterprise in the belief that all we need is a few tweaks that make Discovery more buyer-centric, only serves to help us to dig the hole we are in deeper still.

Prologue

Look in the window of a traditional hardware store, you will see strange tools with odd shapes. The shape of a tool makes no sense until you understand what the tool does. Understand a tool’s purpose and its shape will make immediate sense.

An organisation is simply a tool for organising. It does not matter if an organisation doesn’t resemble any other, it only matters that it fulfils its purpose. Sales methodology or sales process is simply another tool for getting things done. It does not matter what it looks like, it only matters that it produces the outcomes it’s been designed to achieve.

The purpose of any sales framework based on satisfying a customer or prospect’s needs is to enable salespeople to win sales engagements with buyers that are centred around the context of their needs. Sales methodologies or frameworks build a platform for the sale. Most of the methodologies enable salespeople to sell value within a context of buyer’s needs before closing sales transactions based on the notion of Hobson’s choice, the solution being sold is the only solution on the table.

If a methodology that has been around for a very long time loses some or all of its potency as a tool for achieving sales quotas, we need to understand why it doesn’t work so well any more to see if we can fix it. Sometimes, that will mean minor redesign; at other times, it will call for a complete rethink.

Interestingly, the final sequence or stage in any methodology usually defines the methodology’s intention. In the case of most sales methodologies, closing a sale is the singular intention. Consequently, we can offer little defence to accusations that sales methodologies enable sellers to sell, rather than buyers to buy.

As a result of the changes in buying behaviour discussed earlier, salespeople and reps now find it increasingly difficult to win an audience with buyers. The counsel to them has been to adapt their approach by making the methodologies more buyer-centric and more collaborative. The clarion call to salespeople is to enable buyers. It’s been heeded! It would be difficult to find any B2B salesperson that doesn’t labour hard to achieve increased buyer collaboration. Collaboration brings together different parties with different experiences, varied knowledge, and a range of skills to accomplish common goals.

At the same time, there is a sure fire way to create antipathy and friction between parties that otherwise would work together productively in complete collaboration. Arrange for each of the parties to have different goals, intentions and purposes. That arrangement also ensures that they will each have separate approaches or methodologies. The melange is even more confused if the rules of engagement remain vague or indistinct so that everyone has to cobble them together on the fly or better still, ignore the rules completely!

If our objective is to have buyers and sellers collaborating, that goal can’t be accomplished using thinly disguised vendor-biased selling frameworks, not least because Enterprise buyers simply won’t accept that! It may be the case that a thin disguise is sufficient for the everyday B2B selling arena. Segmentation means everyday B2B has a different hole in which sellers continue to be closers rather than enablers!

A new approach is needed for Enterprise; however, that doesn’t mean we are advocating a new sales methodology because the appropriate methodology designed to enable buyers already exists; so, we only need to adopt it and use it effectively.

You will always know that you’re in a hole when your counsellors tell you what you should be doing rather than how to go about doing it! For example, there is no argument or debate that sales teams with highly defined key performance metrics have higher success reaching sales quotas than those that operate without such metrics. However, if the methodology is wrong, the metrics will also be wrong because the methodology defines the key performance indicators (KPIs).

Segmentation defines methodology. Methodology defines the ideal salesperson’s profile and competencies. Without absolute clarity about the appropriate methodology, it isn’t possible to define anything else with any precision.

Sales methodology is not just a matter of some importance, methodology is everything!

Introduction

Thomas Kuhn argued that science doesn’t evolve gradually towards truth, rather it is based on paradigms that remain constant until they have to shift. Paradigm shift is caused when a current theory no longer explains the effects or why things are as they are.

When something no longer adds up or makes enough sense, it is time for a new paradigm! For example, for a very long time the Establishment believed that the Earth was flat and lay at the centre of the Universe and because those in power held that view to be true, the majority accepted it too. Rather than welcoming new thinking, the Establishment locked up its dissenters and forced them to recant their heresies. Progress can be slow and the Establishment is reactionary; it’s always more concerned with maintaining control and housekeeping than it is with understanding the true nature of things.

The purpose of this book is to discuss a much-needed new paradigm for Enterprise selling, which is different from the everyday B2B sales activities. We urgently need to substitute a new model of high-value selling practice in place of the old one because important concepts and understanding, which were developed with high-value selling in mind, no longer make sense when viewed from the perspective of everyday B2B selling.

Besides, now it is a question of survival.

Our hope is that sales professionals will agree that the established approach to Enterprise selling is no longer sound or valid. Furthermore, in modifying the old paradigm to suit new and different trading conditions, we have succeeded only in creating contradiction and confusion. For example, it is a contradiction that a methodology that is vendor-centric can also be buyer-centric.

Is it possible for us to change only one part of our sales framework as if it were a faulty component, while continuing to expect the adapted process to be the appropriate approach? Is it possible for us to have collaborative closing or are we creating too much confusion?

Regrettably, our long-served selling paradigm is now so full of confusion and contradiction that it blinds us to new and critical insights that will determine whether we continue to exist and operate in a recognisable form.

Our need for a new paradigm comes about because events that are external to us have modified the reality in which we have to operate. For example, technology in the form of connectivity enables buyers to self-serve and then simply because they can, buyers operate in new and different ways. The new methodologies suit buyers but they disrupt and disenfranchise vendors. They have fundamentally changed the rules of engagement that we have applied for so many decades.

It takes time for the chickens to come back home to roost. For example, it has become much more difficult to get sales meetings with buyers; so, inevitably we begin asking important questions. Why is it that buyers are less willing to come with us on sales journeys? Why is it that so many buying initiatives stall these days? Our cue comes from the effects that we see all around us. Unfortunately, effects do not always help us to understand causes and we run the risk of looking only for evidence that confirms and reinforces the old paradigm. It is completely human for us to hope that we can change without really changing.

The volume of claims for medical misdiagnosis and maltreatment shows us that it is not just in sales that we can delude ourselves. Recognising the symptoms of a condition is no guarantee that we will develop the appropriate treatment. Paradigm shifts are always challenging. If this one was any easier, we would have adopted the new mindset a long time ago. Also, we must all recognise that the dice are loaded in favour of maintaining the status quo because many sales leaders (like Buridan’s donkey), are unwilling to give up what they have now, for an alternative which has not yet been defined clearly.

There is an inherent risk with change that new concepts do not always make sense on first sight. For example, one of the new principles in this book is that Enterprise sellers need to work with competitor’s solutions as well as their own!

Such a concept is anti-intuitive when first considered,