I often get asked by senior sales executives and account managers how their respective companies can become strategic partners.   Potential vendors ask how they can become preferred suppliers and existing suppliers ask how they can become more tightly integrated with the customer’s strategic planning.

Common questions I get asked are:

• How can we help you?
• What challenges can we help you solve?
• What will it take to get your business?
• How can we become part of your organizations planning process?
• How can our smart people augment your smart people?
• What can we change to get a bigger part of your business?

If, as a sales professional, you are asking the above questions to your customers and prospective customers, you are missing the strategy in your sales.   Truly strategic sales professionals will have the above questions answered before approaching their customers.  A common concern with my previous statement is that sales professionals don’t have the insight or insider knowledge to properly answer the questions.   This is in part true, but it’s also an excuse to avoid the  homework necessary to initiate and close large and complex deals.

Having the ability to identify a customer’s issues and corresponding solutions will distinguish you from most other sales professionals.   If you do not have the answers to the above questions before meeting with a customer, you will not be able to demonstrate any strategic benefit.   This will often result in an inability to secure even an initial meeting.

It may sound impossible to prove strategic value before you’ve ever spoken to a customer, but it is not.  The most strategic sales professionals I have met have been able to look at customer challenges from the customer’s perspective.   Some questions you will want to answer (or at least guess) before meeting with any customer include:

• What is the mission statement for the customer?   What are the key focusses for the customer?
  • How do your products/services align to the above?
• What are the major priorities for the customer?
  • How do your products/services support the priorities?
• What are the customer’s competitors doing?
  • How can you help the customer gain competitive advantage over the customer’s competitors?
• Who are the decision makers and the influencers?  How are they compensated?  What are their personal performance objectives?

These questions are just the tip of the iceberg.   The key to putting strategy into sales, however, is getting away from questions like, “How can I help you?” and moving towards solution statements like, “This is what I believe to be the challenges and opportunities in your industry.  This is what I believe to be the challenges and priorities to your company and your professional objectives.  This is how I can help.”

In my next post, I will provide a real-world example.