Sellers find processes boring and unnecessary, to their detriment. Yet, as a buyer, do you really want to understand the buying process before you buy? Confused? Read on
To begin with, selling is results oriented; buying is process oriented. So? Not understanding this difference may ruin relationships and delay completing the sale (closing). Here are three instances how.
First, as a buyer, if your contact person in the company you are pitching to is another seller, question what he is telling you. Being results oriented he will likely ignore (as he finds it boring and unnecessary) the purchase processes of his own institution.
For instance, an oil seller will tell the new dealer he is signing on, “Don’t worry. Everything is on track. Your contract has been signed and you will get your supply from next week.” The (results-oriented) seller has booked the sale and, in his view, his job is done. And true, the dealer does get the fuel. But when the seller shows up four months later asking if all is well he is angrily told, “No. I haven’t been paid yet despite the oil we have sold. Your finance department told me I am not in your system as a vendor. Why didn’t you tell me?” Because, Mr. Dealer most likely he is learning from you that vendors in his company need on-boarding before they can get paid.
Now then. To overcome this, as buyer, think process as seller thinks product, and prod with third party stories. “Elsewhere we have had to be on-boarded as vendors. Please ask Finance or Procurement if there’s anything else they need from us.”
Understand the buying process to reduce friction
Next, this difference is the cause of unending tension between sellers and back office staff. How? The latter are the ones that will make the sale happen- finance in the previous example. Usually technical in thinking, most back office staff share a common irritation, which they express derogatorily: “Hawa watu wa sales, wanadanganya customers, and leave us to clear their mess” (Sales people lie to customers).
Why? From their (process) perspective, they are right. From the seller’s (results) perspective he didn’t lie-he just said enough to close. Sellers will understand that statement, technical staff will be irritated by it. But as buyer, do you really want all the t’s crossed and i’s dotted before you buy? If insurance companies insisted that their agents explain every clause in the contract when selling, buyers would be asleep before they finish.
Sell to how customer buys
Finally, this selling-buying difference should guide the seller to sell to how the customer buys and accelerate the close. For instance, the realtor who understands this, insists on the husband coming with the wife to view the house. He knows that the man of the house may be doing the querying but it’s the woman in charge that will give the nod. Our oil seller will include as part of signing the contract the on-boarding process too, assuming it does not delay the sale; if it does, he will follow it through immediately after the sale is done, so as not to inconvenience the buyer.
All this means that sellers should seek to understand the buying process and manage it accordingly.
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