SALES SKILLS SALES STRATEGY NEGOTIATIONS
6 A S S U M P T IO N S A L L S E L L E R S M U S T
NOW Q UE S T ION
By: John Golden
“ I T A I N ’ T W H AT Y O U D O N ’ T K N O W T H AT
G E T S Y O U I N T O T R O U B L E . I T ’ S W H AT YO U K N O W
F O R S U R E T H AT J U S T A I N ’ T S O.”
When a market goes through the kind of convulsions
that the global market has, you rightly worry about
all of the uncertainty. Will there be budget to buy my
products and services? How many of my customers
will still be in business? Is what I am selling seen as
discretionary in this market?
All good questions that you should spend much time
trying to address. But how many other questions
should you be asking yourself but aren’t because you
are making assumptions based on history or perceived
strength of customer relationships. The past is no
longer prologue. We are in a whole new world where
you need to revisit and revalidate all of the things you
believe to be true.
On January 26, 2009—Bloody Monday— more than
71,000 jobs were lost in the United States. Through
no fault of their sales organizations, many Fortune
500 companies have been forced to participate in the
carnage. The economy is wreaking havoc on even the
most stalwart companies. According to the CEO of
a venerable manufacturing firm, “The job reduction
is a step we have to make in order to meet our goals,
remain competitive, and adapt to the uncertainties
in the marketplace. We’re facing fierce competition.
We’re not in this industry alone. Our competition is
not standing still, and neither can we.”
©2009 Huthwaite, Inc.
PROSPECTING SALES MANAGEMENT
Successful businesses constantly revisit every aspect of
the way they do business to ensure that they are in
step with the ever-changing dynamics of the market.
As Jack Welch once said “Face reality as it is, not as
it was or as you wish it to be.” Now is the time for
you to adopt the same discipline. There are 6 distinct
assumptions you must question to ensure that you
face reality as it is and position yourself for success in
a tough market.
“Face reality as it is, not as it was or
as you wish it to be.”
A S S U M P T IO N #1
“I know how to sell; I have been a top-
performing salesperson for many years!”
Ok, so you have exceeded quota every year for the
past five years. In fact, you have sold for a number
of different companies in different market segments
and each time you have come in, learned the products
and services and blown your numbers out. Let’s face
it, you consider yourself a top performing salesperson
and you have the track record to prove it.
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6 A S S U M P T I O N S A L L S E L L E R S M U S T N O W Q UE S T I O N

The first thing you need to do as you work through your

reality checklist is to ask yourself a simple question: Fewer and fewer prospects are evaluating
“How many of my deals did I really sell by uncovering options and instead are in “denial of needs”
needs, developing them and clearly aligning customer or “we’ll make do with what we have”...
needs to capabilities and outcomes?” Be honest with
yourself as you review them and identify how many of
them were opportunities where the buyer was already A S S U M P T IO N # 2
in the “evaluation of options” stage of the buying
“I may not have had to prospect much in
cycle (see our white papers Rational Forecasting and
Selling to the C-Suite for discussions of Huthwaite’s recent years but I still know how to!”
Buying Cycle™) and you could focus all your efforts
Over the past few years, in an era conspicuous for
on simply proving that your solution was the best
consumption, prospecting has taken a back seat
option. You may be highly skilled in this phase of
to marketing and a lot of salespeople have gotten
the buying cycle. But in a contracting market where
somewhat spoiled. They’ve gotten used to waiting for
fewer and fewer prospects are evaluating options and
the hot leads generated by flashy campaigns. Times,
instead are in “denial of needs” or “we’ll make do with
not to belabor the point, have changed. You no longer
what we have,” how confident are you in your ability
have the luxury of waiting for business to come to
to really do core business development with a budget-
you. It won’t. And the prospecting you used to do
constrained and risk-averse buyer.
years ago will unlikely meet your need in the current
environment.
The solution to this is straightforward; you need to
go back to the fundamentals of selling and revisit
Prospecting in uncertain times is not just a matter
the underlying sales methodology you are using.
of good research and good messaging; it is a matter
Your first reaction may be “but I have been using
of great research (which we shall explore further in
it for years. I don’t need to go back and relearn and
Assumption #4) and great messaging. In a turbulent
practice it!” Perhaps so, but are you sure you have
economy, the very short window of opportunity
been using it properly? Or do you really remember
with a prospect—either by telephone or email—
every aspect of it? It never ceases to amaze me that
can be literally startling. All of your prospects are
whenever someone does a refresher in any discipline,
getting dozens of emails that are warning of dire
how much they discover they have forgotten or even
circumstances in the marketplace. Frankly, it gets old.
more telling, how much they didn’t really know to
To have any hope of capturing his attention, you have
begin with. Again it all comes back to assumptions—
to hit a prospect square between the eyes; you have to
don’t assume that just because you learned something
bowl him over; you have to make him at least wonder
years ago that a) you remember it and b) you have
whether without your product or service all is lost.
been practicing it. There is an old adage about success
The message must first provoke interest; it must then
hiding many things and the kind of robust market we
persuade the prospect that you know something he
have enjoyed over the last number of years is likely
doesn’t that it would be in his best interest to learn;
to have hidden some of our selling shortcuts or even
and finally it must propose action on the part of
shortcomings.
the potential buyer. And all this in just a few pithy
sentences.

www.huthwaite.com 2 ©2009 Huthwaite, Inc.

6 A S S U M P T I O N S A L L S E L L E R S M U S T N O W Q UE S T I O N
The key to it all is the persuasion piece, and like the
selling process as a whole it must provide real, buyer-
focused value. In an age of massive availability of
information, value is no longer found in your product
or service—all of the information about which is on
your website. Rather it is found in your knowledge
and expertise as a seller. To bring value to a customer
now you must uncover an unrecognized problem;
offer an unanticipated solution; share an unseen
opportunity; or act as a broker of capabilities. Offer
any of these and your prospect will leap to your side.
Send anything that smells like a brochure and he will
dismiss you outright.
A S S U M P T IO N # 3
“At least I can rely on my current book of
business!”
As I mentioned earlier, past is no longer prologue
and therefore you need to resist the temptation
to make assumptions about your current book of
business. Your existing customers may have been very
predictable in their buying patterns, you may even
have mapped out multi-year engagements, and as you
stare at a tough year ahead you want to believe that
these pieces of business are solid. If you take one thing
away from this paper it should be: “assume nothing!”
Systematically go through your current client list
and question every aspect of it. For example, is your
decision maker still the ultimate decision maker?
Does the line VP now need to have everything signed
off and approved by the CFO or CEO or even both?
If that is the case you are no longer just selling to the
VP; you need to equip him to sell to the CEO and
CFO. That adds some complexity to your strategy
and also means you need to consider that the VP is
acutely aware of his or her need to not put themselves
out there in front of the CEO/CFO unless they are
©2009 Huthwaite, Inc.
100% sure they have a compelling business case to
justify the spend. This means you might find them
to be a much more demanding and hesitant customer
than previously. So if you haven’t established that
the approval process has changed you run the risk
of trying to sell to the VP in the same way as you
traditionally have without addressing his or her need
for such things as more explicit detailing of results
and cost/benefit analysis.
Furthermore, the drivers for purchasing your
products or services may no longer be as important
to the customer as they were previously so you need
to go and realign what you have sold them to the
current drivers in their business. If you don’t you run
the risk of them abandoning your product or service
because they no longer see it as critical is this market
environment.
“Assume nothing!”
A S S U M P T IO N # 4
“I know my customers, prospects and
suspects pretty well!”
Let’s face it, during the good times the amount of
research you had to do about your target list was
pretty manageable. You used an online resource
which gave you a lot of standard information; you
reviewed their website and read their annual reports
and filings. So you were able to do your situational
research and engage with the prospect intelligently
and knowledgeably. Even with your existing
customers you relied a lot on your contacts to give
you updates on their business. It was all pretty neat
and tidy and relatively straightforward. Fast forward
to today, now with changes to the market landscape
happening at warp speed you can’t be sure how good
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6 A S S U M P T I O N S A L L S E L L E R S M U S T N O W Q UE S T I O N
or up-to-date your information is. Even your prized
contacts at your customers/prospects may be unable
or unwilling to keep you apprised of changes that are
coming.
So what can you do to overcome this? Well, now is
the time to learn how to really research and pull all
the different threads of information together to help
understand what is happening to your target accounts.
For example, track what is being said on the business
news channels, check those channels websites and do
keyword searches on the companies you are interested
in and then look at the articles and video clips where
experts are discussing them or their market segment.
Scour the financial and business newspapers, again
looking for external expert commentary on the market
segment or the company itself and start pulling a
profile together. This will help you avoid the surprise
of a sudden takeover or merger or worse, the closing
of the division you were focused on.
Set up online news alerts for your target companies so
that anything that comes across the wires pertaining
to them instantly hits your inbox. In this environment
there is no such thing as too much information and
being able to deploy your time effectively is key. For
instance, if all the news is pointing to one of your
prospects being bought and possibly downsized, you
may want to focus elsewhere until it shakes out. This
allows you to be strategic by being informed.
A S S U M P T IO N # 5
“I am sure our marketing department has
adapted its messaging for this market!”
Have you engaged with your own Marketing
department to understand what work they are doing
to realign your products and services to the new
market realities? They may have focused on efficiency
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or productivity before as the core advantages of the
product/service whereas now messaging around cost
savings and the ability to do more in a resource-
constrained environment may resonate. Don’t assume
they have already done this.
Go and question them on what analysis they are doing
on the market and customer buying patterns. Find
out what overt or nuanced changes they are making
to their messaging and integrate that into your talk
tracks. Find out if there are particular benefits of
your products or services that they are seeing as more
relevant to your target customers today.
Now more than ever it is critical that sales and
marketing are aligned and that the information
flow between the two is constant and of high value.
The last thing you can afford is your marketing
messages to look out of sync with the realities of your
customers; it makes you look out of sync with reality
and undermines your offering.
A S S U M P T IO N # 6
“I have a talk track that works!”
Have you simplified your own messages to make sure
that they are tailored to people with exceptionally busy
schedules who are struggling with fewer resources
and who are distracted by the shifting sands of the
macroeconomic environment and their own internal
business issues?
The reality is that they no longer have the time to
have pictures painted for them in the sky— they need
something tangible, easily deployed that will deliver
results quickly. You need to show how you can deliver
fast return and demonstrate why spending money
with you is critical at a time when they are trying not
to spend money with anyone.
4 ©2009 Huthwaite, Inc.
6 A S S U M P T I O N S A L L S E L L E R S M U S T N O W Q UE S T I O N

Do you focus too much on the long term systemic C O N C L U S IO N

impact of your product or service—are you now
tempering that with some tangible and realizable
short term outcomes that will give a buyer much
more confidence that they will be able to defend their
purchase internally if they can show some results
quickly?
While the current layoffs and economic trends may
continue, the sellers who will survive this market
and even grow during a recovery will be the ones
who assume nothing and question everything. Your
competition is not standing still….and neither should
you.

6 A S S UM P T IO N S A L L S E L L E R S M U S T
NOW Q UE S T ION
❑ 1. Have I really been “selling” and do I have a methodology that works and that I practice?

❑ 2. Do I really know how to prospect effectively?

❑ 3. Have I revalidated all my assumptions about my current book of business?

❑ 4. Do I really know what is happening to my target accounts and their industries?

❑ 5. Has my marketing department adjusted its messaging for this market?

❑ 6. Have I altered my talk tracks to reflect the new realities of my customers/prospects?

©2009 Huthwaite, Inc. 5 www.huthwaite.com

A B OU T HU T H WA I T E

SPIN® Solution Suite

Sales Skills Develop your clients’ needs, demonstrate capabilities,

create competitive differentiators to advance the sale
SPIN® Selling

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strategies to your clients’ buying behaviors
Win the Deal

Negotiations Execute winning negotiation strategies that optimize

outcomes and foster long-term business relationships
Optimize Outcomes

Prospecting Differentiate yourself from competitors and fill your

sales opportunity pipeline
Fill the Pipeline

Sales Management Drive your sales team to accelerate and achieve results
by coaching how to implement sales training skills
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