Maybe it's me, but I keep wondering why the selling process is so different than the buying process. It's simpler to frame in thought than execution, but the goal is to get buyers to buy and somehow selling doesn't match up.
When marketers and salespeople talk about selling, some of the things that come up are:
- Budget - approved and at the ready
- Need - defined project
- Authority - the person with the clout
- Timeline - within a period we think is important
- Demographics - who we've decided we want to sell to
- Circumstances - indicators we can use to sway their decision
- Lifetime Value - how much we can get from them over time
- Upsell and Cross sell - potential to sell them other stuff
When buyers look to solve a problem, [buying is the end result] some of the things that come up are:
- Reasons - why we need to change
- Risk - how much we're putting on the line
- Outcomes - what we'll get - how things will change
- Adoption - what it'll take to put this change into practice
- Characteristics - how this solution affect with what we have
- Collective - what our peers and competitors are doing
- Superiority - best practice applications
- Proof - we're making a great choice to achieve business objectives
- Consensus - getting the stakeholders to agree to a course of action
When you compare one side to the other, do you see any similarities?
Don't you think a shift is in order?
I can't help but think that if our thinking was more in alignment that our go-to-market approaches would be, as well. Not to mention the response to them...Your thoughts?
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