New Sales Paradigm

The Skills of Buying Facilitation

Buying Facilitation involves a different skill set than selling. Your results will be different also. To be a Buying Facilitator, you will need to learn how to:

separate the selling process (product placement, needs analysis) from the decision making process (involving the people, policies, management, time issues that maintain the current Identified Problem);
help buyers make the unique, hidden, internal decisions they must make prior to making a purchase;
create collaborative communication that expedites decisions, in addition to placing products.

Until now, you’ve been selling by uncovering need, gathering information, and finding ways to place product. And you’re very good at what you do.

What is stopping you from closing all the sales you deserve to close?

Because the buyer’s buying decision involves many elements that buyers need to address that are hidden from the seller, it is necessary to learn an additional skill set in order to influence the process. Otherwise, you will remain waiting for the decision, and outside the decision making, as you have until now.

THE SKILLS OF BUYING FACILITATION INCLUDE:

Formulating Facilitative Questions:
Learning to help buyers transit through the myriad internal decisions necessary before they purchase.

EX. What has stopped you from resolving this problem until now?

Formulating Presumptive Summaries:
Naming the (sometimes unidentified) buying variables that buyers must consider before they will purchase.

EX. So what I hear you saying is that your current vendor doesn’t have the tools to help you fix this problem and your Vendor Management group hasn’t given you the go-ahead to seek a new vendor?

Listening for Systems:
Listening for the underlying systems that control the status quo is necessary to support the buying decision versus the product sale.

EX. Content listening : seller listens for the details of how the Identified Problem was created and what a solution needs to resolve.
versus
Systems listening: the Identified Problem is a part of a larger problem and is perpetuated daily in normal routines.

Buying Facilitation is a new skill set. It takes learning and study like any new set of skills you wish to learn. There are several ways to do this:

Back to Top