Buyer behaviour &roles, Gartner Challenger Customer * +11 average stakeholders * Market-tested hypotheses (controlled experiments) = de-risked decisions

1. B2B Sales, Myths & Methods
Getting inside complex, Fortune 1000-sized
companies requires key account development
strategies and tactics.
Becoming a preferred vendor enterprise-wide is the
route to multiple assignments and a dependable
revenue stream.
Winning a corporate client is different from
person-to-person "relationship-building" sales
behaviour. Relationship sales behaviour has been
identified by Gartner "Challenger Sales" as the least
effective of 5 behaviour styles.
Chapter 1
Distinguish between person-to-person sales and
account acquisition:
1. "Cheque signer" vs. multiple stakeholders/groups
Sales focuses on transactions, getting a yes/no
answer to "are you ready to buy?" in every
interaction.

2. Account acquisition is a multi-stakeholder,
consensus-building process, with each stakeholder
group having its own buying journey. The sales team
must identify the stakeholder members, what stage
that group is at and enable internal agreement
towards a purchasing decision.
2. C-level executive is NOT the only the economic
buyer
Sales assumes that if you get to the "top" or the
"right person", a deal can be done.
Account acquisition understands that each
stakeholder role, often committees and groups, have
different views or mental models of the solution. Like
the fable of the blind people & the elephant, if you're
holding the elephant's trunk, you'll describe the
elephant differently than if you're holding the tail.
3. Desired Outcome:
Internal consensus-building
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3. Traditional, person-to-person sales assumes that it's
best to get the first assignment and then move
around the organization with internal sponsorship.
Account development, realizing that there are
multiple stakeholders, each with their own budgets
and revenue responsibilities, leads
consensus-building engagements inside each
business unit or stakeholder committee.
Credibility earned in one business unit or operating
group is often perceived as not relevant by another
group, even if they are all under the same brand
banner.
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4. Chapter 2 Myths about Winning New Clients
Gurus in B2B sales may perpetuate a couple of these
myths:
1. Knowledge-based businesses are best sold by
domain or subject-matter experts
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5. 2. Person-to-person networking the best way to get
inside large companies
3. If you get to the right person, a deal can be done.
Challenger Customer busts these myths. Gartner's
examination of post-financial crisis sales
effectiveness explains: "The larger the price tag of
the service you offer, the broader the impact of your
service and the more stakeholders it affects, the
more people will be involved in the decision to hire
you.
As a rule of thumb, you should plan to hold
"discovery conversations" with all 3 roles in the
decision (cheque signer, influencer and implementer)
before starting discussions about a specific solution
or proposal."
Interview with Brent Adamson, author, Challenger
Customer
Account acquisition resembles a chessboard, with
each player having a defined range of moves. You
will have stratagems, but as each player makes a
move, your stratagem(s) change.
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6. Chapter 2 Myth 1: The Subject Matter Expert
If you are a sales manager, a major account
executive or are responsible for high-value client
relationships, what role does the subject matter
expert play & at what stage of the account
development process do you involve them?
1. Do you send a subject matter expert to first-time
meetings?
Generally, experts are most comfortable in
peer-to-peer discussions, where a defined scope of
work has been established. Most experts prefer to
deal with facts, such as processes and
methodologies rather than uncovering a potential
client's preferences.
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7. 2. At which stage of the customer buying journey is
domain expertise effective?
Experts inside large companies are found in user
groups, project implementation control and vendor
management.
Since the subject matter expert inside client
organizations often has the role of “implementer”, a
peer-to-peer discussion surrounding project
parameters and specifications is usually the best
time to involve your expert.
3. If you are a business owner and/or a specialist
practitioner, isn't your network of other experts the
best way to find new clients, since other experts will
understand the value of what you're offering?
It is likely that your access and affinity within a large
company is with the “implementation” and
operations roles. This may be where your expertise
network takes you and where you are most effective.
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8. While subject matter experts can nix a deal on the
basis of your competence, they are not the "cheque
signers" or business benefit buyers. Therefore,
starting discussions with the head of the business
unit and being referred to the "implementation"
group is a better strategy.
Domain Expertise value during the Customer Journey
If you are the founder or subject matter expert, at
what stage of the customer journey do you take the
lead?
Generally experts are comfortable in peer-to-peer
discussions, where a defined scope of work has
been established.
Quite often experts inside an organization are found
in user groups, project implementation or vendor
relations specialists.
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9. They seldom have budget authority but they are
required to "green light" an initiative
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10. Subject matter experts are often “influencers”
despite having no budget or authority to engage you
as a supplier. Do not overlook technical experts.
A single entry point with a single stakeholder group
is insufficient if your goal is to become a vendor
company-wide.
Pilot projects or use case validations, if designed for
a specific business unit's needs, may not solve
business needs in another area of the company.
Broad-ranging “discovery” conversations, held with
multiple roles across each of the 3 stakeholder
behaviour types ("cheque signer", "influencer",
"implementer") is the most effective way of avoiding
a "no thanks" AFTER you submit a proposal.
Chapter 2 Myth 2: “Network Value”
As the owner of a specialty business services firm,
you may have recruited salespeople because they
"knew everyone" and you believed their networks
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11. would bring you business. Since you're a believer
that word of mouth marketing and referrals is the
most dependable way to win new clients, having
access to as many people as possible on a personal
basis makes good business sense.
The limitation of "natural networks", or those whom
you have met in person is this: it is likely to be made
up of people who resemble you.
In other words, they will be people in similar
disciplines and at similar levels of responsibility as
you. More importantly, a natural network is often
limited geographically.
Therefore, "natural networks" may not provide
access to the companies on your wish list of new
clients. Professional online networks built on
LinkedIn, for example, can overcome the limitations
of a "natural network".
Business Case: Purpose-built LinkedIn Networks
Social Capital=Network Value
11

12. Let’s say your firm has a lot of consumer packaged
goods companies on its roster but the industry is
stagnant and you’d like to do work in e-commerce,
where there is more growth.
You are considering hiring a CPA who has spent most
of her career in consumer packaged goods and
supply chain finance. She has strong expertise in
your firm's specialty and is a superb networker.
Will hiring this person, even though they have a
Rolodex to die for, help your firm to diversify into
e-commerce accounts where long-term prospects for
growth are better?
Should you hire a specialist from within
e-commerce?
Or might you use social media to help diversify your
"natural networks"?
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13. Myth 3: "Cheque Signer" BANT Authority
If you want to secure preferred vendor status with a
Fortune 1000-sized account, there will be multiple
stakeholders in each division or operating group.
Not only are there "silos" or independent
revenue-producing groups, each with their own
budgets, but stakeholders in each group may have
competing interests regarding external suppliers.
Each stakeholder group may see a different part of
the elephant (as in the fable of the blind people and
the elephant). Furthermore, each stakeholder
represents a go/no-go point in the company's buying
process.
Therefore, Challenger Sales best practice is to
simultaneously facilitate internal consensus-building
with multiple stakeholder groups across all
operating units.
I'll give you an example from a client project. We had
set our sights on signing a preferred vendor
agreement with at least one of the top 10 globally
integrated American banks.
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14. We were achieving all our performance metrics:
a) Number of executive briefings opened by email
recipients
b) Number of discovery conversations held with
qualified stakeholders
c) Referrals to key opinion leaders surrounding the
decision
d) Access to multiple stakeholders within each of the
business units and operating groups identified as
prospects
And yet, no funded project had been identified by
stakeholder groups.
One of the "influencers" (a Challenger-defined buyer
behaviour type) asked us to take part in a discussion
with field executives at an internal conference.
We thought it was going to be a "beauty pageant".
The subject matter experts in the implementation
group had told us they had "no budget this year".
However, the head of the business line, with whom
we had started conversations, had told her team that
if they got buy-in from the field at this conference,
she would approve a pilot out of her discretionary
budget.
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15. Had we gone away when we were told "there's no
budget", or stopped asking for meetings with other
business lines, we might never have nudged the
project into existence.
Because we had created access to all the potential
stakeholders in 6 different lines of business (each
having discretionary budgets) and because, we
argued, each operating unit would enjoy accrued
customer wallet share if implemented
enterprise-wide, we won the contract.
Chapter 3 Foot-in-the-door Pilots & Discretionary
Budgets
Owner-managers tell me they live on a rollercoaster.
They are either too busy delivering client
assignments to go after new business or they're
frantically chasing down the next assignment
because there is no work.
Negotiating Preferred Vendor agreements rather
than one-time assignments can lead to annuity types
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16. of assignments and predictable revenue.
1. Discretionary spend, rather than annual budgets
Discretionary budgets, although small, are
decentralized and administered by department or
business unit leaders.
Annual budgets fund recurring expenses and are
administered by purchasing departments. Most
sales people do not target unit managers' bite-sized
quarterly authority for small, mission-critical
investments.
When we hear "It's not in the budget", this usually
means not in the annual operating budget, which
pays for pre-approved expenses that occur every
year: marketing, advisory services, operating
expenses.
How can you leverage discretionary budgets inside
complex, multi-unit corporations and how do you
position your firm's offering outside of annual budget
items?
Discretionary budgets support short-term, critical
16

17. objectives. The executive committee often make
public commitments to investors or shareholders, so
the best place to learn what discretionary budgets
are likely to be spent on is in quarterly earnings
reports.
Looking at the investor relations part of a company's
website, where public presentations are stored, will
also give insight as to what the executive committee
favours as business solutions.
Look for objectives which sound like this:
“2% gain in market share this year”
“Entry into the China market by 2028”
“Move to # 4 position in the industry”
Demonstrating how your firm can help a business
unit leader reach their group's deliverables related to
publicly-announced goals by funding a pilot can open
a door.
Rather than claiming generic benefits such as "drive
sales", get onto the business unit leader's agenda.
Funding a first-time assignment from a discretionary
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18. budget improves the odds for being taken on as a
new supplier.
Chapter 3: The Advantages of being "Super-Niche"
You may be a new firm and you may have very little
experience in the industry you want to pursue. Yet
you have your sights set on a prestige logo you
would like to have as a client.
Here are 3 ways to carve out a "super-niche" for
yourself and overcome these limitations:
1. Get inside the companies you'd like to win
a) Go to the investor relations area of their website
& get on the distribution list for shareholder
materials. Comb their presentations for investor
guidance, sometimes offered during analyst Q&A
following earnings reports.
18

19. b) Subscribe to newsletters from the most influential
industry publications and notice industry pressures
such as regulation changes, incumbent acquisitions
or strategic alliances.
Look for emerging trends and indications of what is
on the horizon. In order to speak to business leaders,
you need to see the world through their eyes, speak
their language and understand how various
stakeholders' mental models configure your firm's
value promise.
2. Frame your offering in relation to industry-wide
pressures
A similar challenge in a different industry is
frequently a relevant trend. For example, new
regulations or compliance requirements affect
businesses in all industries.
Showcase project(s) where the business challenges
you addressed were driven by compliance pressures.
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20. 3. Demonstrate how you helped deliver on promises
When you're funded out of a discretionary budget,
timelines are short. Your "super-niche" may be that
you deliver using a company's intranet and therefore
have global reach and rapid turnaround. Back your
statement up with a generic project path document.
As you become familiar with industry pressures and
you begin to frame your "super-niche" within those
emerging trends, you will be better equipped to
combat the salesperson's biggest competitor:
inertia.
Most deals are lost to human risk aversion.
Rather than offering discounts, leverage industry
threats and launch a bite-sized pilot to shorten your
sales cycle. A pilot gives you time to get buy-in from
business units who would be impacted by your
project.
A pilot also gives you time to identify and win over
individuals or stakeholder groups whose
whole-hearted acceptance you will need for a
successful rollout.
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21. Chapter 4: Credibility: Different Strokes for Different
Folks
Liability for a supplier's performance may be a
career-limiting move for the person approving your
pilot. Defusing concerns about what might go wrong
during a project is the best way to build credibility.
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22. There are 3 "functional" roles around a decision:
a. cheque signer and/or champion
b. influencer (an indirect beneficiary of your service
eg. a services group such a legal or marketing)
c. implementer and/or user group
Each of the 3 roles respond to different sorts of
validation
1. Cheque signers and/or department leaders want to
know about your firm's
a) accountability, transparency
b) where the buck stops in the case of
non-performance
c) the demands of time and resources you will make
on their people
Cheque signers' questions are often about
accountability, reporting, performance metrics.
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23. Anticipate these kinds of concerns and answer them
before they are asked.
When choosing which of your many "features &
benefits" you will present, even in a preliminary
discussion, head off a business unit's concerns by
focusing on:
* How you report progress to senior executives
* Safeguards against non-performance
* Low demands on internal resources
eg. supplier integration, process re-engineering,
"sandbox" software testing
2. Off-target considerations
User groups' or specialists' concerns may sound like
they are unrelated to the scope of the pilot that had
been agreed to by another are of the stakeholder
committee.
You may prefer to feature your firm's brilliant
technical solution while an operations stakeholder
wants to know about your documentation process or
your success measures
23

24. Provide scope documentation examples:
a) Pro forma pricing contracts
b) Standard service-level agreements
c) Sample scope of work statements
d) Self-study onboarding, setup & user guidance
Offering these documents before they ask for them
can build credibility with leaders & non-users
because it shows that your firm is sensitive to their
processes as well as being an experienced supplier.
3. Users are frequently subject-matter experts.
Their questions are often about how you do your
work.These may be the stakeholders you have the
most comfort with because they appreciate how you
do what you do.
Users & domain experts are persuaded by:
a) Demonstrations of your work processes
b) Background of experts on your team
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25. c) Illustrations of project management & KPI
outcomes
Domain experts & user stakeholders may make what
sound like "buying signals" when they appreciate
your firm's work. They may even ask for a statement
of work or pricing.
Don't be fooled.
Pre-approved annual budgets fund goods or services
purchased every year. If your service is identified as
a line item in this year's budget, the supplier has
been identified and the budget number has been
provided by your competitor.
The department head, however, could use their
discretionary budget to fund your pilot. They might
even be willing to pool that discretionary budget
with another business unit leader on whom they
depend to meet targets.
External suppliers or service providers may also
contribute bite-sized budgets if everyone agrees they
are interdependent for delivering performance.
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26. Chapter 5: Processes + Documentation = Visibility
Your task is to help reduce a potential client’s
uncertainty about retaining your firm. Bland
reassurances or even glowing reports from previous
clients are less reassuring than examples of
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27. procedures and accountability documentation
throughout an assignment.
You don’t need fancy flow-charts or project maps.
A thorough approach to risk management can be
demonstrated by sharing the documentation you
would use during their project.
You will notice that I’m not suggesting conventional
promotional materials. I’m suggesting sharing the
documents you use during a project. This is the
most convincing "show & tell".
Providing your standard documentation assures a
potential client that, although they believe their
needs are unique, your team follows best practice
methods. Therefore they can expect predictable
outcomes.
Documentation samples demonstrate how your firm
handles accountability and reporting, a risk
mitigating concern of senior executives.
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28. Examples of your standard project documentation,
sample reports, case studies, impact reports or
“demonstrations” of work for other clients can help
consolidate agreement between stakeholder groups.
Project scope definition and research are likely to be
the first phase of a customized service offering, so
your client may be paying to develop
recommendations or design a solution.
28

29. This can feel like a risk. Offsetting inertia brought on
by fear is the sales task.
Without knowing in advance how a customized
solution will be arrived at and delivered, quality
control checkpoints and procedures provide a
porthole to "look in on" the project.
Case studies demonstrate that your team follows
proven methodologies is reassuring. Client
companies, particularly in regulated industries,
follow compliance procedures and expect the same
of you.
Furthermore, project documentation equips internal
champions and influencers to support your project
during rollout and field implementation.
Chapter 6 Safeguard Consistent Messaging "around
the table"
Tailoring your messages to a range of stakeholders
roles and responding to concerns is a component of
documented success behaviour. "Teach, tailor &
take control (of facilitating internal
consensus-building") characterize Gartner's
29

30. Challenger sales behaviour. During the buying
journey, when stakeholders misconstrue your
information or misinterpret documentation, you gain
valuable insight about how your message is being
heard.
Managing the loose/tight balance of consistent
messaging across multiple stakeholder groups
depends upon knowing that input (listening) delivers
more business value than output.
The more skillful you and your team become at
supplying what is relevant to the "view of the world"
of each stakeholder group, the more impact your
conversations will have and the more comfortable a
stakeholder group will become when making a
decision to retain your firm.
By the way, your new client's stakeholder groups'
confidence that you "get" their multiple views of
their worlds will spill over into confidence as the
pilot or field implementation rolls out, helping drive
successful adoption.
Becoming a supplier/advisor to a large, complex
organization is so much more than delivering a
solution as promised. It is the ability to consistently
illustrate your firm’s position as an insider: an insider
to sector concerns and an insider to that company’s
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31. business challenges.
Chapter 7: Expressing Your Business Value
Framing your offering within market trends
demonstrates that your team creates value beyond
your product or service. Stakeholder groups' views
of their worlds can be contradictory and sometimes
even competitive. Larger trends and broader
business needs diffuses and synthesizes
contradictory views of the world".
Providing overarching business needs as context
before describing your offering establishes
credibility. Relating your offering to industry
"headwinds" illustrates why you are wooing them
and contributes to agreement that you understand
their challenges.
Framing Value within Market Trends
Summarizing the principal challenge facing your
client's industry provides a context for your offering.
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32. A synopsis of what you’ve noticed going on in their
industry solicits “You derstand us” from the other
person. Summarizing a relevant trend need not be
exhaustive. The summary is intended to foster
opportunities for the individual on the other side of
the conversation to amplify their views and invite
them to signal their concerns.
The more conversations you have had with people in
a given sector, the more pointed you will be. When
you first start, you may find yourself speaking in
generalities but after several exploratory
conversations, you will be able to “drill down” to your
potential clients' point of view.
For example, if you are speaking with an executive in
Wealth Management, you might observe:
Market Trend: “Customer experience challenges in
the High Net Worth client segment appear to be
around capturing more of each customer wallet
share"
You: "Platform integration and advisory teams are
the way some institutions are responding.
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33. Is that consistent with your group’s approach?”
Your research on the company’s website and
industry publications may even permit you to probe
with Point of View probes such as:
“Your product offering seems to be designed to
capture increased customer wallet share. Is that
aligned with corporate strategies?"
"How are your channel partners responding to this
positioning?”
By the way, this conversation secured the very first
assignment for my client, a small customer
experience improvement provider. The assignment
was with the #4 financial services logo in North
America.
Why adopt account acquisition tactics rather than
person-to-person sales?
Growth-minded business services firms flourish
when they construct annuity revenue streams
rather than fee-for-service contracts. Predictable,
ongoing client assignments deliver sustainable
returns for founders and funders.
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34. About Catherine McQuaid
More on B2b & Challenger Selling
Reach out to Catherine McQuaid
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