Build the Right Relationships: Introduction
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you'll be able to:
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Explain the benefits of building opportunity relationships
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Describe how revenue teams build opportunity relationships
Opportunity Relationships
Building opportunity relationships is all about understanding the people and the politics involved in the customer's buying decision.
With this understanding, you can devote your time to the right people, and talk to them about the right issues. You also have a better chance of avoiding unwelcome surprises during the course of the sales cycle.
The right people include anyone who really matters to the buying decision, and anyone who influences or is impacted by the buying decision.
We've all had opportunities where, although we had great relationships with people in the customer organization, we still didn’t win the deal. Why? Because we were talking to our friends rather than working to connect with the people really making the decision.
An
- The relationships between those people.
- The politics that
Each person on the map has a contact card. This makes it easy for the revenue team to see how everyone is connected, formally and informally, with
You can also see each person’s level of support for you and your coverage (level of contact) with them. We’ll look at this some more in a later unit in this module.
Using the map, you and your team can:
- Understand who really matters and what’s important to each person.
- Represent the relationships your team currently has with each person on the map.
- Identify where there are relationship gaps (that is, contacts with whom the team needs to develop a closer relationship).
- Develop strategies to bridge these gaps.
In this module, you'll see how an account executive and her revenue team use an
Meet Lynn and Her Potential Buyer, the MyHealth Decision Team
Lynn Benfield is an account executive at Retail POS, a company that specializes in advanced point-of-sale (POS) systems, including cash registers and card readers. They sell not only the hardware itself, but also POS software and related training and consultancy services.
One of Lynn's best prospects at the moment is MyHealth, a chain of health-care clinics that also provides pharmacy services.
MyHealth is expanding quickly but is having some issues scaling and maintaining their current payment systems. Lynn believes that Retail POS can offer MyHealth outstanding value in helping them scale and upgrade their POS software.
Lynn and her revenue team know that sales success always flows from discovering which individuals really matter in each buying decision and developing strong relationships with them.
They've already been working hard on their relationships at MyHealth.
MyHealth's Decision Makers and Approvers
Lynn has identified the two decision makers for the software upgrade project: Don Kellett, the digital procurement manager, and Sophie Cooke, the digital operations manager.
Lynn and the team know that it's not just the decision makers who are important when it comes to making a buying decision. They also know who the approvers are. (An approver is someone who signs off on a buying decision.)
The COO, Susan Linton is one. As the head of operations, she has ultimate accountability for the success of this important initiative, so it's important to her to be certain that the decision is right.
The CFO, Sonia West, will release funding for the initiative.
Lynn's strategy will have to account for the approvers' ways of thinking, their relationships with their colleagues, and their attitude to Retail POS.
One thing of note is that Don Kellett's thinking counts for a lot with Susan Linton. They have a long-standing working relationship, and Susan sees Don as someone who has a clear vision of what's good for the business.
It's possible that Don's power in the decision-making process will be stronger than Sophie's. Lynn and the team will have to keep an eye on that.
Who Else Will Influence the Buying Decision?
There are several evaluators — the people whose expert assessment will feed into Don and Sophie's final decision. Lynn knows that it's critical to connect with these people and to understand what's important to them.
She's aware that Terry Whelks, the purchasing coordinator, is one of the evaluators.
And she's just learned that an external consultant is going to serve as an extra Evaluator. This is Dave Clifton. He works for a procurement consultancy firm.
The vice president of procurement, Tony Hayers is another. As the person responsible for minimizing costs while also assuring the quality of the goods and services purchased by MyHealth, he'll look carefully at this deal.
Discover Other People
Lynn and her team are by no means done with their work of understanding who matters to this opportunity. They're well aware that there are people they don't know about yet.
One person they'll definitely need to identify and develop a relationship with is the data operations specialist.
Retail POS has found that in every deal of this sort, it's crucial to win the support of the person with this role. It helps them avoid tricky surprises toward the end of the sales process with someone raising unforeseen technical objections to their solution.
The MyHealth Opportunity Relationship Map
When Lynn and the team have put together their current knowledge on the relationship map, it looks like this:
The map helps Lynn and the team to see and understand:
- The role of each person in the buying process.
- Who influences whom.
- Whether Lynn and the team are aligned with people who have a significant impact on the customer's decision.
- Which relationship gaps need to be addressed.
- Who stands to win at the customer business if your solution wins, and who stands to lose.
The role of each person in the buying process
Each contact card on the map shows that person's role in the buying process. This means that everyone on Lynn's team can see who'll be making the decision, who'll approve the decision, which individuals have been asked to evaluate alternatives, and who will be using the solution.
Who influences whom?
Knowing MyHealth's organizational structure tells Lynn who reports to whom (shown on the map as gray lines).
She can also see who influences whom (green lines), and who's in conflict with whom (red lines).
Are Lynn and the team aligned with people who have a significant impact on the customer's decision?
Lynn doesn’t want to get stuck in her sales process with an enthusiast who is very helpful but doesn’t have the right level of power or influence to make the deal happen.
Where do relationship gaps need to be addressed?
Lynn can see othat there's been no contact yet with Terry Whelks, the purchasing coordinator. The team will have to work on a strategy for developing a relationship with him.
Who stands to win if Retail POS's solution wins, and who loses?
Why does this matter? Actually, this is probably one of the things that matter most!
The personal and business agendas that motivate key players often determine whether they support you or a competitor.
If someone's agenda makes them your supporter or mentor, they stand to win if your solution is chosen. But someone who favors a competitor stands to lose if you win.
