What the sales is going on?

Have you worked with someone in sales before? Yup. They tend to get a bad rap as slimy and don’t care other than about the sale,…not the outcome. Over the years I’ve noticed that I classify them in several ways. It is important to understand their role/purpose, other than well…to sell stuff.

Roles

Knowledge gap: The product isn’t easily understood by the customer. Occurs even more in solutions where the customer is required to participate but doesn’t really want to…like taxes, law, and insurance.

Flywheel: The product needs someone constantly ushering customers in the door because, as they say, the product doesn’t sell itself. Unfortunately, this also sometimes includes products where customer brainwashing is required to even have a market.

Relationship: The product sells itself, except this is all about Quality-Of-Service. It is a white glove add-on to help keep the symbiotic business-customer relationship alive and happy.

Filter: The product, including its whole internal ecosystem, is more facade then reality. It is usually made up of internal political issues, product issues, or vaporware. The filter goes both ways so demanding aspects of the customer are also polished for the company’s digestion.

Evaluating

Sure, most have to fill in several or all of these. You just need to look for the gotchas. Fill this out for each vendor-solution you use. Guesses are fine, but the more you know about the market and the vendor the better.

• Knowledge Gap: __% Vendor, __% Market
• Flywheel: __% Vendor, __% Market
• Relationship: __% Vendor, __% Market
• Filter: __% Vendor, __% Market

Reflections

1. Unless some part of the ecosystem is bad any high Filter % is bad. If the market is better…you should look elsewhere. If both vendor & market are high, consider eliminating the need for that solution or some alternative approach. Be reflective though that the high filter % isn’t due to your own company…and not the vendors.
2. Watch out for a high Flywheel and Relationship. It may be nothing, but you may have just arrived at the circus where the Relationship is used for the brainwashing and the Flywheel eats your company alive. The same can be true with Relationship and Filter.
3. With large Knowledge Gap, encapsulation is best. What that means is you focus on using a vendor that doesn’t have the Knowledge Gap, can be a trusted resource, acts as a proxy for you or shields you from it, and provides the Relationship needs to the company.

It is assumed you know your market and company, so if nothing else just reflect on the percentages for each vendor solution and consider if they are reasonable, you are comfortable with them as they are, and where you would like them to be.

Originally published: 11/26/2013