What if the buying criteria are not favorable to you?

• 

  If the buying criteria are not favourable then at its simplest there are 3 choices;

  
  

  • - Seek to change the criteria in your favour
• - Carry on regardless and hope for the best
• - Decide that you should walk away

Obviously the first is the most desirable option, that is to influence the buying criteria.  So ask yourself:

• Can new criteria be added to reflect areas of strength for your company and its proposition?

• Can criteria weightings being changed, so that areas where you company is at a disadvantage are relatively less important in the overall decision?

In considering these questions it is useful to look at influencing buying criteria on 4 levels:

1. NEEDS: The definition of the business need, or criteria for business success in respect of the purchase. For example the business need may be for example to reduce administrative costs by 10% over 16 months.  It is in addressing this fundamental business need / driver that the seller has greatest leverage in respect of shaping buying criteria.

2. SOLUTIONS: The definition of the optimal solution and the criteria used to narrow the range of alternative solutions being considered.  For example, the buyer may have defined a solution to its software needs in terms of buying an off the shelf solution, or custom coding and set the requirements accordingly.  However, perhaps the buyer has overlooked other options and prematurely arrived at a solution definition.  This may present opportunities for vendor may be able to introduce software as a service, or managed service as options in an attempt to change the buying criterion.

3. SUPPLIER:  The criteria for selection of the supplier(s) to provide the solution.  This is where as sellers we spend most of our time, yet it is the area where it can be most difficult to make ground.  That is because for buyers the competitive advantages of one supplier over another, is subsidiary to the definition of the need and the solution.

4. SUCCESS: The criteria for the ultimate success of the purchase, including delivery or implementation and everything that has to happen post the purchase to ensure that the results anticipated are achieved.  Increasingly this has an important role in shaping buying criteria and is an important area where sellers can shape requirements.  The computer software vendor who bundles training, user support and regular upgrades with the purchase is for example addressing this area.

Shaping the buying criteria is the supreme art of the salesperson, however it is a skill something that appears to be in decline.  That is because salespeople are increasingly being called upon later in the buying cycle that is when the requirements have been set.  So, it is important for the seller to become involved in the buying process earlier, often before a buying process has even begun.

Posted by Ray Collis on 4:09 pm. Filed under Needs Analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry