What Makes Strategic Selling Successful

Strategic Selling

A good business is based upon a clearly defined business strategy. Strategy is the central or macro plan for any business. It the fundamental overarching plan which everyone inside the business is pulling towards. A business with a clear strategy in place knows where it is aiming for in its market sector. That clarity and purpose enables it to build a culture to support that. A key element of a successfully designed business strategy is that it translates into a clear sales strategy. That is the definition of successful strategic selling.

Sales Strategy What is it?

A sales strategy sets out clearly what the business intends to achieve and how. Rather than just setting out a simple cold and unexplained turnover goal, a raw number, it defines the market you are in. A coherent sales strategy combines a set of strategic metrics which build to a complete set of outcomes. A sales strategy is a clear direction to take for all business activities. It identifies: –

The structure and make-up of the market you want to succeed within.
Key major market drivers – what’s driving market’s existence and development.
Market dynamics – what’s setting the pace of change and evolution of a market
The profile of the major market players and their position in that market.
And ultimately the optimum customer profile for your target audiences.

Strategic selling is a sales framework that firstly identifies the market structure that you are operating within. While that sounds obvious, it provides that clarity of purpose that involves everybody within the entire company Ensuring that everyone is pulling in the same direction at the same time, a clear sales strategy unites a company behind the strategy. A sales strategy is not just for the sales team, it is for every department to be aligned with. It enables a sales team to build companywide cross-department relationships with multiple-decision makers in a potential customer’s organisation. It creates a buyer-orientated approach that focuses on the value the entire solution provides to the whole customer. This contrasts to transactional selling which focuses on just the product itself.

Strategic Selling in B2B Environments

Strategic selling it is particularly effective in B2B sales environments. This is where there are often multiple decision-makers coming from different departments that engage with the company. It moves selling from a salesperson’s role to a company wide responsibility.

Strategic selling aligns the company towards the entire customer’s needs and expectations. An average customer decision typically involves seven people, all from different parts of a business. Each potential customer comes with a set of unique specific needs, budgets, and decision-makers all in the mix. That’s why a well-defined sales strategy is essential to target and support winning over all the decision makers within target company.

Long-term Success

Strategic selling is focused on creating long-term, mutually beneficial relations with target customers. It breaks down complex sales processes into simple actionable steps which evolve as the partnership with each client develops. While traditional selling focuses on the narrow and immediate benefits of the product, strategic selling’s emphasis is on the complete value it provides to the customer over a long period.

Strategic selling is mainly applicable in B2B organisations where there is a high value stream relationship. Often there are multiple decision-makers and an evolving relationship or partnership between the two companies. Selling strategically is therefore a business culture tailoring the product and or service that gives the optimum solution to all these problems.

Strategic Selling Approach

A strategic selling approach requires a good understanding of the market and who the key players. That knowledge also identifies who will resonate most and align with your brand best. This market alignment is fundamental to strategic success. Prioritising and focusing resources on target customers and their value streams. Where a company can add value is where they might positively respond and engage with you. It is an essential to understand behaviour traits, and as identified above, what is driving their sector within a market. This is where customer competitor assessments identifies opportunities for possible company entry. Even if it is no clear opening or immediate need for your product entry.

A company market entry strategy is an approach that focuses on building alignment rather than peddling product. We align with and understand the target client landscape and strategic challenges they are facing before trying to sell. Learning how we can work with them to resolve them, putting us in the driving seat in their solution search.

By developing a tailored and even joint solution, we skew or even actively remove the competition from the equation. The most obvious point is where a target customer wants to move into a new venture, or market area. That opens an opportunity to develop an entry strategy with a partner. This can be undertaken either as a joint venture or as their preferred partner. This locking in is the most obvious model. For strategic selling it can at any level of development of the target customers business evolution. Whether that be scaling up, service evolution, cost reduction, adding new value; the opportunity is there if a strategic selling culture exists.

Classic Drivers Customer Change

Growth: The target customer is essentially aware of the desire to grow within a market or segment. Where their existing model is not suitable or competitive enough, so they will look at alternative models to get growth within their market.

Problem Solving: The target customer has an issue, or an underperformance with their existing model. This is where they maybe open to new ideas and solutions. This is where they are researching how do something different to remove know pain points.

Passive Observation: Here the target customer does not see a performance gap between what they desire and the reality, but they are aware that change is happening and potential for their position to become eroded opens doors for possible exploration of new approaches.

Key Elements of Strategic Selling

The key elements of strategic selling start with developing a strategic mindset by the leadership team. That clarity of purpose and position within a market, typically a developed or mature market, where there is a structured market with major players either in place or emerging. Without that foundation stone strategic selling is unlikely to be achievable.

Win / Win / Win Culture

Strategic selling identifies the triple win culture (Win / Win / Win), the customer wins, you win and the relationship between the two companies win. This triple bottom line is at the heart of strategic selling. It builds multi-level relationships across the target customer, a collaborative sales process involving identifying and removing the customer’s pain points with them and finally uncovering the real value of the relationship of the partnership with them.

Decision Making Unit and Process

The second key element of strategic selling is that it involves working throughout the entire decision-making unit (DMU). This shift moves selling from a 121 narrow transactional engagement, the traditional selling model, to one where the entire DMU are identified and actively engaged throughout the sales process. That really means not just for the sales period but as part of developing a long-term relationship with them.

Understanding that while other stakeholders may not be actively engaged in buying but are in the decision-making process of whom the business works with, and what criteria buying decisions are made upon is vital for successful strategic selling.

The second element here is for any target customer to know their Decision-Making Process (DMP) how do they buy? No two companies have the same process, in steps, time and people engagement.

If strategic selling is going to be successful then it’s not just about the people but the process they go though, step-by-step and language they use which you need to know inside out. How do they score and decide? Who has what influence over whom and when?

In simple transactional selling the decided decides but in complex B2b sales there are multiple voices and different levels of power and influence which the decider must engage with and respond to. If many cases the decided is there to sign-off on a decision rather and make it.

Customer Centric Approach

This then leads to the third key element of strategic selling, implementing a customer centric approach. Meeting the unique needs of that customer, tailoring existing processes and sales approaching aligned with the customer priorities and needs to enable them to achieve their goals. The final part of this element is an on-going relationship. Not just a engage when selling approach which is the definition of transactional selling. Strategic selling continually engages and aligns with the customer. This is why it works most effectively with emerging and maturing markets and large players within it.

The Personalised Sales Strategy for each Target Customer

Strategic selling’s key output is the personalised solution which is presented over time to the target customer. It highlights firstly good alignment between the two companies and the measurable impact it will make to the target customer enabling them to achieve their short and long-term goals.

The win/win/win mentality should be at the heart to the solution, identifying how your USP’s could with your approach will solve and add value throughout the target customers’ business.

Strategic Selling Solution

Strategic selling solution focus’s a whole company approach tailored to the target customers’ needs, addressing all stakeholder concerns and how you will support the customer throughout the relationship. In complex B2B markets an effective solution highlights the key must have elements that the target customer has identified to you. While also focusing on the ongoing relationship and the next stage development of the relationship.

That move from a transactional relationship to strategic selling involves the whole team engagement and long-term often multiple project and product development. This creates a strategic alignment between the two companies develops within a market segment. An effective solution highlights these elements and draws in the entire strategy not just the immediate product or service in question.

Strategic Selling Summary

Strategic selling is a clear business strategy. It relies upon developing a culture of long-term relationship building with large complex companies in maturing markets. Targeted customers ideally need to be in the early adopter or early majority element of the market where the value-added elements can be easily identified.

Engaging with target customers must be undertaken throughout the company. Not just at the buyer selling point but from top down and throughout the decision-making unit. Identifying not just immediate needs, but longer-term strategic goals and target customer development plans, identifying stakeholder needs and value requirements in the partnership.

Once this is undertaken the presentation back to the target customer must reflect strategic goals as well as immediate quick wins. This is most effectively when seen as a multiple step or phase building programme, often by finding the door opener and trust builder before trying to move into the longer and more significant purchasing phases. Always focus on the value-added in the joint relationship and lifetime value which will out compete any transactional relationship that transactional competitors can offer.

Like to know more then get in touch with Richard Gourlay here.

The Growth of the Garden Rooms Scotland Business

The Growth of Garden Rooms Scotland

The Growth of Garden Rooms

2022 was a great year for Garden Rooms Scotland. A Dumfries success story, with business doubling over 2021 as more and more people look to add a garden room to their home. The success in 2022 was not a one off, the confirmed order book in January for 2023 alone is more than the turnover achieved in 2021.

That success is not just down to a great front of house team’s solution design mentality, or the construction team’s hard work in quality construction. Garden Rooms Scotland provides a whole business solution. So where is the growth for Garden Rooms coming from?

The growth comes not from just a great company but also from several major factors within a market. The growth for Garden Rooms Scotland is no different. For many established companies’ growth within the outdoor living space sector is significant and is here to stay. Well, at least for the next five years or so if all market projections are to be believed. Why garden rooms are growing, is not down to just one factor, but many inter-related factors which is why growth is not just a blip but a long-term trend for companies set up to maximise this growth market. In response Garden Rooms has built a business to meet that growth curve.

Rising Demand for Garden Rooms

By far the biggest driver for people buying a garden room is in response to the demand for dedicated work from home space. While 2020 may have been the year of remote working due to Covid, it was just the icing on the cake in growth for the garden room market as work from home became the new normal.

Demand for garden buildings went up by 500% between January and May 2021 at the height of the Pandemic. But it was not a Covid blip, but an emerging long-term trend. A recent TUC survey discovered that more than 38% of people in 2022 in the UK now work from home at least one day a week. By 2025, it is estimated that 70% of the workforce will be working remotely at least five days a month.

The work from home garden office, provides a separate “workplace” replacing the kitchen table worktop. It not only enables people who want to their Zoom conference call in private, but want a permanent workspace differing from their home life.

Modern buildings provide a series of tangible benefits over old refurbishments. From WIFI, heating and cooling, well insulated and functional design the space works for business people. Garden Rooms also provide a steppingstone to work but without the costly time and financial commute for many professional workers. Garden Room offices also provide a tranquil workspace, looking out at your garden, creating calm and relaxed workspace, within a few steps of your home.

Space to Add a Garden Room

In places like Dumfries and Galloway, Cumbria, and Northumberland there is also space around many homes. Not just in rural housing but also in towns where many homes until recently were built with sizable gardens and surrounding spaces. This creates options for owners to utilise their spare space for an additional living or work from home space, either as accommodation or for a dedicated activity, from yoga space, music room to art studio.

Diverse Outdoor Living

Another major factor for many people choosing to add an additional living space is that it adapts what people have saving them having to move to find extra space. “If only we had a …….” Is solved by installing a garden room. Just the cost of moving home is often as much as adding in a new room to an existing property. Creating a new modern living space within an existing home is also easier as recent planning restrictions have been amended to favour garden room addition.

Creating dedicated spaces within a garden also creates privacy and can bring a function to a garden as well as a focal point to a garden. Creating a separate functional space brings structure to a garden, adding new functionality to the entire living space without disturbing the existing home.

Cost Effective Extensions

Starting with the cost of renovation, which has risen our of all expectations, due to labour and materials, with materials alone having risen over 40% since 2020. This makes adapting an existing house now significantly more expensive than adding a garden room option. A comparable construction cost comparison makes an equivalent extension typically 25% more expensive than installing a garden room.

Coupled to that many older buildings have significant limitations in adaption. Think of old houses with thick load bearing walls, and limited internal room sizes and the attraction of a bespoke design with modern spacious living spaces, well insulated and quickly erected and the rationale for a garden room becomes self-evident.

Garden Rooms Solution

Designed and built in Dumfries at their dedicated joinery shop, Garden Rooms are designed to be built as modular units which are then constructed onsite. Bespoke design with innovative solutions Garden Rooms solves people’s living space challenges. Using clever solution such as ground screw foundations and modular construction saves time and money for customers. This makes the time on site shorter and with low impact on existing gardens and customer’s lives.

With two showrooms providing a huge range of garden room solutions, customers can visualise and select the size and features they value most in their new garden room. For 2023 Garden Rooms has added new products and features to extend the range and scale of what can be offered. Garden Rooms is a business going the right direction in the right market at the right time.

To learn about how Richard Gourlay supports and develops successful businesses then contact him by clicking here

Do YOU have a Plan for Growth?

Do you have a plan for GROWTH?

Leadership is most often identified as someone with a clear vision to grow their organisation. Having a plan for growth within your business is often seen as someone on a mission. With a clear vision of where you want to be within your market. By definition, that means looking for and focusing on growth. All leaders must focus on looking for growth and development of their organisation if leadership is going to be seen as successful. But many leaders do not have a plan for growth within their organisation. So do you have a plan for growth?

Do you have a clear vision of where you are going to take your business? From understanding the market and its direction to where your business needs to be within those sectors, to profit from the growth within the market. Leaders need to be strategically aware of their market if they are to find and focus on growth within their organisation.

Leaders must also redesign their organisation so that it can take advantage of growth opportunities, redesigning how a business operates to increase turnover and / or profits is at the heart of ensuring a leadership team has plan for growth. Revitalising the sales and marketing operations is at the heart of acquiring more clients and developing improved relationship structures with customers and channel partners.

With a plan for growth leadership teams can reduce the amount of down time and focus their efforts on driving your business forward, with a clear vision of where you are going and why. Successful businesses develop strategic plans to move their business forward, to grow and succeed, while being in control.

The first role af any owner or director is to have a plan, from star-up onwards (not for the banks) but for you to own and deliver. That plan needs to be kept alive, fresh and driven to focus on success and succeeding.

GROWTH needs a Strategy!

A strategy is a researched approach by the leadership team, supported by a detailed plan of continual action steps to get the organisation to where you want it to be. The reason strategies are so vital is they keep things moving, and in business, if you are not going forward, you’re going backwards, and that can happen very fast. So, if you want your business to be successful and/or pay you more, having a strategy that focuses on growth is a must!

If you have no formal strategy to take your business to the next level you need to refocus your priorities right now to create growth, here’s the first stage of a growth strategy framework:

Create a clear vision of what you want to achieve:

There’s an old saying that you can’t hit a target you can’t see. Well your vision is your target. Your vision needs to be very clear in terms of what you want from your business, by turnover, profit, customer type or all three? What’s your ideal position in that market, do you want to be known as the premier supplier of your product or service, or a low cost or niche player?

What about your personal goals to support your lifestyle? You need to be very clear about what you want and what you don’t want. Have a clear focus that will keep you aligned with your long term goal for you and your business. Make your vision aspirational, where do you want your business to be within the net 3 to 5 years? What will it look like and what will the business feel like to be part of?

Looking for Growth

Starting with a clear vision for growth within a business is the simplest and most powerful way a leader can motivate everyone. Growth is about understanding the drivers of growth within your business sector. Knowing where a market is going requires leaders to step out of the day-to-day operational detail and focusing on the drivers of your market.

Growth is fundamental to a successful company. Finding growth does not mean just looking for growth in turnover, growth in profitability is by far the most valuable growth any leader can find. Growth can also be found in winning new market entrants; cross selling penetration to existing customers; launching innovative products and services or premium pricing of scarce products. Other profitable ways to grow your business include driving demand of premium and unique products, where your business has or can create a competitive advantage.

Like to learn more about creating growth for your business, then get in touch with us through the links below.

Cowden provides Strategic Planning Workshops which enable owners to create their vision of what they want to achieve. Our SPW faciliated workshops provide the opportunity for owners to work on their business not in their business. To learn more about Strategic Planning Workshops (SPW’s) or contact us by clicking Cowden to discuss your needs, or go to our website www.cowdenconsulting.com to learn more about us.

Like to learn how to find growth for your business? Then why not buy the book on how to build your successful business strategy, with the step-by-step guide on how to build your own business strategy, click the book below to buy now.

Learn more click here to read more about Richard Gourlay

Strategy The Leaders Role, by Richard Gourlay

Like to learn how to build your own strategy: then get the book with step-by-step guild to build your own business strategy, click the link below.

Strategic Planning Workshop is the model for successful Business Planning

Strategic planning is the process of defining your business’s key priorities as a business. Successful business’s have clear priorities which their business as a whole unit focuses on to achieve. Each of these key priorities are defined within a business as a strategy. A strategy, a course of action which will deliver a pre-determined business goal. For leaders undertaking a Strategic Planning Workshop is the model for successful business planning, putting leaders in the driving seat of their business.

Successful business planning is about developing your strategic plan for your business based upon proven business development tools. The Strategic Planning Workshop pulls these together into a single process. This process takes the guesswork out of your business success.

Maximising Opportunity: Reducing Risk

Taking the guess work out of your business success is a step-by-step process which develops business owners skills to strategically plan their business. Good strategic planning enables businesses to take advantage of emerging markets, emerging trends, develop and launch new products. Strategic planning also enables companies to make structurally improvements to their business to improve its profitability, reduce costs and enhance productivity.

Strategic planning workshop is a proven method of developing and implementing success see www.cowdenconsulting.com.

Strategy: Leadership Skills

Strategic planning creates a clear direction for a business take. Working on your business, not just another day in it, crating a sense of direction, for the whole team to take. Working on your business, from developing your WHY (Simon Sinek, the power of why) through to creating a strong sense of purpose and direction. Where you are going and why is a powerful outcome from a s strategic planning workshop.

Secondly for leaders the ability to discuss their personals goals and ambitions in an environment which allows open discussion and development of those linked to their business is a real focus for personal leadership skill development.

The third leadership outcome from a strategic planning workshop is the forward plan of where the business is going. That creating of a clear focus supported by detailed action plans moves the whole team forward as one.

Strategic Planning Workshop (Slideshare about Strategic Planning Workshop)

Click the link below to begin the slideshow to learn the fundamental skills and how to undertake a strategic planning workshop.

Strategic Planning Workshop from Richard Gourlay

Strategic Planning Workshop

Like to learn more about what a strategic planning workshop delivers to business owners in creating growth, focus and direction then get in touch and learn more. Enquries@cowdenconsulting.com or contact Cowden Strategy.