Our Client’s Situation:
A sales director, representing a high-end security service company, was growing impatient as his prospective client was extracting proprietary information during the proposal process to use for competitor research purposes. The prospect was a shrewd, wealthy, and high-powered business owner in a newly regulated industry. The sales director was concerned that his prospect was going to sign a deal with a competitor after he was finished extracting the information he was seeking.
The security service company had hired Human Interaction Solutions to help with the company’s organizational change process. As part of our assignment, we were asked to help develop the sales team’s leadership skills and improve the closing process. After hearing about the situation with the cunning business owner, Human Interactions Solutions worked quickly to formulate a strategy for the security company to win the business.
Our Research and Insights:
First, we wanted to understand more about the personalities of the sales director and the prospective client to guide our strategic approach.
We learned that the business owner, the key decision-maker for signing the contract, was highly successful. He also valued competency, honesty, integrity and sincerity. His reputation revealed that he required vendors to demonstrate comprehensive security expertise, not only to provide security systems, but assistance with regulatory and process issues. We also discovered that the business owner was introverted,highly detail-oriented and calculated in his decisions. He only trusted people’s recommendations if they were backed by numbers and analysis, he even employed fact-checkers.
The sales director (our client) was most successful working with people with a similar personality, psychological and behavioral makeup as himself. He struggled with selling and closing deals with prospects who had different personalities and communication styles.
Strategy & Outcome:
After the completion of our research and analytics, we understood the changes that needed to take place for a successful sales result. We worked with the sales director to change his approach to mirror his prospect’s communication behavioral style and fulfill the analytical content expectations. Our strategy included:
- Use an indirect approach to inform business owner that the company was aware of his shopping the proposal.
- Establish boundaries of relationship – no more information outside of the scope of the proposal until contract is signed.
- Demonstrate knowledge of industry and regulatory requirements using facts and figures
- Showcase competency and depth of knowledge through a presentation