“Companies today are trying to position themselves in the water

of a fast-moving river and not just let the current drag them,” an
executive at a major technology manufacturer told us. “Salespeople
need to understand how the product they offer helps companies they
serve position themselves in their environment.” Understanding a
customer’s positioning and strengthening it is part of how adding
value is defined today.

Insight

/ How do these execution challenges affect your

customers?

How do they affect your own company? See the Insight Guide

on Execution Challenges inside The Mind of the Customer

Toolbox at www.mindofthecustomer.com to help you assess

the impact of these challenges on you and your customers.

Looking at the World from Your Customer’s
Point of View

As a sales professional, it’s easy to think about selling your cus-
tomer something. But the next generation’s leading salespeople
instead look at sales from the customer’s point of view. It’s not
about selling. It’s about helping your customer buy. And to do
that, you have to understand why they buy and how they buy.

Most salespeople have been trained to think about their work

in terms of a sales cycle: Prospects are identified and qualified.
Contact is established. Presentations and proposals are made.
Objections are handled and negotiation occurs. Deals are closed.

Think instead about the point of view of the customer who

experiences a buying cycle, not a selling cycle. To a customer, the
notion of a sales cycle is totally irrelevant. Customers recognize
needs, evaluate options, resolve concerns, make decisions, imple-
ment the purchase, and evaluate impacts. By shifting from the
salesperson’s perspective, or selling cycle, to the customer’s per-
spective, or buying cycle, a salesperson can align her actions with
the needs of her customer.

Understanding the buying cycle from the customer’s point of

view is a critical step in understanding how executives buy.

Context Is Everything

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