CHAPTER 48

DISNEY’S CREATIVITY STRATEGY

When you need more than just the bare necessities

We all have a preferred thinking style – some of us are dreamers, while
others are realists or critics. This can prevent us seeing an issue from
other angles. Walt Disney’s method uses all three of these thinking
styles to help view a situation from different perspectives and find the
best way forward.
Problem solving, decision-making and planning suffer when we have too
narrow a focus, yet it can be difficult to change how we naturally approach
issues. Using Disney’s three styles together will improve your decision-
making.
• The Dreamer, who is a dreamer, is focused on potential and
possibilities.
• The Realist focuses on practical aspects and implementation.
• The Critic questions and challenges plans and assumptions, and notices
potential problems or flaws.

Using the Disney method

1 Select an issue you want to address but put it to one side while you get
into the right frame of mind.
2 Go to three different places to think about the issue from each
perspective (you will associate each environment with that approach).
 These can be entirely different places or simply different parts of one
room.
3 For each way of thinking (starting with dreamer, moving to realistic and
then to critic), first remember a time when you were either creative,
realistic or critical. This will help you access that style and apply it to
the current situation.
4 In each frame of mind, address the issue at hand solely from that
perspective. This will let you get the most out of each perspective,
revealing more options and ideas.
▪ In the dreamer space, let your ideas flow freely.
▪ In the realist space, think about how the ideas you have created can
be implemented. How can they be achieved? What needs to happen?
▪ In the critic space, question and challenge your ideas and plan.
Identify strengths and weaknesses; look for flaws; look for gaps or
potential problems. Determine what needs to be done better.
5 Once you have completed these four stages, go back to the beginning
and re-evaluate your original dream and plan through each thinking
stage in turn. You can repeat this process until you feel the plan works
well from each perspective.

Types of questions to ask at each stage

Dreamer Realist

• Why am I doing this? • How can I make that happen?

• Can it be done better? • Who else do I need to make it

work?

• What would I like to happen? • What needs to happen – and

when?

• Wouldn’t it be great if …? • What resources do I need?

• What reward or result would I • How much will it cost?

like?
Critic

• Does the idea really have potential?

• Is the objective achievable?

• Are there any barriers or resource issues?

• Does the plan work? Consider issues such as timing, cost or market
potential.

• How can the plan be improved – are there gaps or are some things
unnecessary?
SALES, MARKETING,
BRANDING AND
CUSTOMER SERVICE
 CHAPTER 49
THE MATE MODEL FOR STRATEGIC
SELLING

Achieving your sales objectives

Segmenting and managing your contacts within a client organization in
terms of their support for your sales objectives is a highly effective way
of developing client relationships and selling.

Four steps
• Step 1: define your unique sales objective.
• Be clear about what you are selling and when, and the value it brings.
What makes it an attractive proposition? What is its value for the
organization or client? This sounds simple but it can be muddled or
overlooked, with disastrous consequences.
• Step 2: identify all the players using the MATE model.
• MATE highlights the need to focus on Money, Allies, Technical experts
and End users. Identify each contact (including those you don’t know),
recording their job title and name.
 ▪ Money. The budget holder has authority over the decision to spend.
They tend to focus on the bottom line and have the power of veto.
They will ask: ‘What impact will this have and what return will we
get?’
▪ Allies / Advocates. These can help guide you during the sales
process. They provide valuable information, can lead you to the
right people and may be influential. Allies are both inside and
outside the organization.
▪ Technical experts. They are gatekeepers who evaluate technical
aspects of the proposal. They do not have final approval but offer
recommendations to the decision-maker. They can say ‘no’ on
account of technical issues. They ask whether the product or service
matches their specifications.
▪ End users. They judge the impact of your proposal on their job
performance. They will implement or work with your solution, so
their success is linked to your product and they will want to
influence the decision to buy. They ask: Will it work for me or my
department?
• Step 3: consider each individual’s level of support.
• Having placed each individual on the MATE model, assess their level of
support for your sales objective as high, medium or low.
• Step 4: consider each individual’s level of influence.
• Assess each individual’s influence within their organization – high,
medium or low.

Check for warning signs

Ensure that there are no threats to the sale by asking yourself the following:
• Have I at least one person for each area?
• Am I free from concerns about their influence?
• Have I made personal contact with them?
• Do I know their response modes and what they are looking for?

Identify your tactics to further the sale and eliminate warning

signs
Throughout, be honest and prepared to challenge and develop your
thinking. With the information you have gathered, contact the key people,
establish rapport and understand their needs.
 CHAPTER 50
THE TEN CS OF SELLING ONLINE

Building a successful business online

Centred round meeting customers’ needs, the Ten Cs are the key
drivers of selling and succeeding with business online.
Which factors are most significant for your company will vary over time,
depending on the situation – such as its stage of development, competitive
position, type of market or brand strength.

1 Content
Content sets the tone and should drive your brand. It should be clear,
compelling, engaging, entertaining, informative, visually appealing and
tailored to the target audience. Enable customers to access information
quickly and easily and to control the flow of information.

2 Communication
Communication is more than providing information. It is about listening,
building trust and having a one-to-one relationship with customers.
Understand what interests and motivates customers, give them the
opportunity to interact, act on feedback and use clickstream data to monitor
behaviour.

3 Customer care
Customers need to trust you – to have confidence in purchases and to know
that personal data is secure and that after-sales support is available. Provide
various payment methods, enable customers to track orders and respond
quickly to questions. Positive experiences enable up-selling, cross-selling,
repeat business and personal recommendations.

4 Community and culture

People look to the Internet to network and socialize. Provide expert
information, allow people to react, ensure that information is accessible,
clear and entertaining, and enable customers to meet and interact.

5 Convenience
Customers have high expectations, so assess each feature from your
customers’ viewpoint. Online experiences need to be smooth, effective,
quick, easy and convenient. Ensure that navigation is clear and intuitive.

6 Connectivity
Make the site compelling and ‘sticky’ – so that customers stay longer,
return often and recommend it. Ensure that customers value it by providing
high-quality content and incentives to return. Enable customers to visit
other sites that provide complementary information – such as skiing
companies linking to weather channels.

7 Cost and profitability

Your online strategy – objectives, priorities and benefits – needs to be
clearly understood and planned. Focus on cost control and profit
maximization to ensure that the site is profitable.

8 Customization
Plan customization from the outset rather than grafting it on later. Ensure
that products meet customer’s requirements through dialogue. Make sure
that customers know what they can and cannot choose. Develop and refine
customization to maintain competitiveness.
9 Capability
To improve capabilities, encourage your people to see the Internet as a tool
for meeting customer needs. Set, implement, measure and monitor
objectives. Ask customers what they want and what they think of your
plans.

10 Competitiveness
Continually review and refine your strategy relative to competitors. You
need a keen market awareness – you need to know what competitors have
done, are doing and may do. Consider the worst-case scenario to make your
online strategy durable and realistic.
 CHAPTER 51
SEVEN STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL
SALES MEETINGS

From great rapport to a sale

Successful sales meetings are critical. This is true for both sides: your
company’s future depends on sales, and clients want to find the right
supplier. Selling is a highly skilled art, one that is rooted in one
fundamental principle: trust.

Overview
These seven steps will help you to make the difference and turn sales
meetings into a win–win for all concerned. Each step provides an
invaluable framework to building the right relationship with your potential
clients – skills that can be used in a wide range of business situations.

Step Build Connect with you the client – establish common

1 rapport ground and empathize.
Create a positive working relationship and remain
professional.
Be warm and assertive and ask open questions.
Dress to establish credibility.

Step Send Be clear, concise and appealing.This shows why the

2 confirmation meeting is important, establishes your capability and
of your enables you take to control.
purpose

Step Introduce Your client needs to have confidence in you and

3 yourself and your company. Your ability to direct the rest of the
your meeting relies on this first impression.
company
Be succinct and aim to impress – include how you
have helped other companies. Use positive, non-
committal words such as ‘hopefully’ and
‘possibilities’.

Step Fact-finding This helps you to know your potential client and
4 tailor your offer. This includes knowing both the
company’s situation and the people you are meeting
with – ensure that your presentation appeals to and
resonates with those listening.
Step Explore This is where sales are made or lost. Focus on their
5 needs and needs and what they are looking for. If you want to
wants include things they haven’t previously considered,
give a compelling reason. Explain how what you are
offering will make a difference to their business.
Use GRIP: Goals, Reality, Implications, Plans (see
Chapter 59). Focus on what they are looking for and
value. Ask open, probing questions – and listen.
Don’t be afraid of silence – people need time to
think about points.

Step The Tailor your presentation to what the client needs. It

6 presentation is no good having bells and whistles if they are of no
use to your client. Be enthusiastic and warm and tie
your solution to the client’s needs.

Step Advancing All previous steps rely on this last stage.

7 and closing
End meetings by focusing on building the
relationship.
Agree next steps and reaffirm commitment.
Be confident and warm, follow up quickly and
deliver on promises.
 CHAPTER 52
THE BUYER’S CYCLE

Understanding how customers buy

Successful selling requires understanding of how and why people buy.
By understanding each stage of the Buyer’s Cycle, you will be able to
influence current and potential customers.
Empathy and seeing situations from a client’s point of view is fundamental.
Customers think about three things:
1 their current situation
2 how your product will affect that situation
3 whether it will close a gap and take them closer to their goals.
When selling to an organization, the different people involved can have
different views and priorities.

How the Buyer’s Cycle works

Awareness

Information

Prioritization
 Purchase

Use

Reuse

Advocacy
1 Awareness. Catch the customer’s attention – make them curious about
and familiar with your product. Create awareness of your product so as
to lead the customer to the next stage: wanting to know more.
2 Information. Make information clear, useful, relevant and compelling,
with the right amount of detail for the customer. Too much will be
irrelevant, tedious and boring for some; too little will lack the necessary
detail for others. The information and how you present it will lead the
customer towards prioritizing their needs in relation to your product.
3 Prioritization. This is when decisions are made. Understand your
customer’s needs, ‘would like to haves’, their situation and financial
concerns. Essentially, help them find the product that is right for them.
Without this, the advocacy stage will not occur –they will not
recommend you to others.
4 Purchase. Make the process of buying as simple, streamlined and
efficient as possible. If the process is tedious or complicated, the sale
may fall through. This applies to both business-to-business and
business-to-consumer selling. Ensure that customers are pleased with
their purchases.
5 Use. The sale is not the end of the selling process. How customers use
products affects repeat business and recommendations. Provide good
products, generous guarantees and great after-sales support to move
customers to the next two stages: reuse and advocacy.
6 Reuse. Repeat customers are lucrative. They are high-margin
customers, requiring little marketing spend to increase revenue. Also,
they recommend your product to others through personal and career
contacts and social media.
7 Advocacy. It is called the Buyer’s Cycle for a reason: advocacy leads
directly back to the awareness stage. Recommendations reduce the cost
and difficulty of gaining other customers. To potential customers, a
recommendation brings a product to their attention, removes uncertainty
and builds a desire to own it.
 CHAPTER 53
PRICING

Choosing the best strategy

Getting the price right from the outset is imperative: the wrong price
can undermine your whole business strategy. Once set, prices can be
difficult to change.
Price supports a range of business aims: increasing loyalty, prolonging a
product’s lifespan, entering new markets, manipulating special offers and
driving out competition. To choose a pricing strategy you need in-depth
understanding of markets, customers, strategic aims and your company.

Know how sensitive price is

Is demand elastic – where small changes in price lead to significant changes
in demand? Or is it inelastic – where changes in price have little effect on
demand? Does the product have ‘snob’ value, where demand increases with
high prices?

Know the market

What are customer perceptions and behaviour? Will you accept the pricing
culture – or challenge it?

Competitive issues and price innovation

Are there few direct competitors? Are some competitors vulnerable to
lower prices?
Costs and break-even analysis
Selling at cost establishes market share or drives out competitors – break-
even analysis determines the price that covers costs. Review all costs,
including the possibility of suppliers increasing prices.

Pricing strategies

Strategy Idea/aim Issues

Loss leading Price is less than If demand is too high, losses escalate.
costRemove
competitors or Difficult to increase prices later. Could
establish market you survive a price war?
share
Penetration Break-even price Used in very competitive markets and
pricing and aggressive to undermine established leaderRelies
marketingMarket on unit costs falling as demand
penetration and risesRisk of competitors reducing
gaining market prices
share
Milking or Premium price Return limited by higher costs of
skimming for high-quality supplying productRelies on ability to
versionTo convince customersSmall size of
generate further market
profit from
established
product

Target pricing Set minimum Relies on accurate sales

level of profit, estimatesFailing to account for
estimate sales competitors’ actions
then set price

Price Variable prices Generates the most revenue from a

differentiation for different productRelies on barriers to entry –
 markets e.g. tariffs or high costs – to prevent
others buying in cheaper markets and
resellingRelies on consumer ignorance
(or acceptance) of cheaper prices
elsewhere.

Marginal cost Price reflects Used when cost of extra unit is

pricing additional cost of significantly higherNeed to explain
supplying extra price differences to customers
unit

Variable Prices reduced, Often used in extreme situationsPrice

pricing to increase fluctuations risk alienating or
salesRaised, to confusing customers
deter sales – if
production at
capacity
Average cost Set base price by Accepted by customersRelies on
pricing adding total accurate estimatesIs competitive:
costs and desired companies with lowest costs charge
profit margin lowest prices
and dividing by
likely sales

Customary Same price for Can increase profitsUseful when costs

pricing smaller product are rising and demand is slowRisks
alienating customers

Barrier Reduce prices to Aggressive strategy to defend

pricing deter or remove established positionUsed in highly
new entrants competitive or price-sensitive
marketsDespite legal restrictions,
companies act together to maintain
barrier pricing
 CHAPTER 54
THE FOUR PS OF MARKETING

Using the marketing mix

The marketing mix includes Product, Place, Price and Promotion and
this can be used to successfully position a product in the market.
Edmund Jerome McCarthy framed the marketing mix as the Four Ps. While
it may look simple, the point is that marketing is more than a reactive
enterprise, responding to a product after it has been developed. It should
also be a proactive activity that informs every aspect of a product’s design
and development.
Applying the Four Ps is a rigorous and ongoing process that questions and
challenges every aspect of a product to improve the product offering – to
get the marketing mix right. Each part affects the others (both supporting
and potentially undermining), necessitating a co-ordinated approach to
marketing strategy and the need to embed marketing into all other aspects
of the business – from product design to strategic direction. By considering
marketing issues from the start, you are more likely to develop the right
products and then to get those products right.

Product: designing the products that customers want

• Understand customers – what do they want, how will they use the
product, how the product will be perceived, what level of after-sales
support will they expect?
• Consider the effect of costs on price and, as a consequence, on
customers.
• Use market and customer insight to inform the product’s features –
including its name, attributes, colour, size and any relevant attributes.
• Get branding right, along with differentiating it from competitors’
products.

Place: reaching customers

• Be clear about where and how products will reach customers – for
example, the channels, regions and segments where they will be
marketed and sold.
• Understand your customers – where they look for products and where
they make purchases.
• You need to determine the channels you will use and consider
distribution issues – including any barriers to entry.

Price: setting the right price

• Know what the customer will be prepared to pay and consider how
customers’ perceptions are guided by price.
• Decide a price that allows for discounts to be used effectively – such as
encouraging bulk sales at a price that does not fall below costs.
• Be aware of competitors’ prices and consider the potential for a price
war.
• You will need to consider how demand will be affected at different
prices.
• Ensure that the price does not needlessly sacrifice your profit margin.
• Consider price from other perspectives such as branding.

Promotion: making people aware of the product and enticing

them to buy
• Decide how and when to appeal to customers.
• Know which type of promotion and incentive (for example, buy one get
one free) would work best for particular customers.
• To plan a successful advertising campaign, you will need to know your
customers. For example: Where do they go (and when)? What do they
do? What do they read? What (and who) influences them?
• Be aware of competitors’ campaigns and improve upon them.
 CHAPTER 55
THE TEN RULES OF CROSS-
SELLING

Improving profitability
Cross-selling is offering one or more different products or services to a
customer who has already made a purchase. The potential for
increased profit is considerable, but mishandling the process can be
self-defeating in the long term or even risk the original sale.

Overview
Successful cross-selling depends on understanding customer behaviour and
how customers make decisions. The key is to focus completely on the
customer. Fundamentally, honesty, integrity and trustworthiness are the
hallmarks of successful cross-selling. To have real benefit, always keep in
mind that you are aiming to increase profitability by building long-term
relationships, encouraging customer recommendations and developing a
valued brand – none of this will happen if customers are sold the wrong
products or feel misguided in any way.

Applying the ten rules

To guide companies in using the process successfully and avoiding the
pitfalls, John Domanski devised ten rules of cross-selling:
 1 Don’t cross-sell too soon. Do not risk losing the customer completely
by cross-selling too soon – make sure the first purchase is finalized.
2 Stick to the rule of 25, where the value of the cross-sale does not
increase the original order by more than 25 per cent.
3 Focus on long-term profit. Cross-selling needs to offer a customer the
most suitable product or service and so build a long-term relationship
and encourage personal recommendations. Simply pushing high-margin
items is ultimately unprofitable because disappointed customers will not
return.
4 Add value for customers, always. Cross-selling is not a means of
disposing of unwanted stock – it is about adding value for customers.
5 Keep all items in the sale connected. From the customer’s perspective,
additional products or services must be related to the first item.
6 Sell the customer something they already know: offer additional
products or services that the customer is already familiar with. This is
not the time to introduce new products or services.
7 Use technology to understand the customer. Develop a system that
links items together so that, when a customer makes a purchase, the list
of cross-selling opportunities is immediately apparent. It then becomes
a question of offering items that are appropriate to each particular
customer.
8 Keep sales teams as well as customers informed about products.
Sales teams need to know all your products and services thoroughly.
Detailed understanding is needed to know which products to offer and
to handle customers’ questions.
9 Use your best people and ensure continuous improvement. When
introducing new cross-selling opportunities, use your best people to test
the process and improve how it works.
10 Incentivize your sales teams to cross-sell (it is still cost-effective).
Always remember that motivation and compensation affect the
performance of sales teams. Co-opting Einstein’s equation, E = M C2
sums this up, where E is the person’s effort, M is the level of motivation
and C is the amount of compensation – effort directly following better
compensation and motivation speaks for itself.
 CHAPTER 56
DIFFERENTIATION

Giving customers a reason to choose your

products
Differentiating one product from another creates new market
opportunities: allowing variable pricing, increasing profit margins and
distinguishing your products from competitors’. Differentiation takes
many forms – from a product’s features, price and reliability to
emotional, aspirational attributes and branding.

Overview
In markets awash with products and services, getting customers to
recognize and choose your products is difficult. Differentiating from
competitors gives customers a reason to choose your product rather than a
competitor’s, and making this choice easy for customers is important.
Like it or not, our brains are remarkably lazy and prefer to make decisions
with the least effort. This is not to say we are not fussy – clearly, we need to
be convinced about the value the differentiation offers. However, the point
is that differentiation itself prompts the customer into seeing a difference
and helps to narrow down the decision-making process – in other words, it
makes things easier. So, it is important to make your customers aware of
how your product is different.

How to differentiate your products

• Know your strengths and weaknesses – and your competitors’. By
understanding your own strengths and weaknesses, and those of your
competitors, you will know what attributes you can leverage and what
you need to do differently in order to outcompete rivals and to appeal to
customers.
• Focus on customers. Differentiation strategy needs a keen focus on
customers. Knowing what will appeal to them and how they will
respond to any developments or changes in tastes and attitudes should
always inform your strategy – including recognizing new customer
groups and opportunities.
• Compete with yourself. Many companies offer products that compete
with their own products. By offering differentiated products, you will
appeal to a broader range of customers and occupy a larger portion of
the entire market, restricting the space available for competitors.
• Be aware of shifts in the marketplace. Differentiation is never a static
situation. Competitors will copy your products or services and erode any
advantage you once had. They will also use differentiation to capture
your customers. You will need to continually scan the marketplace to
assess competitors and to identify new opportunities.
 CHAPTER 57
CURRY’S PYRAMID FOR
MARKETING AND CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

Segmenting, understanding and managing

customers
How much do you invest in courting customers? The answer should
depend on the profit they create. Curry’s Pyramid provides a clear
summary of your most valuable customers (and unprofitable ones) so
that you can target your money, efforts and strategy accordingly.
Without customer segmentation, companies risk: wasting resources on loss-
making customers; missing opportunities to increase profit through other
customers; and alienating their most profitable ones. Curry’s Pyramid helps
to identify each group, clarify your thinking and determine your marketing
and customer-relationship strategies – identifying groups to cross-sell and
up-sell to.
The basis of Curry’s Pyramid is the revenue each customer group generates.
It works from the 80/20 rule, where 20 per cent of the customers generate
80 per cent of the revenue, and 80 per cent of the customers provide 20 per
cent of the revenue. This means:
• taking good care of the top 20 per cent of customers
• moving customers in lower-revenue-generating segments up the value
chain
• understanding your reasons for marketing to low-profit segments
• questioning why you keep loss-making customers.
The pyramid can reflect different things – not simply revenue. It could
depict profit margin per segment. Viewing groups solely in terms of
revenue or profit margins is only part of the story – other factors need to be
considered, such as brand and market presence. Nonetheless, given that a
small customer group generates the bulk of your revenue and is probably
highly profitable, Curry’s Pyramid is useful for analysing customers and
developing marketing strategy.

In practice
Decide how you are going to segment customers – for example, by revenue
generation or profit margin per customer.
1 Collate and analyse the data.
2 Use this information to review and inform your marketing strategy.
3 Incorporate broader strategic aims into marketing strategy. Don’t just
focus on the now: consider potential customers (move customers up the
value chain and turn prospective customers into actual ones).
4 Determine the levels of marketing costs that each segment justifies and
develop tactics that are cost-sensitive and tied to revenue.
5 Take very good care of your most profitable customers.
Finally, Curry’s Pyramid is designed to achieve one aim: to ensure that your
company is customer-driven. If you are not focused 100 per cent on
customers, then you are looking in the wrong direction.
 CHAPTER 58
THE TIPPING POINT

Malcolm Gladwell’s insights into the way ideas

spread
The emergence, spread and decline of products or ideas is a
phenomenon that is rarely understood. Gladwell’s insight into social
dynamics, however, reveals the trends of human behaviour.
Malcolm Gladwell likens the rapid growth, decline and coincidence of ideas
to epidemics. Ideas are ‘infectious’, fashions represent ‘outbreaks’ and new
ideas and products are ‘viruses’ – and advertising is a way of infecting
others. He shows how a factor tips when a critical mass is reached. This is
when a shoe becomes a fashion craze, social smoking becomes addiction
and crime becomes a wave. The idea of the ‘tipping point’ provides insight
into how to launch products successfully.

1 The law of the few

Epidemics need a small number of people to transmit their infection to
many others – those who travel and socialize can turn a local outbreak into
a global pandemic. For business, word of mouth is critical. Those who
speak the most (and are influential) create epidemics of ideas. These people
are connectors, mavens and salespeople.
• Connectors bring people together. They influence the spread of
epidemics through their networks. Masters of the ‘weak tie’ (friendly,
superficial connections), they spread ideas far.
• Mavens – information specialists – are subtly different. They focus on
the needs of others rather than their own, and have the most to say.
Teachers are a good example.
• Salespeople concentrate on the relationship, not the message, and are
persuasive because they have better ‘sales’ skills, non-verbal
communication and ‘motor mimicry’ (imitating others’ emotions and
behaviour to gain trust).
Tipping points need connectors, mavens and salespeople.

2 The stickiness factor

With products or ideas, how attractive it is matters as much as how it is
communicated in determining whether it spreads. Its ‘stickiness’ determines
whether it passes by or catches on. To reach a tipping point, ideas have to
be compelling and attractive. The Information Age has created a stickiness
problem – the clutter of messages we face leads to products being ignored.
To create epidemics, it is increasingly important to present the message
effectively. If contagiousness is a function of the messenger, stickiness is a
property of the message.

3 The power of context

We rarely appreciate how our personal lives are affected by circumstances.
Changes in the context of a message can create an epidemic. An example is
the ‘broken windows theory’ – if someone sees a single broken window,
that person may believe there is an absence of control and authority.
Consequently, they are more likely to commit other crimes. A broken
window or graffiti invites more serious crimes, spawning a crime wave.
Gladwell argues that our circumstances, or context, matter as much as
character and that we can control the tipping point by altering the
environment.
 CHAPTER 59
GRIP

Building customer motivation

Successful selling involves showing customers how your product will
make a difference to them. Use GRIP to understand a client’s goals,
assess their situation, and identify the gap between what they have and
what they would value and their motivation to buy.
The four stages are:
• Goals
• Reality
• Implications
• Plan.

Stage Your aims How Result

Goals: building a Help the client Ask open Everyone is

vision see how their questions about clear about
current situation the future – the gap
Thinking about the could be encouraging between
future creates a improved customers to where they
positive mindset that create a vision are and
sees opportunities, is Encourage them of the future and where they
motivated to change to question and realize what’s would like
and ready to see how challenge the lacking to be
present, think
your offer will make a enthusiastically While knowing The client is
difference and creatively their current thinking
and build a situation, focus about
vision of the on the future possibilities
future and wanting
to achieve
their vision
Reality: what stands Clarify what Ask questions Client sees
between you and needs to be done about their the extent of
your goals to make the current situation: the gap and
client’s ideal what they like the need for
Explore the current solution happen and what action
situation in detail frustrates them
If no gap
exists, time
is saved not
pursuing the
sale further

Implications: seeing Not to rush to Be empathetic, Knowing

a different future making an offer listen and ask client’s
questions that commitment
Explore the Establish a good explore the
implications and relationship with situation and Developing
importance of change. client goals trust and a
Move the client strong
towards a decision Understand their Help client to relationship
needs and hopes see the extent of
Don’t rush to your the gap and An
offer because this understand the enthusiastic
stage provides difference client
valuable insight to change would
better tailor your offer make

Plan: achieving your Enable your Use information The sale

goals client to achieve so solution
goals, offering meets their A long-term
business
Use the information the solution for needs and relationship
to tailor your offer, their needs expectations
build relationships
and gain commitment Ensure customer Work with client
feels unrushed, to make
comfortable and adjustments
confident
Make the right
sale – for repeat
business