Planning for Buyer-Seller Misalignment

A key to sales success in any business, but especially in market research, is capitalizing on timing. The timing is the proper alignment of when a buyer is ready to buy, and a seller is in a position to assist that buying process.

Less than 20% of all proposals delivered by sellers are approved by buyers, especially when a new project is being proposed. And in many cases, the proposals are never approved, and the project is tabled until another time.

Increase Your Odds of Winning

How can we, as sellers of market research service, increase the odds of our proposals being seriously considered and approved? It is aligning the buyers process with our selling process, including being clear about when pricing and proposals are delivered.

Here is a sample conversation that is happening many times s a day between market research agencies and their current and prospective clients. Does this sound familiar?

BUYER: Can you send me a proposal that outlines what we have been discussing and include your methodology, the full scope of work, your timelines and the pricing broken out please?

SELLER: Sure thing. I will make the happen ASAP. When do you need the proposal by?

BUYER: The sooner the better. Any chance I can get the proposal within the next few days?

SELLER: I think I can make that happen. Let’s agree that I will send our proposal to you in the next 72 hours. Does that work for you?

BUYER: Yeah, that should work fine. We want to keep this moving.

SELLER: Thanks for mentioning that. Can I ask a quick question?

BUYER: Sure.

Asking Tougher Questions: Change Dynamics

SELLER: Once you get our proposal, what’s your timeline and deadline to review and approve our proposal? Basically, if I get the proposal to you in the next 72 hours, how long (or how many days) before I should expect to get a contract in place and the work started?

BUYER: That’s a good question. I really can’t say. My intent it to forward your proposal along to several members of my team and my boss and get their feedback and suggestions. I am pretty certain they will have recommendations and revisions. I may also send it along to our procurement department for review. They will likely compare it to other proposals we have seen and compare it to their policies

SELLER: So other vendors are involved, correct? And how many people will be reviewing and possibly revising our proposal and over what time period?

BUYER: Yes. We have had a few proposals for this program over the past few weeks. There are about 3-5 different people who will be reviewing your proposal.

SELLER: Got it, thanks. So, with that many people reviewing the proposal, and accounting for the number of calls and meetings and email exchanges with possible questions and revisions, is it safe to assume that any final decision is likely to be 30-60 days out from now?

BUYER: I think that is a reasonable estimate. I am going to push on this because it is a priority.

SELLER: I totally get that and appreciate that. Thank you. But I am confused. What I am hearing that this is a priority, and you need our proposal is 72 hours. But it will take you 30-60 days to decide. So, I am confused about that 30–60-day timeline and your urgency. It sounds like that you are actually in evaluation mode versus buying mode and then when you think you have various options, you can make a more informed decision. Is that a reasonable assessment of where we are?

BUYER: This program is a priority and is important to us, so we want to get it right and be with the partner that best fits our goals and objectives.

SELLER: And based on our conversations, we “fit” but so do others and our proposal will be part of an internal debate about best steps forward.

What They Say Is Not What They Mean

There is clearly a misalignment in the seller’s process and the buyer’s process. Not only is timing off, so are the expectations of both parties. And this happens frequently.

For sellers, and individual salespeople, there are two key metrics we live by – productivity and pipeline. Productivity metrics account for all of our sales activities, including delivering proposals.

Here’s the sales structure:

• Productive sales activities lead to proposals.
• Proposals lead to increased pipelines.
• Increased pipelines demonstrate progress and positive relationship building.

Do Your  Sales Metrics Reveal Your Buyers’ Needs?

Let’s be candid – your clients don’t really care about our internal performance metrics. In fact, they probably get annoyed because your constant follow-up activities related to managing your pipeline and capturing your productivity.

Pipeline does not always indicate or increase your odds of winning deals and closing opportunities. That is because your buyers have more leverage in the pipeline stages than you do, and salespeople do not accurately account for those buyer stages.

How Can We Read Situations Better?

Keys to future success in aligning buyers process and sellers process are to:

• Ask deeper questions about timing, especially on when decisions are expected to be made.
• Adjust your selling steps to meet the clients where they are. If a client is in exploratory mode versus buying mode, address that with education and not a proposal.
• RFPs should immediately signal that the timeline will be revised. And RFPs are likely designed to reward incumbents who understand the nuisances of the account.
• Be willing to walk away. For example, all buyers are exploring and testing AI as part of market research. Pilot projects are common so adjust your proposal to address the pilot, not the long term because your buyer in not in the long-term mindset.

Buyer-seller alignment requires rethinking our processes and approaches.