When Qualified Customers Don’t Buy

A couple of years ago I accompanied Elizabeth on a call to an insurance firm. Her prospect was highly qualified to buy, Elizabeth was highly qualified to sell and her solution, offered by a new, albeit sound company with an experienced management team was a good fit. But she lost the deal.

Elizabeth’s organization marketed a unique approach to building executive information systems (EIS). Its solution, quite different from the centralized data warehouse that forms the foundation of classic EIS environments, took a decentralized network approach that didn’t require a costly centralization effort. The result? Less time, less cost, and fewer steps to implement.   

Elizabeth knew how to communicate the benefits of the solution. She knew the business problem and rallied the right resources to explain how the underlying technology worked.  She had her business buyer covered, her tech buyer got it – and she developed a good relationship with the procurement folks.  A solid strategic seller if ever there was one.

What happened?
Elizabeth’s marketing organization incorrectly identified insurance as a target market – and they weren’t entirely wrong.  Data tells us that insurance firms spend a great deal on EIS solutions.

But as a culture, the insurance segment buys products and services that are proven and widely adopted.  They like someone else to go first. Elizabeth’s solution was not entirely unproven – but it was installed in places like hedge funds and oil companies – cultures that are willing to try new approaches to old problems. And they are cultures that are willing to discard investments that don’t pay off.  This is hardly a trait of the old-line insurance firm.

You've heard the phrase "people hire others like them."  The same is true in the buyer-seller relationship. When you segment the market, don’t forget cultural drivers. If you sell a solution based upon an emerging technology that has yet to reach wide-scale adoption go for the low hanging fruit: buyer types that have a history of trying the unproven.

Try this simple diagnostic tool
Diagnosing your prospect's cultural envrionment, especially their capacity for taking risks is an important qualifier you shouldn't overlook, especially if you are proposing a solution that differs from the status quo.

Good salespeople are not shy. They ask prospects flat out if they are a cultural Type A, B or C.

Jenni Lehman, VP of Research Methodologies for Gartner says, "Type A organizations have a history of adopting technology in its early stage of hype."  But Ms. Lehman also warns not to generalize. "Type A organizations don't always take risks across the board. They make take risks in their sales organization for example, but not the supply chain."  She warns sellers not to make across-the-board generalizations and to "dig around."

Generally speaking, Type A organizations will invest in early stages of technology hype - and aren't shy about letting the media know about it.

"Type A organizations have a history of adopting technology in its early stage of hype." 

Type B organizations are more moderate in their attitudes about investing in technologies or management techniques considered risk or counter culture. Type B managers will hear you out, but will insist on a business case or a quantitative argument. They experiment in a highly controlled environments with strong boundaries - where the plug can be pulled quickly without too much disruption to the larger organization.

"Type B managers will hear you out, but will insist on a business case or a quantitative argument."

Type C?  You guessed it.  The most conversative organizations will simply let others take the risks first. Type C buyers, typically motivated by proven techniques that reduce cost, wait for technologies to enter what Gartner hype cycles refer to as the "plateau of productivity."

This diagnostic tool doesn't mean Type A and Type Cs should never date. But, if you find yourself in this situation, identify it as an issue so you can adjust your sales strategy and messaging.

"Type C buyers, typically motivated by proven techniques that reduce cost, wait for technologies to enter what Gartner hype cycles refer to as the plateau of productivity."