If, as a sales person, you have ever targeted a new account by going straight to the top, you know what happens. You get sent down to the starting point. Of course, more than likely, you understood that going straight to the top was a long shot. And at least you ended up at a correct starting point to pursue your account development strategies.
Starting your sales process at the bottom of the corporate structure, is not just a ploy to shield the senior decision maker from interruptions. It is also a built-in mechanism for the company to de-risk their engagement with new and unproven suppliers.
This is an important point. Companies always strive to take the risk out of everything they do. Even after you are selected, companies will continue to expend effort to de-risk their decision. So when you are at the beginning of the process, it is advantageous to take this into account by bringing levels of risk that are palatable.
That means that you don’t get to start the relationship with the million dollar sale, or the multi-year commitment, or whatever is akin to a big deal. If you did, the sales cycle would be quite lengthy and you would likely starve along the way.
What is effective is the starter package. By design, the starter package needs to be put together so that the risk is low. And this goes beyond the financial part of the risk. The chance that it will not work, the chance that it will disrupt other processes; all of the risks need to be low.
Of course, a guarantee is important because it does demonstrate the supplier’s commitment to take a risk. But we are not just talking about ‘the guarantee’ because it does not provide for any recovery of the non-financial resources that may have been expended on your product offering.
From a marketing perspective, the product offering must be packaged in a variety of ways. Of course, each offering must have a compelling value proposition in its own right. But the entry point to the relationship, “the starter package”, is especially important. Because this is how momentum and inertia are created to grow the customer. Growing the customer can entail moving them up to a fuller package addressing the same need. Or just as good, a successful experience with the starter package, lowers the risk barriers for other products that you may offer.
Examples abound in all industries. Accountants often start with tax returns, and somehow move into consulting and advisory roles. Microsoft started with an operating system, then office productivity tools, then server software etc. Symantec started with a bunch of miscellaneous PC utilities, and built upon that success substantially.
The key is to recognize that the starting point is necessary as a way for the customer to de-risk their initial engagement with you. You may in fact have a great product offering, with a great value proposition. And your marketplace may even be warming up to it nicely. But if it does not fit into the entryway that is provided for it, it becomes really hard to get started. It is important not to ignore this. Many a competitor has been able to seize a market position, simply by having an entry point that made it easy to get started.