The "Expert" myth
If have been trained in sales techniques, you may find Big Game Hunting's system counter-intuitive. You may have the feeling that we fly in the face of accepted sales techniques.
If you are a sales manager, major account executive or are responsible for high-value client relationships,you may have noticed that subject matter experts prefer the presentation stage of the business development process.
In other words, they are comfortable in peer-to-peer discussions, where a defined scope of work has been established.
This can be a limitation because quite often the expert inside an organization consists of user groups, project implementation or vendor relations specialists. They seldom have budget authority.
The subject matter expert inside the client organization often has the role of “influencer” rather than “cheque signer”.
If you are a specialist practitioner, it is likely that your access and affinity is with the “implementer” role. This may be where your network takes you and where you are most effective.
However, a single point of access and visibility with a single stakeholder is not sufficient if your goal is to become a preferred vendor company-wide.
We have discovered that broad-ranging “discovery” conversations, held with players in each of the 3 stakeholder roles BEFORE a project is defined ("cheque signer","influencer", "implementer") is the most effective way of differentiating yourself.
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