Business to Business Selling

and the Buy-Class Framework

1
Today we will:

❚ Wrap-up BMW’s and last class

❚ Talk about how personal selling fits
in with overall marketing strategy
❚ Discuss the organizational buying
process and a theoretical framework
for thinking about it.

2
Reviewing from last class: the
personal selling process

❚ Prospecting
❚ Classifying Leads
❚ Pre-call planning
❚ Approach/relating
❚ Needs discovery
❚ Presentation
❚ Handling Objections
❚ Closing
❚ Follow-up and servicing

3
 How salespeople spend their
time
Face-to-Face Selling Account
33% Service
Coordination
Phone Selling 16%
16%

Internal
Administration Meetings
Travel
10% 5%
20%

SOURCE: William A. O’Connell and William Keenan, Jr., “The Shape of Things to Come,”
Sales & Marketing Management, January 1990, pp. 36-41. 4
Let’s step back and talk about
how personal selling fits in with
overall strategy

❚ Miles & Snow Strategy Typology

❙ Propsector
❙ Defender
❙ Analyzer
❚ Porter Typology
❙ Low Cost
❙ Differentiation
❙ Niche

5
Marketing Strategy Characteristics and
the Relative Importance of Personal
Selling as a Promotional Tool

Advertising Personal Selling

Relatively Important Relatively Important

Number and Dispersion of Customers

Large Small
Buyers’ Information Needs
Low High
Size and Importance of Purchase
Small Large
Postpurchase Service Required
Little Much
Product Complexity
Low High
Distribution Strategy
Pull Push
Pricing Policy
Pre-set Negotiated
Adapted from David W. Cravens, Strategic Marketing (Homewood, IL: Richard 6
D. Irwin, Inc., 1987), p. 508.
Stages in the Organizational
Buying Process

❚ Anticipation or recognition of problem or need

❚ Determination and description of the
characteristics and quantity of the item needed
❚ Search for and qualification of potential suppliers
❚ Acquisition and analysis of proposals & bids
❚ Evaluation of proposals and selection of supplier
❚ Selection of an order routine
❚ Performance evaluation and feedback

7
Buying Decision Grid

❚ New Task
❚ Modified Re-buy
❚ Straight Re-buy

8
Buying Decision Grid

Type of Newness of Information Consideration

Buying the Problem Requirements of New
Situation Alternatives

New Task High Maximum Important

Modified Medium Moderate Limited

Rebuy

Straight Low Minimal None

Rebuy 9
 The Relative Influence of Representatives from Various Functional Departments
at Different Stages in Two Types of Organizational Purchase Decisions.

New buy Straight rebuy

Relative Influence

Relative Influence
50 50

40 40

30 30

20 20

10 10

0 0
Identify Set specs Evaluate Select Identify Set specs Evaluate Select
need choices supplier need choices supplier
Purchase Stages Purchase Stages
Engineering Purchasing R&D Production Engineering Purchasing R&D Production

SOURCE: Based on E. Neumann, D. J. Lincoln, and R. D. McWilliams, “The Purchase of

Components: Functional Areas of Influence, “ Industrial Marketing Management,
May 1984, pp. 113-22. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Copyright 1984
by Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc. 10
New Task (rarest, most
glamorous)
❚ Big DMU (decision-making unit)
❙ lots of people involved in the decision
❙ lots of people indirectly influence the decision
❚ Slower-than-usual process
❚ people think its’ a risky buy; novelty, precedent
❚ Gather and weight a lot of information
❚ Anyone can win
❚ Your past relationship along won’t win the order

11
New Task (continued)

❚ Performance matters a lot, price doesn’t so much

❚ The most influential people are knowledgeable
❙ users
❙ technically competent
❚ They set the specifications & then the game is 75%
over
❚ Low ranking experts can be very influential
❚ High ranking non-experts often stand back

12
Effective Salespeople in New
Task

❚ Listen, probe
❙ Understand DMU
❙ Understand needs, perceptions of you and of
competitors
❚ In early, influencing specifications & views of the
competitors
❚ Come to be viewed as consultants (“creeping
commitment”)
❚ Spend lots of time
❚ Analyze a lot
❚ Bring in support troops

13
Straight Rebuy

❚ Small DMU (usually one person)

❚ Perceived low risk, hence low priority
❚ In a hurry
❚ Close-minded, arrogant, think they know it all
❚ Go on minimum acceptable quality (better
doesn’t help)
❚ Then price and assured delivery

14
Straight Rebuy

❚ In Supplier
❙ “Out” suppliers find it hard to get an appointment, let
alone break in

❚ Pray for the “in” supplier to screw up noticeably

or for requirements to change (pressure from
users, staff)

15
Modified Rebuy

❚ A window of opportunity
❚ An “aging” new task
❚ Or a “rejuvenated” straight rebuy
❚ Mini-version of new task strategy can make you
the “in” supplier
❚ Then don’t screw-up

16
Buying Influences

❚ In every complex sale, there are four types of buying influences. These
people are not necessarily the same for different sales objectives even
with the same company.
❙ Economic Buying Influence: gives final approval to buy; one person
or set of people. Find EB early and demonstrate the bottom line
impact
❙ User Buying Influences: make judgements about the potential
impact of your product/service on their job performance; there may
be several UB
❙ Technical Buying Influences: screen out possible suppliers; make
recommendations based on how well the product meets a variety of
objective specifications; can’t give a final yes, buy they can (and
often do) give a final no.
❙ Coach: leads you to buyers and provides information you need in
order to position yourself effectively with each

17
Buying Influences

❚ Identify and contact all the key players in each of

those four roles for your specific sales objective.
❚ Periodically test your assessment of who plays
what role.
❚ You have to sell each buying influence in order to
achieve your sales objective

Source: Miller & Heiman, Strategic Selling

18
Take-aways

❚ Most of a sales rep’s job is *not* face-to-face

selling
❚ The role of the rep is dependent on the overall
strategy… they don’t work in a vacuum
❚ Organizational buying can vary widely … from
the routine to the intense
❚ Use all this for prepping Lawford Electric for
Friday

19