Jeff Thull, author and management consultant, outlined in his book, “Mastering the Complex Sale,” a business process called Diagnostic Business Development. The method outlines tips for winning high-stakes sales. Its message resonated so distinctly with us at Midwest Industrial Supply that six years ago we implemented it. Since then, we have found this process enhances sales, marketing, operations and finance.
The implementation of this practice has prompted marketing to change its focus and the language it uses in our communications, presentations and on our website. This has made it easier to execute an operational plan and know whether customer needs are being met.
The philosophy
Thull says that 40 percent of prospects fail to make a purchase because they don’t believe it will help them change or they don’t believe they have a problem. We have been able to use the DBD process to help customers define their problems, and using the company’s own data, give a clear understanding of the costs of continuing to live with those problems. That gives us the opportunity to show customers, using real numbers, what they can expect to gain through the solutions we recommend.
The process also gives us a clear and early perspective into the way customers view their problems, allowing us to walk away if the client does not see value in what we can provide. Sometimes the best business decision is an early exit.
The process
DBD enables us to quantify our unique value, achieve differentiation, improve retention and increase our profitability.
The process is made up of four integral steps: discover, diagnose, design and deliver.
- The discovery phase. In this stage, we work with the prospect to get a better understanding of the key business issues. It’s during this stage that we help the prospect understand the financial impact of the identified problems.
- The diagnostic phase. The most critical and often-missed stage during most sales processes, it focuses the conversation with the customer on quantifying the cost of the problem and related symptoms, allowing for a diagnostic agreement to be made between us and the customer.
- The design phase. This step defines the expected value; how the solution would address the issues and the financial impact of its implementation. During this phase we co-create the solution with the customer and manage the goals and objectives.
- The delivery phase. Here we implement the solution and then document the value delivered. This helps the customer fully understand what has been done to solve its specific problems.
The results
We’ve realized significant improvements from implementing the DBD process. In the past four years, Midwest has grown more than 75 percent in sales volume and retained over 85 percent of its customer base. Those results can be attributed to understanding the real customer need and developing a comprehensive solution focused on improving the customer’s bottom line.
We believe this has been instrumental in attaining new clients, expanding business with existing clients and breaking into new markets.
