By Robert S. Brodo, Executive Vice President and Abby McKenna, Project Manager, Advantexe Learning Solutions
June, 2010
Through the economic rollercoaster of the past few years, successful organizations have actually increased revenues and financial performance by finding innovative ways to differentiate for their customers. It is no longer acceptable for sales professionals to make generic pitches to prospective customers in the hopes of closing big deals. In a time of uncertainty like we currently face, it’s important to build trust and establish long-lasting relationships with customers to ensure continued business, and many sales professionals are being asked to engage in Vertical Selling – the process of selling higher within their customer organizations – to do so.
In thinking about your organization and sales professionals, do you think your sales team is selling to the right level of real decision makers within their customer organizations? Are your sales professionals truly considered trusted advisors to customers? Are they looking at strategic accounts with a long-term perspective rather than focusing on closing an immediate sale? Do they have the skills to determine the real needs of their customers and position your products and services to meet those needs? Do sales leaders have the skills and tools they need to coach and develop their sales professionals in this area?
In this month’s AdvantEdge, the research team at Advantexe Learning Solutions digs deeper into the concept of vertical selling to uncover the benefits and challenges associated with this process. Read more about it after the jump.
What is Vertical Selling?
You have undoubtedly heard the term “vertical” in a marketing context more often than a sales context, but that doesn’t make the idea any less valuable from a sales perspective. Vertical marketing implies targeting a certain customer segment or group of segments within an industry. The focus is narrow and the customers share characteristics typical to that industry, specifically a need or use for a specialized product or service. This is often contrasted with a “horizontal marketing” approach, in which potential customers come from a range of industries but may all use the same product or service. These customers are not segmented according to their needs; the same message applies to all.
A great example of the contrast between vertical and horizontal markets comes from the software industry. Programs like word processors and spreadsheets are used by a wide range of consumers, or a horizontal market. A vertical market exists for programs that perform calculations to determine the amount of taxes owed by an individual – that type of program would address the needs specific to a tax accountant.
Vertical selling applies this framework to the sales process, with sales professionals diving deeper into their target markets, and deeper still to the individual customer level to determine needs and position solutions at the highest level of the customer organization. By learning about a customer’s business, a sales professional begins to understand the unique issues that customer faces as barriers to business success. With that knowledge comes the ability to address the issues with products or services tailored to meet specific customer needs. Being an expert in your customer’s business is a significant competitive advantage – wouldn’t you rather buy from someone who understands the challenges you face and treats you as a partner than someone who seems like he/she is selling a used car?
Why Sell Vertically?
What is the advantage to this kind of selling? Do the benefits of getting to know your customer outweigh the investment of time and resources to acquire that knowledge? At Advantexe, we believe that the value added by sales professionals who learn to speak the language of their customers and partner with them in finding solutions to fit their needs is a major point of differentiation that leads to success. Instead of focusing on closing one deal, sales professionals who engage in a vertical approach are invested in the future – they see the possibilities for the relationship instead of the end of the sale. Entering into long-term relationships with customers ensures sustainable profitability and establishes an important sense of loyalty.
How Can I Become More Vertical?
The most important part of making a switch from a horizontal approach to a more vertical one is to put the customer at the center of the process. The easiest way to understand what challenges and issues your customers face is to ask them. Taking the time to research the business environment and become familiar with the competitive landscape can go a long way to impact a customer relationship.
At Advantexe Learning Solutions, we have seen a growing demand among our own clients and partners for the type of training that equips their sales professionals to sell vertically to current and potential customers, giving them the advantage they need to achieve success in today’s difficult times. To accomplish this, we have developed a training initiative that allows sales professionals to walk a mile in the shoes of a customer, arming them with what they need to engage customers on a deeper level, seek out specific needs, and position their products and solutions to meet them.
Training for Vertical Selling
Advantexe has created a training engagement that blends content and a customized global enterprise simulation to give participants a solid foundation of knowledge and skills combined with the experience of running a customer’s business in a risk-free learning environment. Like all Advantexe training engagements, the vertical selling initiative is built on our adult learning methodology of Content, Practice, Application, and Reinforcement.
Content
To walk a mile in the shoes of their customers, sales professionals first need the skills and tools to understand their customers’ businesses and identify business issues that need to be addressed. With a content library of more than 75 unique learning modules, the Advantexe team works with individual client partners to customize the content that is right for each audience. For a vertical selling training initiative, content could include modules on:
- Framework and Tools for Strategic Thinking
- Understanding the Customer and the Customer’s Customer
- Assessing the Market, Competition, and the Business Environment
- Financial Metrics and Key Drivers
- Customer Insight
- Product Differentiation: The Recipe for Success
- Framework for Strategic Selling
Practice
With over 25 years of experience delivering training engagements all over the world, the team at Advantexe brings an innovative perspective to the idea of simulation technology. We have developed a dynamic, state-of-the-art platform – the Advantexe Global Enterprise Simulation (AGES) – that is leveraged in this learning initiative.
Within the simulation environment, participants have the opportunity to run a global organization for 3-5 simulated years. Working in small teams, they are responsible for every aspect of the company’s operations, making decisions on everything from pricing to marketing to production management to supplier credit terms. With over 50,000 distinct algorithms, the simulation is highly sensitive and gives a very realistic experience of running a large business. Teams compete against each other for market share and profits, and a deep debrief of the results is conducted after each simulation round to drive home lessons learned from the exercise.
The simulation offers a chance for participants to experiment with different strategic and tactical approaches to business in a risk-free environment, and to see the immediate and long-term impacts of decisions similar to those their customers are asked to make every day. This experience provides sales professionals with valuable insight into the challenges and trade-offs their customers are constantly faced with.
Application
Content and practice are great tools on their own, but tying them together and applying them back to the real world are critical to success. To do so, Advantexe has developed a library of application exercises that are customized for each audience. For an audience of salespeople in a vertical selling initiative, a typical exercise would be to ask each participant to identify 3-5 key learnings from the training that are new to him or her. After establishing these important takeaways, participants would be asked to identify a specific account with which they can immediately apply one or more of their new selling skills or tools. To take the application even further, they would be asked to create a SMART Action Plan for this account, with specific actions to be taken in a determined timeframe to impact that account.
This type of immediate and diligent application has been proven to have real and measurable impact within our client organizations.
Reinforcement
To ensure that learning doesn’t end when participants leave the classroom, Advantexe has developed a portfolio of follow-up and reinforcement activities to keep the transfer and application of knowledge going. For a vertical selling learning initiative, the reinforcement could include webinar sessions to check in with participants on the status of the action plans they established for their accounts, as well as continuous learning through additional web-based content modules on topics like Negotiation Skills.
Are you ready to build a sales force full of trusted advisors and give your customers a value they can’t ignore? Think about the benefits of a vertical selling approach and if it’s right for your business. If you are interested in learning more, Advantexe is here to help!
More Information on Vertical Selling Solutions
If you would like additional information about our approach toward building the skills needed for a successful vertical sales approach, we are happy to provide it in several ways:
Our Website
Please visit www.advantexe.com for a complete overview of all of our learning solutions.
Executive Overview Webinar
Join us on July 26, 2010 at 11:00 AM Eastern for a guided overview of the tools available to help develop vertical selling skills. This interactive session will include real Advantexe clients sharing their successes and best practices of Vertical selling. CLICK HERE to sign up today!
Online Capabilities Presentation
One of our consultants will gladly prepare a quick (25 minutes), no-obligation online meeting to listen to your current situation and describe potential solutions and ideas.
Try It!
Want to experience a simulation? Let us know and we can set up a no-obligation preview or participation in any of our current solutions.
Meeting
If you have a need and interest, one of our consultants will be pleased to visit with you and share our insights and ideas in person.
Visit an Advantexe Client Delivery
Advantexe is always running a solution for a client somewhere. If you are interested and it’s a fit, we can have you visit a client location and see a customized learning solution on action!
Robert S. Brodo
Executive Vice President
Advantexe Learning Solutions
A Division of Executive Edge, Inc.
100 Four Falls Corporate Center - Suite 303
1001 Conshohocken State Road
West Conshohocken, PA 19428
Mobile: 215-805-5380
Office: 610-828-8707
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