Some people will tell you that in sales there is no such thing as a silver bullet. I can tell you that there is. It is called timing — getting in front of the right buyer at EXACTLY the right time. Research shows that the average sales person is five times more likely to make a sale when they have the right timing.

Event-Based Selling is a way to make timing happen. Read on if you want to learn how to make timing happen and repeatedly get in front of the right buyers at exactly the right time.

Buying Modes

To master timing you need to understand that, no matter what you sell or to whom, buyers are always in one of three Buying Modes:

1. Status Quo: Status Quo is when a buyer perceives the product or service they are currently using meets, or exceeds, their needs.

2. Window of Dissatisfaction: A Window of Dissatisfaction occurs after a buyer realizes that their current solution no longer meets their needs but before they start the process of searching for alternative solutions.

3. Searching for Alternatives: Searching for Alternatives is when a buyer realizes their current solution no longer meets their needs and is actively searching for alternative solutions.

Timing — getting in front of the right buyers at exactly the right time — is getting in front of buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction before your competition. By being first with these motivated buyers you will sell more, sell sooner, and sell at a higher price.

Event-Based Selling

Buyers typically move from the buying mode of Status Quo into the Window of Dissatisfaction because of an event, or a series of events. Event-Based Selling is about identifying, finding, and creating the events that cause buyers to enter the Window of Dissatisfaction and then getting to these motivated buyers before your competition.

Events that shift buyers from Status Quo into the Window of Dissatisfaction fall into one of three different categories:

1. Experience: A buyer has a bad experience with their current supplier, e.g. the company, its products/services, or its people.

2. Transition: A change or transition within a buyers' environment, e.g. a change in legislation, management's priorities, or the buyer who purchases your products or services.

3. Awareness: Buyers, through word of mouth, become aware there is a better way.

Event-Based Selling and Prices

It's important to understand the impact that events have on prices. As a rule, buyers pay for perceived value and a buyer's perception of value shifts as events move them from one buying mode to another.

When a buyer is in the Status Quo mode, their perception of value is the difference between their current solution and your proposed solution. Because their perception of their current solution is so high, their perception of the difference in value between their current solution and your proposed solution is not enough to motivate them to buy from you. By trying to sell to buyers in Status Quo you are likely to spend a lot of time selling with little or no chance of actually making a sale.

When an event happens that causes a buyer to believe that their current solution no longer meets their needs, they move into the Window of Dissatisfaction, and their perception of the value of their current solution is reduced. Now their perception of the difference between the value of their current solution and your proposed solution increases to the point where you are much more likely to make a sale. By selling to buyers who are in the Window of Dissatisfaction, not only are you more likely to make a sale, you are also likely to have a shorter sales cycle, and when you win the business it's likely to be at a much higher price.

If they are not intercepted by a savvy sales person, another event or a series of events will cause a buyer to become so dissatisfied with their current solution that they pass through the Window of Dissatisfaction and start Searching for Alternatives. Now a buyer's perception of the value of your proposed solution is reduced to the difference between your proposed solution and the solution proposed by your nearest competitor. By trying to sell to buyers who are Searching for Alternatives you are less likely to make the sale and IF you win the business, you are likely to have a much longer sales cycle and a much lower price.

The REAL Value of Event-Based Selling

The REAL value of Event-Based Selling is selling to buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction. This is where you are most likely to find your core, loyal buyers who will represent 80% of your profits — those appreciative buyers who are more likely to provide you with a reference and that most treasured thing in sales — referrals. If you miss the Window of Dissatisfaction and try selling to buyers while they are already Searching for Alternatives, you are more likely to get peripheral, disloyal, price sensitive buyers who will represent 20% of your profits and 80% of your headaches!

Finding the Events

Every day buyers in your target market experience events that put them in the Window of Dissatisfaction. Finding buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction requires you to identify what events or series of events create buyer dissatisfaction and develop ways to learn about these events before your competition.

One way to get to buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction before your competition is to get buyers to call you first when the event or events occur. To do this you need to spend time on relationship-building activities and become a buyer's Emotional Favorite ? aka ‘Go to' person. A buyer's Emotional Favorite is the person a buyer knows, likes, trusts, and most importantly, wants to see succeed! This is the person a buyer believes has earned their business and actually deserves it. The Emotional Favorite is the first person a buyer is likely to contact when an event causes them to shift from the Status Quo to the Window of Dissatisfaction.

Creating the Events

As long as a buyer's perception of the performance of their current solution meets or exceeds their expectations, they will remain in the Status Quo buying mode and you are unlikely to make a sale.

To create motivated buyers you need to create dissatisfaction with their current solution. But how can you create dissatisfaction with the current solution when you can't impact its performance? The solution is to raise a buyer's expectations beyond their current solution. This will shift the buyer into the Window of Dissatisfaction and increase the likelihood that you will make a sale. (You can raise a buyer's expectations of three different things: people, products/services, or companies.)

Conclusion

Success in sales is seldom an accident. It's the result of focusing on the opportunities where you have timing — are first with buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction — and developing strategies to repeatedly make timing happen. Event-Based SellingSM is the silver bullet that can create timing by identifying, finding, and creating the events that put buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction and repeatedly put you in front of these motivated buyers before your competition.