Personal Selling Midterm (Obstacle is the Way, Challenger Customer)

Who was the emperor of Rome in the year 170? And later has his written works, "Meditations" translated and published into a book by Gregory Hays?

Marcus Aurelius

Who said, "Bad Companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them."

Andy Grove

What is Stoicism? Religion, Roman government or Philosophy.

Philosophy

What are the 4 types of Obstacles described in Part 1 of the book?

mental

physical

emotional

perceived

The Obstacle in the path becomes the ____________. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.

path

What are the 3 interdependent, interconnected and fluidly contingent disciplines:

perception

action

will

What is the Greek version of the Stoic Phrase, what is up to us, what is not up to us?

ta eph'hemin, ta ouk eph'hemin

Based on that Stoic Phrase, what is up to us?

emotions

judgement

creativity

attitude

perspective

desires

decisions

determination

According the book, what famous business leader was credited with the concept of "Reality Distortion Field?"

Steve Jobs

According to the author " A clearer head makes for steadier ?

hands

According to the author " _______________, " is the solution and the cure to our predicaments?"

action

We can always (and only) greet our obstacles with ________? List 8 of them.

energy

persistance

a coherent and deliberate process

iteration and resilience

pragmatism

strategic vision

craftiness and savvy

an eye for opportunity and pivotal moments

In Silicon Valley, start ups don't launch a polished, finished business, instead they release their MVP. What is MVP stand for?

Minimum Viable Product

Great Entrepreneurs are? Please list them

never wedded to a position

never afraid to lose a little bit of their investment

never bitter or embarrassed

never out of the game for long

Which author once said, " I don't care if the cat is black or white so long as it catches mice?"

Deng Xiaoping

According to the author, WHAT IS WILL?

Final Trump card

quiet humility

resilience

flexibility.

What did the Stoics call that fortress inside of us that no external adversity can ever break down?

citadel

What does the book list as an Ancient Inscription at the Oracle of Delphi?

Offer a guarantee and disaster threatens

According to the author what does KBO stand for ?

Keep Buggering On

What is the Latin translation for the title "Enchiridion" famous work by Epictetus?

close at hand

Despite suppliers' improved ability to convey their unique value, there's strong evidence that today's customers are less willing than ever before to actually pay for that value, even when they perceive it? True or False.

true

While there are many reasons customer do not buy, the primary culprit is the dramatic increase in both number and diversity of customer stakeholders typically involved in solutions they purchase today and the dysfunction that is bred by the ever expanding number of individuals who need to weigh in before a deal is signed. True or False?

true

It is critical to find the "Challenger Buyer" in the account for a sales campaign to be successful. True or False.

true

What is another name for those who are "Customer Challengers," inside a company? _______________.

mobilizers

How many different people on average are formally involved in a typical purchase decision?

______________.

5.4

Stakeholder dysfunction go up when Stakeholders engage in discussions of the most important issues regarding a purchase together. True or False?

false

By the time a sales person is brought into the sales process a customer is less than 50% of the way through a typical purchase process? True or False.

false

A dysfunctional group is a full _______ % less likely to pay a premium for a high cost offering than a functional group.

50

At what % is the "Wailing and gnashing of teeth" hit its peak when the deal starts falling apart?

37

A dysfunctional group is a full 80% less likely to pay for a premium for a high cost offering than a functional group? True or False.

false

As consensus-oriented approach to stakeholder management wasn't as important just a few short years ago when senior decision makers could be counted on more reliably to get the deal done on their own? True or False.

true

True or False : The 7 Customer Stakeholder Profiles?

The Go Getter

The Challenger

The Friend

The Teacher

The Guide

The Climber

The Blocker

false

According to the authors, the "Climber" is considered the "Anti-stakeholder." True or False?

false

Among the seven profiles listed in the reading, it turns out that core reps and star reps target the same stakeholder profiles? True or False.

false

Star sellers are looking for customer stakeholders who can drive change across the organization and build consensus among their colleagues? True or False.

true

True or False? The 3 Customer Stakeholder profile types that star performers focus on building connections with are Go-Getters, Teachers and Skeptics

true

In you reading, another name for these combined 3 stakeholder profiles that help an organization to act and forge consensus are called ____________.

mobilizers

Sales reps who engage with Mobilizers are ________ % more likely to be a high performer than those who don't.

31

The three keys to unlocking a mobilzers potential is Teach, Taylor, Take Control, True or False?

true

Collective learning is a technique for taking control of the consensus process. True or False?

true

If there is one simple truth of every B2B supplier today, it is that they're all selling the same thing, __________.

change

What four things are the 5.4 Stakeholders most concerned about when considering a large, transformational project? (challenge customer quiz 2)

Customers are seeking out sales rep input at a ______% of the way through the buying/purchasing process. Left to their own devices, customers will always engage a supplier as late as they possibly can.

57

List the four things that a supplier must teach, especially to Mobilizers to convince them they need to talk to the sales rep. This very special type of teaching is called Commercial Insight.

a. Capture the attention of a Mobilizer

b. Motivates them to champion a change of behavior

c. Rally the support of the other 4.4

d. Leads the customer back to their unique solution.

So what two things does the book say has a statistically significant impact on changing a customer's purchase direction?

a. Teaching the Customer something new and compelling about their business

b. Providing customers with a compelling reason to take action

Insight, in other words isn't designed to ___________ customers something new that they've never thought before, but to ____________ them something they already have.

teach

unteach

Commercial Insight and Commercial Teaching are considered the same. True or False?

true

The reason it is so hard to change a customers behavior is due to an underlying set of beliefs and assumptions about how the world works, psychologists call this a ___________. Put another way, the only way to change how a customer acts is to first change the way that a customer things.

mental model

According to the book, if you consider all of the collateral, all of the "Pitch Decks," all of the content organizations currently create in an attempt to get customers to buy their solutions, what this content mostly about?

customers current beliefs and behaviors

What are the four questions to build commercial insight?

1. What are our sustainable unique strengths

2. Of those unique strengths, which ones are currently under-appreciated by our customers?

3. What is it that the customer fails to fully understand about their business that lead them to under-appreciate our unique sustainable capability now?

4. What would be have to teach that customers about their business that would lead them to value that capability more than they do now?

Commercial insight is asking our customers what they fail to fully understand about their business, but should. True or False.

true

The Best way to get someone to think differently about you is to first get them to think differently about themselves. True or False?

true

Describe how DENTSPLY was about to address their sales challenges. (Challenger Customer quiz 4)

According to the book, many times when a sales rep uses third party sources the customer usually disregards the findings as sales tactics. True or False?

false

In Chapter 4, the author describes the "Mental Model" as how the customer views you and your products as it relates to their business?

false

The inner circle of most suppliers value proposition focus on key differentiators such as functionality, running costs, reliability and ease of use. These are the area's that a Challenger Sales rep should focus on. True or False.

false

As a sales person when you are meeting with a customer you should focus your list of key differentiators as narrowly as possible to drive home your key points to the customers. True or False..

false

In the Xerox use case who was the key persona and decision maker they were focused on reaching?

IT manager

According to the book, what step should the sales team focus on the "What If" questions?

step 5

Sharing Commercial Insight is best shared with the customer after the RFP. True or False.

false

How many sources does the average B2B customer consult for information?

12

Only 12% of that information comes from the supplier in total? True or False

false

A classic thought leadership strategy is to create content about the trends related to the suppliers differentiators. They ought to be talking about problems that Mobilizers don't realize they have. True or False?

true

Content that is awe inspiring and surprising content gets shared more often than practical information? True or False

true

According to the authors awe inspiring content has two components. The scale is large and requires mental accommodation by forcing the reader to view the world in a different way. True or False?

true

Tailoring to Stakeholders is far more important than to Mobilizers? True or False

false

There are three types of Mobilizers, Go-Getter, Climber and Skeptic? True or False

false

Core sales reps gravitate to Talkers because they can gain access to this stakeholder and this is an effective way to drive change inside the customer. True or False

false

Commercial Insight is the Mobilizer Dog Whistle? True or False.

true

Skeptics don't see data as key in the sales process? True or False.

false

On average functional buying groups at 52% more likely to purchase a more ambitious offering than dysfunctional ones. True or False.

false

When Collective Learning is used in the sales cycle the likelihood of a supplier closing a high-quality deal goes up by 29%. It is by far the most significant driver based on the research? True or False

false

The primary challenge suppliers mush address is winning quality deals isn't so much overcoming each stakeholders limited understanding of them, it's helping those stakeholders bridge the gap in their limited understanding of each other. Their lack of any real common connection other than a collective desire to avoid unnecessary risk and reduce organizational expense. That's why Collective learning is such a powerful drive of deal quality, because it dramatically drives down group dysfunction. True or False?

true

The impact on collective learning on a groups willingness to purchase additional future offerings goes up by 23% largely because collective learning effectively establishes a vision not just for a near term purchase, but a long term direction. True or False?

true

According to the authors, debate is viewed as a good thing by core performing reps? True or False?

false

Collective learning is about Problem definition and Solution Identification not supplier selection?

true

During the negotiation phase of the sales cycle customers natural instinct is to attempt to commoditize your solution in an effort to gain pricing leverage. True or False?

true

In a successful sales pursuit one of the key building blocks in bringing two disparate groups together is a lingua franca or common language. True or False

true

What type of workshops did Alpha Company utilize to build consensus and common language?

stakeholder alignment workshop

When dealing with a "Pro-Competitor" Blocker, it is a best practice to avoid engaging with them and work closely with the Mobilizer to go around them. True or False?

false