What If You Sell Cereals?

When you Sell with the Buyer’s Perspective and follow a sales process aligned with the buying process, you realize that customers perceive you differently than any other salesperson. In their view, you are not a salesperson at all. Because of that, you have different conversations with your customers and turn these to your benefit. Please see the following stories to understand what I mean by that.

I am holding two mirrors in front of you through the story of Jake, a salesperson at Cereals & Co., selling high-quality organic breakfast cereal products to supermarkets and organic retail stores. Although the ads on television argue differently, the cereals market is pretty commoditized. In the first story, Jake applies the traditional way of selling. He is a solution seller solving problems for his customers. In the second story, Jake sells from the buyer’s perspective. Your challenge is choosing which one is more effective and reflects your story.

Mirror One: Solution Sellers

Jake knew that differentiating from his main competitors was not easy. Although Cereals & Co. was known for its excellent product quality, in the eyes of purchasing and warehouse managers, their competitors were selling more or less the same products and solutions. Big and small supermarkets had to choose who to sell their shelf space to, so Jake has worked hard to build strong relationships with their middle managers. His customers could count on him to help with whatever it was. He wanted to be known as someone who is “customer-focused”, “caring”, “solutions-orientated” and “trusted”. But so were the competitor sales reps.

Jake was well prepared for the upcoming customer meeting. He has been the Account Manager for Supermercado+ for the last three years. During that time, he helped them with many of their demands, like changing order quantities, urgent stock deliveries, queries about their invoices, and many other after-sales problems. The objective for this meeting was to gain more shelf space in their store. He planned to achieve that through his strong relationships and competitive pricing. The more products were sold (and stored on the shelves), the better prices could be offered. Their strong relationship should count for a slight favouritism.

His primary contact was Mary, the Logistics and Warehouse Manager. She called him regularly with questions related to their shipments. Jake felt very confident going into this meeting because of the excellent relationship he had built.

The Meeting

The meeting did not go as expected, though. Mary did not reveal many pain points or dissatisfaction with the competitor suppliers. Jake used the magic wand method, but unfortunately, this didn’t lead to a solution gap Jake could ‘hook’ onto. Despite the many open questions he asked, her answers were short, as if she was prepared for these kinds of questions. She was happy with the current situation and services in place, evenly spreading the shelf space amongst the three main competitors. The meeting turned into a tactical conversation. At one stage, Mary asked him to send a proposal with a sharp price and promised to get back to him on that.

Mirror Nr. 2: The Trusted Advisor

Jake recently completed his Selling with the Buyer’s Perspective training and now understands how to differentiate from his competitors. It took him by surprise that to do that wasn’t at all about knowledge of products, solutions, and capabilities—none of that. It was very business-focused on helping customers grow. Instead of digging for pain points and dissatisfaction, it was more about understanding how businesses operate, their common challenges, and helping them see a different perspective. Jake realized something else: Building relationships with more stakeholders, particularly those with top or bottom-line ownership, is crucial to moving opportunities forward.

The most significant insight he experienced during the training was that being a more successful salesperson at Cereal & Co. wasn’t about selling cereals during customer conversations. Instead, customers want to talk about their business, not your products and solutions.

The Meeting

Jake brought a recent research article about “The Rise of SMEs” to the meeting with Mary. He shared with her the top 10 initiatives SMEs should undertake to outperform their competitors. These initiatives were the conclusions of surveys conducted by big independent research companies. One of these business growth ideas was all about using data intelligence and digital connectors to accelerate eCommerce. Mary was all ears, and at one point, she paused the meeting to ask the eCommerce Director to join. Jake also shared an idea he picked up from a customer in a different industry, but it would work well for Supermercade+: There are a hundred in a dozen cereals. How can consumers know the difference and what they are looking for? Adding barcodes with links to short explainer Reels would make a difference. Mary was impressed and promised to share that idea with their Marketing Director. She also gave him additional shelf space.

Because Jake was Selling from the Buyer’s Perspective, Mary experienced a more strategic conversation and considered Jake a trusted person with their goals and challenges in mind. And he had great advice!

Which mirror reflects your way of selling or how you want to sell?

Conclusion

Replace cereals with logistic solutions, pharmaceutical products, hardware, software, or nuts and bolts. It doesn’t matter what you sell. Although you believe differently, most customers perceive what you sell as a commodity. Focus on your products and solutions; soon, you will find yourself in a price conversation. Focusing on how you can help grow your customer’s business creates value that your customers appreciate in this world of constant change. Selling is helping, also when you sell cereals.

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