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Buying Facilitation

Book reviews > Buying Facilitation

Morgen, S.D. (2003). Buying Faciliation: The New Way To Sell That Influences and Expands Decisions

Buying Facilitation is an 84 page e-book that no less than marketing uber-guru Philip Kotler states to be the next thing after SPIN and Consultative Selling.

The first section, 'How Buyers Buy', covers a topic that is strangely missing from the majority of books on selling and is limited in the remaining few books. Yet how can you sell effectively if the buyer has to go through decisions which the sales person does not even know about?

Morgen recognizes that modern buyers are not confused bunnies whose problems the sales person resolves. They are canny about sales methods and have increasingly complex internal stakeholder systems who all have a finger in the purchasing pie. The job of the sales person thus becomes to help the organization understand and address the issues that led to the problem the seller wants to resolve and help them figure out how to manage the change that will occur when a solution is introduced. Buyers need to do this anyway, but when we can help them in this process, they can do it quicker and better. The solution must not only solve the buyer's problems, it must fit into the buyer's company.

In the second section, 'How to Help Your Buyers Buy', Morgen introduces her Buying Facilitation method in which the sales person helps the customer identify a solution that not only includes the product but also the decisions that are needed on the way to purchase and use. Facilitative questions are thus about helping the buyer understand their problem space rather than gathering information for the seller.

The final section, 'Serving Your Buyer' brings the whole show together with example and further tips on making the process successful.

Breakthroughs in sales ideas are rare and Morgen has achieved this in spades in the practical depth of how the sales person helps the buyer understand and manage the extent of decisions and changes needed across their company in order for the new product or service to efficiently and effectively integrate and hence deliver its full potential value. Her method is less a replacement for product sales and more a process that precedes and envelops it, thus adding further power for sales people who are wrestling with the complexities of modern selling.

If there is one problem with Morgen's methods it is that they are so revolutionary for many (including your reviewer) they can be difficult to grasp. However, Kotler is right. Morgen does add significant value beyond SPIN and it is worth persisting with Buying Facilitation. Done well, it should multiply your sales, and who could ask for more?

So here's the place to go: http://www.buyingfacilitation.com/

See also articles by Morgen:

• Understanding Needs Does Not Close a Sale
• Why Sales Fail
• Voicemail, Gatekeepers and Other Obstructions to Sales Success
• Sales Recovery: How To Manage a Sale Going Wrong
• Change: It Doesn't Have To Be So Difficult
• Why Sellers Don't Close