TESTIMONIALS

Referral from Tony Denton at Coors Brewers, Ltd.

Three months ago we were a successful business in our ninth year. Even in the midst of the recession we were making profits, which for company in the training sector was great, but……

Making new sales was very hard work, it always had been and we’d never in nine years been able to create a steady stream of predictable sales. Our solutions are loved by clients (200 of the UKs leading organisations). Almost 90% of them renew their licence. So clients love the leadership and management toolkits, but new business took too long and often we didn’t really know what was actually happening in terms of progress. To paraphrase a typical prospect “this is a fantastic solution, I’m really interested”, but then nothing happened. We struggled to find a compelling reason for the prospect to move.

We brought Sharon Drew to Edinburgh for a week and started to train the team in Buying Facilitation. I wouldn’t pretend it was anything, but a tough and difficult week as we all had to go back and question our mental models of how we listened, regarded change and approached developing new business. Throughout the week Sharon Drew challenged and supported us with huge personal commitment and respect and for the following 8 weeks she coached and cajoled us as we took Buying Facilitation on board.

The results:

1. We used to think you had to get meetings to sell - now we phone people up and have great conversations and we’ve closed new business without ever meeting the client.
2. Sales used to take 3-6 months - now we’re closing sales in 3-6 weeks.
3. We didn’t know where the sale was with the prospect – now we are part of the buying team and are fully informed.
4. Price was thought to be the issue – now we are finding far less price sensitivity.
5. We couldn’t predict sales – now we have a strong predicable new business pipe which is closing regularly.

Would I hire Sharon Drew again? Without a moments hesitation!

- Peter Casebow, CEO GoodPractice

After having used your methodology for many years in multiple settings, I felt compelled to share with you my experience utilizing your facilitation process. I’ve read two of your books and attended one of your workshops, so I feel I have a reasonable understand of your strategies.

I first used your facilitation method while a recruiter then later in executive level business development. The recruiter role is a pure sales role where I had to sell on both sides of the selling equation, the hiring company and the job applicant. Utilizing your questioning framework allowed me to rapidly understand the documented and hidden position requirements from the hiring manager. Questioning and listening in this manner also achieved competitive differentiation from my competition.

In executive level business development, your facilitation methodology again proven critical to establishing strategic partnerships with companies that were often several times larger than the firm I was with at the time.

When I was Director and VP of Recruiting for companies like HP, Fidelity and IDG, I used the facilitation methods to solicit the real position requirements from hiring managers, even at the senior management levels. The Morgan Facilitation method of questioning and listening also proved valuable when convincing candidates to accept jobs we had offered.

While you may have first developed your methodology for sales, it has proven quite valuable whenever I needed to question and listen for what was really going on with an individual or an organization.

Bravo and thank you so very much for your wisdom and passion with which you share it.

- Michael R. Neece, Founder & CEO InterviewMastery.com

 

My sales cycle time used to average 9 months. Using your method, I got a new client within a WEEK of my first meeting with him.

- Barbara Heyn, Atticus Consulting, LLC

"Selling with Integrity describes the first new paradigm in sales. It offers a model for how to bring sould into sales, and teaches the hands-on skills to do it."

- Jack Canfield, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul.

"Finally, a sales paradigm which supports our spiritual values and lays the foundation for the paradigm shifts occuring in business today."

- Ken Blanchard, coauthor of "The One Minute Manager"

"Morgen has done it again - described an exceptional approach to selling and made it clear and concise. Read this book [Selling with Integrity] and practice what's between the covers. It will make your next sales call the most successful in your career."

- Larry Wilson, author of "Changing the Game"

"Morgen's Buying Facilitation® is light years ahead of the rest of the field."

- Philip Kotler, author of "Marketing Management"

 

HELPING ADVISORS HELP THEIR CLIENTS

William Blair and Company is a 75 year old investment banking and management company in Chicago. My team supports a group of investment professionals who primarily concentrate on managing growth equity portfolios for high net worth individuals and small institutions. Our task is to enable them to become true "advisors" as opposed to strictly portfolio managers. This is done by researching and hiring managers, funds, and investment opportunities from other companies who's expertise will complement and enhance our advisors ability to provide their investor clients with truly diversified investment solutions based upon the clients unique circumstances and appetites.

While this approach makes sense in many ways - especially to the client - it has been difficult to integrate new learning around actually helping buyers make decisions into the culture of the firm. Our advisors are deeply rooted in very traditional sales methods of open - present - close (and hope for the best). They have also become very ingrained in playing the role of "expert" without recognizing that buyers don't buy until they are ready no matter how "expert" the advisors are. While the old way certainly works some of the time, fierce competition for these clients demands a different approach.

Buying Facilitation has helped us in two important ways. First, key members of my team have been trained by Sharon Drew. With that background we have been able to walk advisors thru a decision making process to determine what the clients would need on the product side, Buying Facilitation teaches them how to work with the buyer to design unique, appropriate solutions that they would be willing to buy from us. As a results our advisors have been able to expand their practice and build meaningful leverage and growth. Our entire manager-of-managers platform has been developed based on what the advisors have gleaned from this collaborative decision making approach (Buying Facilitation) and as a result we know how to help them to compete effectively for HNW clients in today's marketplace.

Secondly, and this is where the long-term benefits are really beginning to pay off, our using Buying Facilitation instead of conventional sales helps the advisors see that their deeply rooted "open-present-close-hope" sales methodology is not consistent with being a trusted advisor as much as it is with being a "broker" (a term they despise). Some of the braver members of the group are actually involving a member of my team (trained by Sharon Drew and using the collaborative decision making of Buying Facilitation) to help buyers recognize their own criteria and figure out how to make their best decision using us as their supplier - all of this, early on in the sales cycle with their clients and it is providing them with success much earlier, and with more prospects, than they would normally have achieved using conventional sales methods. And it has been a very positive reaction. We are just now beginning to see the guard come down and the realization set in that this stuff works! It has been difficult given the cultural shift that has been required but things are indeed moving forward at a more rapid pace than ever.

We are still at the "aha" stage for the many. But as they see the power of helping clients make their own decisions rather than having to be the one with all the answers they are becoming more open to our advice and coaching. There is tough work yet to be done, but the skills we have developed thru Sharon Drew's program have helped us become true agents of change, which is rewarding.

- Jim Vaughan, VP Marketing, Operations (High Net Worth),
William Blair Select Investment Partners

ABOUT BUYING FACILITATION

The Buying Facilitation program has really changed my approach from selling to helping decision makers make good decisions and support them in finding out how to achieve it for themselves. This approach is easier, more fun, and gives me better results in terms of sales than my old approach of Solution Selling. Sharon Drew teaches new skills you can use the same day, and helps you to feel the difference between what's working and what is not working, skills that have helped me to find the right person faster, navigate the political environment better, add more value to my customers and close my existing opportunites faster. The process even helps with my friends and my 3 and 5 year old! I recommend it with all my heart.

- Ted Elvedge Regional Alliance Manager, MERCURY, Sweden

 

Buying Facilitation has changed my long established views on selling. Through the training programme, led by Sharon Drew,  I am now able to spend my phone time more effectively finding and speaking to the right people the first call, and helping them recognize and make effective buying decisions (that include my product) without manipulating them. It's a relief to not have to have all the answers and focus on their systems and not mine. I have also found that my waning interest in selling has been rekindled by this approach. The seminar also helped me address a long standing communication issue I'd being putting on hold, and I've noticed changes in my relatiohips with both family and friends as a result. It was three days that have moved me forward years ahead of my counterparts.

- Madeline McQueen, independent sales consultant, UK

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ABOUT SELLING WITH INTEGRITY

Dear Sales Professional,

I am pleased to write this letter of endorsement for Sharon Drew Morgen on behalf of William Blair & Company. Sharon Drew has been instrumental in bringing about enormous change in how we serve clients. After reading Sharon Draw's book awhile back, and experiencing some personal success with her methodology, I excitedly introduced the system to a small group of rather skeptical, traditionally trained colleagues.

I can say, without reservation, that Sharon Draw's training and personal coaching of our team has helped us prosper in one of the most challenging years in decades in the investment business. Others around the firm are taking notice of the successes the team has had in recent months, and are curious about what we are doing differently.

Changing the way we communicate with clients and prospects has had an extremely positive effect on our new business efforts and it is beginning to filter throughout the rest of the organization. Bottom line, this new sales technology has benefited our organization three ways:

Dramatically accelerated sales cycle - the questioning process helps buyers decide what they want to buy, when, and on what terms much quicker than traditional models, which has helped us reduce our normal sales cycle by approximately 40%.

Improved close ratios - because this technique is so unique, our sales people stick out like a bright light. The rapport and trust they build and the facilitative questions they ask set them apart from traditional "peddlers" right off the bat. Prospects quickly learn how to navigate a buying decision and how and why they might select our company over the competition based upon their own criteria.

Energized sales force - no more chasing prospects that won't return calls, no more sending out volumes of information only to have it thrown out with yesterday's news, and no more having to convince or persuade people that your product is the only answer. This has energized our sales people and led to even higher levels of production.

Whatever you have been told, however you have been trained - you owe it to yourself and your company to check out this new technology. Pushing, presenting, and convincing are out - collaboration, service, and helping clients decide how to buy are in. Is it hard work? You bet! Does is work? Absolutely! You will be amazed at how much fun selling can be again.

Sincerely,

James E. Vaughan
William Blair & Company

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"Selling with Integrity describes the first new paradigm in sales. It offers a model for how to bring soul into sales, and teaches the hands-on skills to do it."
-Jack Canfield, coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul

"Finally, a sales paradigm which supports our spiritual values and lays the foundation for the paradigm shifts occurring in business today."
-Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager

"Morgen has done it again - described an exceptional approach to selling and made it clear and concise. Read this book and practice what's between the covers. It will make y our next sales call the most successful of your career."
-Larry Wilson, author of Stop Selling! Start Partnering and Changing the Game.

"The principles of Buying Facilitation® have really helped us develop a more enlightened approach to sales. It may be a little challenging to master the techniques at first, but the increased sales and enhanced customer relationships easily make it worth the effort. We've looked a scores of sales methodologies...this one actually works."
-Jason Fellman, CEO/Founder FG Squared

"Sharon Drew Morgen has addressed the mystery of customer decision-making. Her Buying Facilitation Method® has enabled our company to appreciate the many unseen -- often, idiosyncratic and unexpected -- factors that go into a complex decision."
-Britton Manasco, Principal, The Marketing Intelligence Group

"Prospects and clients share more information faster, giving us the capacity to write more effective proposals - and we move forward faster, together. Our business has tripled during the last ten years, and a large part of the reason is because of our use of Buying Facilitation®."
-Nick Miller, President, Clarity Advantage Corporation

"Right after we learned Buying Facilitation®, a new customer called to say she had never had a salesperson act like D. She said D. asked her questions and "it was wonderful...she never told me what I needed and the design evolved from my own mind. It was a great experience."
-Owner, California Closets (South) franchise

"As a result of learning and using Buying Facilitation®, we've become more professional because we help customers make better decisions, quicker; our repeat and referral business has increased dramatically, and our ROI has gone up 50% over last year at this time - and last year we were up 40% over the previous year. We attribute this to our use of Buying Facilitation®."
-Owner, California Closets (East) franchise

"Thank you for a great workshop in Austin. I have attended many training courses over the years, but never one that I felt was as interesting or engaging as yours, not to mention valuable."
-Norman Tyrell, NMS Corp.

"BF helped me appreciate that selling is really about being of deep service. It is, in fact, a spiritual act."
-Martin Rutte Co-Author, Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work

"Before I read your book, I fumbled around a lot, trying to do what you have laid out so well. One of my biggest accomplishments, and best customers, came when I helped an IT guy figure out how to solve his own problem using resources he already had. I lost the immediate sale, but the guy trusts me with everything now and we have since provided a great deal of training for his staff as a result. "

"In copiers, had I done that, I may have been fired. It is the difference between a long-term and short-term mentality."
-James, The Carter Group

"Buying Facilitation® is a terrific way to improve my sales efforts and those of other small business owners who hate the whole sales process. It also prevents 'sales burnout' because it keeps potential rejection down and acceptance/success up."
-Jan triplett, PhD. COO Business Success Center, Austin, TX

"Her training enables you to learn how to sell in a new way, without ever having to question your ethics or conscience, and to walk away knowing that you did what is right for all concerned. This might seem to be something you can learn directly from the book; but really, the interaction with a small group, and Sharon Drew herself, is so worthwhile! Live examples; live conversations; and watching Sharon Drew in action - you can't beat it."
-Vaughn Nystrom, CEO, Integrated Fulfillment Services.