There are a ton of “sales strategies” or “winning strategies” – but here’s the problem: most sellers only focus on one, or over-focus on one, completely ignoring the others.
When you’re talking to a prospect and they express some interest in your offering, there are different ways (strategies) to approach advancing the sale. We’ll cover each of them in order, but here are the 3 “Fs” of strategic sales planning:
- Frontal
- Flank
- Fragment
If you prefer to listen to the conversation on this topic, please feel free to check out sALES with ASLAN podcast episode 77:
Strategy #1 – Frontal
What does frontal mean? Frontal means approaching something head on, going head-to-head.
In this context, for our purposes, sales reps use the frontal approach when they have a set of features and benefits that their solution generally offers that line up almost exactly with the prospect’s decision making criteria.
You’ve done Discovery and uncovered the prospect’s needs and informal decision drivers, and your solution is a match! Your solution does/is exactly what they’re looking for, better than the competition. You should use this strategy, and you’ll compete “head-to-head” for the win.
Think about a comparison chart:
If you can put the same (or more) checks in boxes as your competitors, it’s the time to employ the frontal strategy to maximize your chances of winning the sale.
You’re going head-to-head about the features that matter to your prospect, because you do them as well or better than the competition. Make sure your process highlights this and helps your potential customer see this.
In general, this strategy is likely the most common one utilized by sales reps universally. We do this all the time. As sales people, we often slip into droning on and on about the things we do well, without verifying how well they line up with the decision-making criteria of our prospect. If we were unbiased, we may be able to see the instances when the customer’s criteria/ needs don’t exactly fit our solution. As sellers, we can get hung up on forcing it to be a perfect fit, trying to make our solution a match.
We don’t take a step back and look at things from the customer’s POV. We take our 5 or 6 features and benefits that marketing has taught us and just pound away, head on, with the frontal approach. The problem with this tactic is that when those features don’t line up exactly with the customer’s needs/criteria, we lose.
In these instances, we’ll need to rely on one of the other two “Fs” to guide our approach.
Strategy #2 – Flank
Flank, in its true definition, means to be situated at the side of. especially : to be situated on both sides of. In military terms, flank refers to going around and approaching something from behind/ the sides.
In sales, when we have an opportunity at stake and we don’t match up with the customer’s decision criteria exactly, we have to take another approach, do something different. If we play by the rules set by the customer (go head-to-head like the frontal approach), we’re going to lose.
The flank approach means we’re not going to attack something straight on, because we can’t compete and win in a head-to-head contest. Imagine a fight between a 6’5” bodybuilder and a 5’3” 100 pound teenager; the teenager doesn’t have a shot at winning if they fight head on. He’ll have to come up with another strategy to win.
When we have a prospect interested, but we don’t match up to their criteria exactly, we have to do something different, we can’t just fight by the “rules” and expect to win. For our purposes, flank means: change the criteria.
This does not mean you are convincing your prospect to buy something that is not a good fit for their needs. Rather, you suspect that their current decision-making criteria will not lead them to the best solution for their actual needs.
As a salesperson, it’s not about convincing them of what you do and how you do it… you are there to help them uncover their unstated needs, needs or goals they may not even perceive. Spend more time with them in “discovery,” helping them evaluate their criteria and figuring out if they need to change it.
At this point, you’re not selling your product or service, you’re influencing their decision criteria.
Flank doesn’t mean going around someone in the organization to get to another decision maker, it means helping your customer realize that the scope of their project may need to be expanded, maybe to encompass more of the things that you offer and do well. It means doing more discovery and qualifying to the point where you uncover/ see that you can offer a potential advantage to your customer and their criteria.
Skip to minute 17:00 of this episode for a great example of the flank approach in sales.
Strategy #3 – Fragment
Fragment means to break into small pieces, which is exactly what it means within our strategic sales context as well. When there is a big opportunity, but you can’t solve every one of your customer’s needs, you should use the fragment approach.
This is where you get them to purchase your solution for the part of their project/ needs. Sometimes, this means you’re actually recommending a competitor to solve the pieces that you can’t. While this seems strange, it’s actually very OtherCentered®. It would be self-centered to convince your customer to buy something (from you) that won’t serve them well. Helping them navigate finding a total solution, even if it doesn’t only involve you, will also increase the level of trust your customer has in you, as a provider of products/ services, but also as a partner in their decision making process.
If you don’t have the capability to solve a need that is on their decision-making criteria list, you’ll want to fragment: get them to purchase your offering for the part that you can solve. Take the part of the deal that you can win.
Winning part of the deal is better than losing all of it.
Pick and Plan Your Approach Strategically
To wrap it all up, there are many strategies to approach selling strategically and winning opportunities, including the 3 Fs: frontal, flank, and fragment.
Each is effective for its own unique scenario. Start with frontal – it’s the easiest and most common – it’s where we can win head on, when the opportunity is right and we know we have a leg up on our competition.
You should flank when the criteria don’t match up with your solution exactly; go around, try something different, change the rules, help change the decision criteria and maybe expand your customer’s project stop to include the things you do best and can really solve most effectively.
Use the fragment when you can’t do everything that your customer is asking for. Take the part of the deal you can win – and maybe go back for more later.
What’s Next?
In the meantime, if your team is struggling to make the transition to virtual selling, click here for our new program.
We would be happy to understand your challenges and see if we can help. ASLAN started as an inside sales training company in 1996, working to help sales teams overcome the very same challenges we are all facing today.
Marc Lamson
As President of ASLAN, Marc is responsible for all day-to-day operations including our sales and marketing efforts and growing our success in helping our clients be Other-Centered®.
