My post had nothing to do with your brand or what you have created with your model. My beef is with the idea that the act of prospecting needs to be based around news events that are very public and scraped from the Internet. I agree with your premise on there being a development of dissatisfaction that precedes all sales, but don’t believe that what shows up in many software offerings does much to inform that. To the contrary, I have found that developing relationships that result in shared information and access to the people who may be dissatisfied does wonders as an alert system for dissatisfaction.

As an aside, lots of people are using the words trigger events, and they mean something very different than what you described in your comments.

When talking about Trigger Events it’s critical to understand a decision maker’s three buying modes, the typical activity associated with each buying mode, and the Trigger Events that shift decision makers from one buying mode to the next.

It does not matter what you sell or who you are selling to, buyers are always in one of three Buying Modes:
1) On one end of the spectrum is Status Quo. This is when a decision maker is happy with what they have and see no reason to consider an alternative solution.

2) On the other end of the spectrum is Searching for Alternatives. Here decision makers are unhappy with what they have and are actively searching for alternative solutions

3) The lesser known of the three buying modes is called the Window of Dissatisfaction. It exists between Status Quo and Searching for Alternatives. In this buying mode a decision maker knows what they have no longer meets their needs but they are so busy Searching for Alternatives for other more important problems that they have not found time to start looking for alternatives for what they are unhappy with…YET!

The first Trigger Event is one that makes someone want something different. This first event pushes them out of Status Quo and shifts them into the Window of Dissatisfaction. Our research shows the average close ratio is 75% when you get to these decision makers, before your competition.

The next Trigger Event is typically one that has people understand that they can afford to do something about the problem and they move into the buying mode of Searching for Alternatives.

Typically they don’t buy after the second Trigger Event, they need a third one – the Trigger Event that helps them justify their decision to others – Typically superiors, subordinates, or spouse.

All three Trigger Events are excellent opportunities to make a sale but the important thing is to harness the first one to start the relationship building process when you have no competition.

If you want to learn the best Trigger Events for what you sell you can download, at no-charge, the Won Sales Analysis (aka Trigger Event Analysis) template and instructions at http://WonSalesAnalysis.com

Call my cell phone (+1.403.874.2998) or Skype me (Craig.Elias) if you have ANY questions after downloading the template.

Have an eventful week!

Craig

If you want to learn more about the Window of Dissatisfaction or Trigger Events you’ll find more details at http://WindowOfDissatisfaction.com and http://TriggerEventSelling.com

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I agree that triggers are too late, and the fact they are public means that they aren’t the kind of business intelligence that leads to a tremendous competitive advantage. I take your point on ignorance, too. Ignorance maybe the second best trigger after dissatisfaction.
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Wouldn’t that make for a pretty good event to work off of since you know not just who at the prospect company was curious about your offering but the exact nature of their curiosity in relation to your products?

tx in advance

I think trigger events are misunderstood. Frankly, much of the time sales people “discover” the trigger event is way too late. If sales people are relying on news releases or articles, too often these may be months after the event occured and even more months after the need was “triggered.” I think this is a real problem with many of the tools on the market–they alert you when it’s too late.

If a sales person is a “student” of their customer or their industry, the trigger event tends not to be a press release, but some key metrics, market conditions, key changes in their customers, changes in competition. Within the company, there could be a whole variety of other triggers. These are actually pretty useful triggers, but difficult for the sales person to find if they don’t understand their customers or have relationships they maintain.

I agree that dissatisfaction is a trigger, I also believe ignorance is a trigger. By this, many organizations have no idea they are missing an opportunity–this is, in fact, the root of provocative selling. Many of my best opportunities have been helping people understand they should be dissatisfied when they weren’t.

As usual, a great post. Regards, Dave

If you’re a bank say, surely it’d be better to phone and offer assistance if a company had just announced it was planning to expand than just calling at random? It shows you are going that extra mile. So, no matter what context you’re using trigger events, I find it very difficult to build a case against them.