Question

- Explain the buying influences (four quadrants)

- For buying influences in the growth mode, what positives (revenue, retention, brand awareness, etc) could help them to increase growth?

- For buying influences in the trouble mode, what negatives (cost, waste, risk, etc) could help them to decrease trouble?

- For buying influences in the even keel or overconfident mode, what strategies could you use to deploy to move them to either a growth or trouble mode?

- What are two RESULTS (for each of the BI’s)? How do these RESULTS relate these BIs’ specific business concerns? How do these results improve or fix a process of concern?

- How do each of these two BIs WIN if the product/service is able to deliver these RESULTS?

Answer 1

Buyer behaviour in growth mode
Consumers in Growth mode believe that by buying your product or service, they are meant to generate growth for their company. That is good for the company.
However, while these consumers recognize the need to grow, they also understand that something needs to change in order to make growth happen. This understanding is positive for potential vendors as consumers will have a positive response to offerings that they believe will help to close the gap between current reality and the growth target.
The only moderating factor is that since things are going generally well, there is no desire (or believed need) for very radical proposals. These consumers will look for incremental improvements on what they are already doing.

Trouble mode
In Trouble mode, consumers believe that the business is failing (that is, it is losing customers, losing money, decreasing productivity) and understand that something must change.
These consumers will be very open to offerings that seem to address fundamental problems. Consumers in Trouble mode have more appetite for radical solutions than do consumers in Growth mode, but they also tend to be short on the necessary resources—such as time, people, money, and skills—to acquire and implement the solutions required to deal with their problems.

Even Keel mode
Consumers in Even Keel mode do not believe a large enough gap between their position and their goal to warrant change. They believe that progress is steady and there is no urgency to change anything. As a result, these consumers are not open to vendor offerings. They do not see the value such offerings would represent or why they should go through the trouble that change represents.
However, peers or more senior executives that are either in Growth mode or Trouble mode can influence consumers in Even Keel mode. It is rare for vendors to directly influence Even Keel consumers.

Overconfident mode
Consumers in Overconfident mode have a somewhat delusional outlook and believe that they are succeeding. In fact, they believe that they are doing so well that the suggestion that your offering might improve their situation is practically an insult (even if reality suggests the contrary). The fact that consumers in Overconfident mode have such a weak grasp of reality suggests that there is trouble on the horizon as they will not be responding to changes in their situation in an appropriate manner.
As a seller, there is little you can do to change the perception of consumers in Overconfident mode. You must wait, but stay informed and in touch; when they run into trouble, they might shift their buyer mode accordingly.