Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus - VI

 Excerpt from my upcoming book at amazon.com - "Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus - Elements of Nature Meet B2B Sales" 

How a Legal Service Counsel will engage with others 

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Legal Services

Legal services are a corporate function where a legal counsel provides support in enabling or executing a business operation. In the case of business to business (B2B) sales, a legal counsel works closely with the buyers' legal team, internal sales, product engineering teams and other stakeholders to assist in quantifying, negotiating and closing a deal. The key responsibilities of a legal counsel are following: 

● preparing, modifying and negotiating a legal framework for contractually engaging with buyers like the master service agreement (MSA), statement of work (SOW) and purchase order 

● do due diligence, provide assessment and guidance on the following risks: 

o business

▪ lock-in commitment and its implications

▪ probability of damages arising and the magnitude of the impact from such damages 

▪ service continuity plans for events arising from insolvency or government actions or regulatory requirement

▪ exit options and handovers 

▪ syncing or adapting the agreement with the current situation, an example in today's world like adapting force majeure to include a pandemic 

o finance

▪ the right balance of warranties offered and excluded

▪ managing cost spillover arising from certain clauses

▪ additional cost or taxes, usage charges like overage charges

▪ insurance expectations to cover the risk

o legal

▪ legal compliances like sanction, privacy, data privacy and anti-bribery

▪ licensing issues, if any

▪ reasonable exclusions and limits on indemnities and liabilities

● managing the risk matrix and governance approvals 

● ensuring the deal is closed and signed off

So, let us explore how a seller's side legal counsel engages with buyers through the lens of the elemental attributes learned in the previous sections.

Legal Counsel for Earth Element – Calm & Stable

● Risk Assessment 

o driven by a minimal risk appetite and fear of failure means these natives are pedantic across exposure to any business, financial and legal risk 

● Contractual Agreement 

o slow in drafting and preparing and sharing with stakeholders, semantically strong, their attention to detail is good, and they prefer long term agreements 

o they are driven by relentless effort and status quo; the emphasis is on using the standard terms and conditions, ringfencing the scope with a maximum tolerance

o they are not open to any financial penalties or liabilities in case there is a failure or delay in delivery  

o they are slow and sluggish in following up with the customer for closure   

● Negotiation Style

o they have a lot of patience and are good listeners, hide information, 

o they lack transparency and principles, can often be deceptive or employ pressure tactics

o they are accommodative and let others take control and respond only when necessary

● Communication

o they speak slowly with a deep voice, sluggish in response and react at their own pace

o they are good listeners and are structured and semantically driven

Next: Coming up 

• Cheat Sheet for Sales Planning and Execution using Five Elements   
• How a Procurement Executive will Engage
• How B2B Sales are different in Service vs Product 

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Previous articles can be read here

• Part 5 on How a Marketing Manager will engage can be read here
• Part 4 on How a Sponsoring Executive will engage can be read here
• Part 3 on Negotiation Styles in B2B Sales can be read here 
• Part 2 on Persona Mapping in B2B Sales can be read here 
• Part 1 on Marrying Elements of Nature with B2B Sales can be read here 

Australian Budget to return to Surplus

From AFR: More economists have backed the federal budget to return to surplus within four years and investment bank UBS suggests it could be done without substantial near-term fiscal repair. The UBS economists suggest that: It’s plausible the budget will project a return to balance in 2024-25 (as occurred in 2018-19 before COVID hit), with a cumulative improvement of about $200 billion across the [forward estimates],’’ the UBS economists wrote in a note to clients. The UBS economists also expect the improvement could push the Reserve Bank of Australia into tapering its massive $200 billion bond-buying program. More can be read here

Post COVID - Digital Acceleration Trend

 

B2B Sales - Sellers From Mars and Buyers From Venus - IV

Excerpt from the upcoming book at amazon.com   - "Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus - Elements of Nature Meet B2B Sales"

How a Sponsoring Executive will engage with others 

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B2B Sales Stakeholders and Their Activities

The sales team or a sales representative, engages various internal and external stakeholders, with the intent of growing the business underpinned by positioning a compelling product or a service. The following list gives a good view of various stakeholders engaged by the sales team or a representative.

● the internal marketing and corporate strategy team for research, positioning, and pricing 

● internal product engineering or service design team 

● internal legal service team for defining contractual agreements, terms, and conditions

● procurement at the buyer’s end

● sponsoring C-level executives like CEO, CFO, CIO, CDO and their team members at buyer’s end

● internal HR, legal, quality, security and sales team  

● and others like a third-party product or service partner 

These stakeholders will vary with vertical, geography, type and size of a prospective buyer like SME or a global player. This is not an exhaustive list but highlights the magnitude of complexity and multiplicity involved in executing sales and business development activity. 

With the intent of supporting a sales team or a representative, different activities at each stage of the value chain are executed by various stakeholders, some in parallel and some in sequence. 

Let’s explore how a Sponsoring Executive will engage in various activities with its stakeholders at the sellers or buyers end by applying the lens of five elemental attributes.  

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Next: Coming up 

• How a Marketing Executive will Engage
• How a Procurement Executive will Engage
• How B2B Sales are different in Service vs Product 

--

Previous articles can be read here

• Part 3 on Negotiation Styles in B2B Sales can be read here 
• Part 2 on Persona Mapping in B2B Sales can be read here 
• Part 1 on Marrying Elements of Nature with B2B Sales can be read here 

B2B Sales - Sellers From Mars and Buyers From Venus - III

Excerpt from the upcoming book at amazon.com  - "Sellers from Mars and Buyers from Venus - Elements of Nature Meet B2B Sales"

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Negotiations - Influence to Win  

The business to business (B2B) sales negotiation is a conversation between a seller and a buyer to reach an agreement that is beneficial to both. To reach a zone of potential agreement (ZOPA), both engage in multiple rounds of discussion. The back and forth nature of these discussions are driven to gain an upper hand over the other side by finding their reservation point (breaking point), or their BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) or any useful information which will assist in bargaining.

To win negotiations in sales a lot of preparation is required. This includes the collection of information about the other side's negotiation style, motivation, risks, BATNA, concession, reservation, and timing. Without preparation and gathering of this information, the chances of winning negotiations are minimal. Having said that, sometimes even after gathering information and preparing, negotiations can still be lost or suspended indefinitely because of change in the political landscape, financial upheaval, change in priority, a pandemic outbreak or any other unseen factors. 

The gathering of information and preparation for negotiations is time-consuming and is often challenging. To overcome this challenging task, elements of nature and their attributes are leveraged in preparing the groundwork to influence and win negotiations. 

Let us explore how a seller or a buyer leverages elemental attributes, learned in previous sections, to position and influence their respective stakeholders with the intent to win.

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Space (Ether, Metal) Natives Negotiation

 

Part 2 on Persona Mapping in B2B Sales can be read here 

Part 1 on Marrying Elements of Nature with B2B Sales can be read here