Achieving Collective Consensus through Tailored Commercial Insight

Key Insight

After successfully engaging an individual Mobilizer, the next critical step in the customer purchase process is to transition from individual willingness to collective consensus, spanning from Phase 2 to Phase 3. This journey, termed 'me to we,' is significantly more complex and lengthier, involving various stakeholders such as procurement, finance, and legal. A common, yet inefficient, strategy is to approach each of the 5.4 stakeholders independently, dissecting their individual mental models and rebuilding alternate views tailored to each.

This 'track them all down, and win them all over' method is impractical due to its extraordinary time consumption and difficulty in execution. More critically, if the individually tailored alternate views do not perfectly align when stakeholders convene, they will naturally downsize the deal. This can be as detrimental as having no insight at all, forcing customers to align themselves on a common vision, a task the supplier should have facilitated. Therefore, tailoring must evolve beyond individual resonance to ensure profitable collective agreement.

The alternative involves breaking down individual existing mental models ('A') but building up the new, collective mental model ('B') together. Tailoring Commercial Insight in this stage means anticipating and addressing the potential objections and alternate perspectives of all 4.4 other stakeholders from the outset. Individual outreach must not only resonate with each person's views but also simultaneously construct a 'mutually agreeable common vision,' steering them toward a perspective shareable by their colleagues. The ultimate goal is to create convergence, helping all 5.4 stakeholders see each other within the supplier's insight, thus collectively valuing a solution rooted in the supplier's unique strengths. This convergence, driven by tailored Commercial Insight, can initiate an entirely new purchase process, guiding customers collectively through the 'me to we' transition.