Motivation and Support
How motivated a Buyer is to address the problem, how much they support your offering, and how to read the difference.
For every Buyer you rate two separate things. They are easy to confuse, so they are kept apart on purpose, but you always read them together.
Motivation
Motivation is how much the Buyer wants something done about the problem. It is the Buyer's support for the problem being solved, not for you or your offering.
Buying means change, and people are not comfortable with change. A Buyer feels motivated when something pushes them: a positive force such as growth, or a negative one such as underperformance. If neither is present, the Buyer is more likely to feel satisfied or complacent.
You can't motivate someone. Motivation is a feeling, not an activity. What you can do is help create an environment in which a Buyer feels motivated, mainly by growing trust, understanding their Value Gaps and helping them invent their own solution. And because Buyers act on what matters to them personally, Motivation is driven by their personal Value Drivers, not only by business outcomes.
Support
Support is how far the Buyer supports you and your offering. Your aim is for each Buyer to endorse your offering as their ideal solution.
| Rating | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Sponsor | The Buyer who owns the decision. Usually the person most affected and most motivated, often a User Buyer and sometimes the Economic Buyer. Your strongest advocate, who takes ownership of your offering. A decision rarely goes ahead without one. |
| Advocate | Endorses your offering and is vocal about it. |
| Supporter | Endorses your offering when asked for an opinion. |
| Neutral | Cares but has no preference. Will go along with your offering, and probably with others. |
| Uninterested | Has no preference and doesn't much care. Will go along with any offer. |
| Resister | Doesn't support your offering and will say so, even when not asked. |
| Blocker | Actively campaigns against your offering. The opposite of a Sponsor. |
Reading them together
A Buyer can be highly motivated yet not support you, or support you but have little motivation to act. Each combination calls for a different next step, which is why the two are rated separately.
Active advocacy inside the organisation comes from Economic, User or Technical Buyers whose Support is Sponsor or Advocate. It does not come from a Coach. A Coach wants you to succeed and gives you intelligence, but has no formal role in the decision. A missing advocate is a significant gap, but it is a different gap from a missing Coach.
Signs a Buyer is ready to endorse
- Their needs and the results they are accountable for are being met.
- You have addressed what they personally value.
- They tell you they intend to go ahead.
- They tell you who is not on side.
- They give you input on how your offer should be prepared.
- They are happy to refer other opportunities to you.
You are unlikely to see all of these. The more you see, the more likely the Buyer is to endorse your offering.
Next
Once you have rated Motivation and Support, move on to Rating Value Drivers, which explains what is behind each Buyer's Motivation.