Miller Heiman Strategic Selling: buying influences, the Blue Sheet and a worked example

This page is for account executives and key account managers working deals with several decision makers and long cycles, and for sales managers who run deal reviews. It explains where Strategic Selling came from, each element of the Blue Sheet, a filled-in example for a multi-site services contract, and decision rules for when to push, wait or walk away.

What Strategic Selling is and where it came from

Strategic Selling was written by Robert B. Miller and Stephen E. Heiman with Tad Tuleja and published by William Morrow in 1985. A 1986 Publishers Weekly review summed up its program: pinpoint who influences a purchase, flag what the seller hasn't yet learned, understand how buyers see their own business, show how both sides gain, use a sales funnel to direct effort, and define the ideal customer. The reviewer said the authors "reveal no miracles" but praised the structured thinking. The book was revised as The New Strategic Selling in 1998 and again in 2005.

The authors' firm became Miller Heiman Group, which Korn Ferry acquired in a deal completed on 1 November 2019. Korn Ferry now teaches the method as Strategic Selling with Perspective. Among its stated learning objectives: apply "win fast/lose fast" criteria to opportunities, minimize or eliminate red flags, and identify and develop coaches. The method's planning document is the Blue Sheet, which CRM vendors have built into their software under license.

The elements of the Blue Sheet

Oracle's licensed Strategic Selling module for Siebel Sales shows how position is recorded in practice, on three scales: how adequate the position feels (values such as euphoria, comfort and worry), position against the competition (only alternative, front runner, shared or zero) and timing for priorities (urgent, active, work it in or later).

The four buying influences

One person can hold more than one role, and roles shift as the deal changes. A good coach has credibility with the economic buyer and a personal stake in your success. Finding all of them by name is research before it's selling; Bebop finds the people at each account and writes a playbook with who to talk to and why.

Response modes: does each person feel a need to change?

The modes matter because people only buy when they see a gap between where they are and where they want to be. A deal where the economic buyer is in even keel is a deal that will drift, however keen your user buyers are.

Worked example: a Blue Sheet for a multi-site contract

Illustrative example. The companies, people and figures are invented to show the method.

The seller: Summit Mechanical Services (summitmech.example), a commercial HVAC service firm with three branches. The buyer: FreshWay Markets (freshway.example), a regional grocery chain with 34 stores. FreshWay uses a mix of local contractors and wants one provider.

Single sales objective: a three-year preventive maintenance and repair agreement for HVAC at all 34 stores, at $2,500 per store per month, signed by 31 January. That's 34 × $2,500 × 12 = $1,020,000 a year, or $3.06 million over the term.

Position: Summit's AE rated his feelings about the deal as "OK" (not worry, not euphoria), the competitive position as "shared" with the strongest incumbent, and timing as "active".

Buying influences:

Red flags:

1. No contact with the CFO, who decides.
2. The energy manager prefers the incumbent's reporting.
3. Four stores are more than 90 minutes from any Summit branch.
4. Unknown: how the bid will be scored.

Strengths: average four-hour response at stores near its branches, which covers 30 of the 34; a coach with data showing the incumbent's average response is nine hours.

The arithmetic the CFO cares about. The coach shared that emergency repairs cost $412,000 last year across 34 stores, about $12,100 a store. Summit's planned maintenance customers of similar size average about 40% fewer emergency calls (Summit's own customer data, which it can show). A 40% cut would save about $164,800 a year, about 16% of the contract's annual price, before counting fewer closures.

Best actions:

What made this work: the Blue Sheet made the biggest risk obvious. The AE's friendliest contacts weren't the decision maker, and the plan's first action went straight at the CFO with the number she was measured on.

Ideal customer and decision rules

The book's ideal customer is a profile of the accounts where you win and keep winning. Score each deal against it before you invest. These criteria and rules are our guidance for applying the method, not Korn Ferry's official scoring.

SIZE AND SCOPE: [e.g. 15 or more sites within 90 minutes of a branch]
NEED: [e.g. emergency spend over $8,000 a site a year]
DECISION STYLE: [e.g. values response time over lowest price]
RELATIONSHIP: [e.g. willing to give us access to the economic buyer]
VALUES: [e.g. pays on time; treats suppliers as partners]

Matches: [x of 5]

• Win fast, lose fast. If the economic buyer won't meet you and nobody will introduce you within two attempts, treat the deal as at risk and say so in the forecast.
• Even keel or overconfident economic buyer: don't forecast the deal until a trouble or growth reason appears.
• No coach after two meetings: that's a red flag in its own right. Find one before writing the proposal.
• Fewer than three of five ideal-customer matches: ask whether the deal is worth the effort, even if you could win it.
• Every red flag needs an action with an owner and a date. A red flag with no action is just worry.

When Strategic Selling fits and when it doesn't

How it compares with other methods

Strategic Selling's companion program, Conceptual Selling, covers preparing for individual meetings with buyers. Many teams use the Blue Sheet for the deal plan and a call-level method for each conversation.

Common mistakes

• Planning the account instead of a sale. One Blue Sheet per single sales objective. "Grow FreshWay" isn't an objective.
• Labelling your contact the economic buyer. Ask who signs at this deal size, and check.
• Skipping personal wins. Business results get a deal approved; personal wins get someone to fight for it.
• Treating red flags as failure. They're the most useful part of the sheet. Hiding them hides the next action.
• Filling it in once. Update the sheet after every significant change in people, scope or timing.

Next step: see how the same deal would be qualified in a forecast review with MEDDPICC.