The Way Buyers Buy x Invest NS IA Custom Sales Process Training
We created The Way Buyers Buy® online course for Invest Nova Scotia’s Investment Attraction team as a refresher for returning participants and a starting point for new team members. Through short videos, we introduce the shared language and core concepts behind the team’s custom investment attraction process: how investors make decisions, what drives change, how critical a problem is and when to engage.
The course provides a foundation for qualifying and advancing FDI opportunities, recording them in Salesforce and contributing to pipeline reviews, with support from colleagues who already use the methodology.
SECTION 1
Foundation: The Way Buyers Buy Mini Course
When you enter an investor’s buying process affects your ability to influence the decision. In this video, we explain how joining at the WHY, WHAT or HOW stage changes the competitive landscape and your chances of winning. We explore how to recognize the investor’s stage, assess your position and decide where to focus effort and what to do next.
How critical is the problem an investor needs to solve? In this video, we introduce four levels of problem: Nice to Have, Frustrating, Impact and Do or Die. We explain how to assess the priority of an investment, ask questions to quantify its business impact and focus attention on opportunities where there is a reason to act.
If there is no change, there is no buying process. In this video, we explore how internal or external changes, driven by crisis or opportunity, move investors from considering their options to making a decision. We introduce the question “What changed?” to help distinguish a lead from an active investment opportunity.
Investors move through three stages in their buying process: WHY should we change, WHAT are our options, and HOW risky is it to commit? In this video, we introduce WHY, WHAT and HOW, and explain how this shared language helps identify an investor’s stage, understand the influence of individual buyers and guide your next steps.
The Buyer is ALWAYS driving. In this video, we introduce the road trip analogy and your role as co-pilot in an FDI opportunity. We explore how to ask questions, observe investor behaviour and suggest next steps that help qualify and advance an opportunity, while keeping the investment decision in the buyer’s hands.
SECTION 2
WBB x Invest NS IA: Sales Process At-A-Glance
When you enter an investor’s buying process affects your ability to influence the decision. In this video, we explain how joining at the WHY, WHAT or HOW stage changes the competitive landscape and your chances of winning. We explore how to recognize the investor’s stage, assess your position and decide where to focus effort and what to do next.
SECTION 3
WBB x Invest NS IA: Speed Tests
In this video, we introduce the two Salesforce pipelines used by Investment Attraction executives: the lead pipeline for generating and developing leads, and the opportunity pipeline for managing investment opportunities. We clarify which pipelines we will focus on in this course and how they relate to the other pipeline tools used across the team.
SECTION 4
WBB x Invest NS IA: Custom Sales Process
In this video, we introduce the two Salesforce pipelines used by Investment Attraction executives: the lead pipeline for generating and developing leads, and the opportunity pipeline for managing investment opportunities. We clarify which pipelines we will focus on in this course and how they relate to the other pipeline tools used across the team.
In this video, we introduce the three sections of the Investment Attraction opportunity pipeline: Ideal Client, Ideal Package and Ideal Jurisdiction, aligned with the investor’s WHY, WHAT and HOW stages. We explain how to confirm fit, develop a competitive package and support a final decision, using what the investor says and does as evidence of progress.
In this video, we walk through the Investment Attraction opportunity pipeline stages and the milestones required to move an opportunity forward, from initial qualification to an agreed investment package. We explain how to use the gray stage headlines, when to involve key stakeholders and why dollar values belong in Salesforce only from 30%, when there is enough information to support a viable estimate.
In this video, we explain the purpose of the activity checkboxes within each pipeline stage. Early activities focus on qualifying opportunities through the tools and buyer behaviour. From around 50%, the focus shifts toward Invest Nova Scotia’s internal processes, while continuing to check whether the Battery Test is ALIVE or DEAD and identify the next step to win.
In this video, we examine the activities required at the 20% and 30% pipeline stages: knowing what has changed, assessing how critical the problem is and confirming that the buyer has agreed to or taken the right next step. We connect these activities to the Battery Test and WHY, WHAT and HOW buyers to help assess progress, focus effort and determine the next step to win.
In this video, we introduce the Mad Lib, a fill-in-the-blank format for concise, accurate opportunity reporting in Salesforce. We explain its three parts: a brief description of the opportunity, the potential for Nova Scotia and the next step to win. Keeping these fields current gives the team a shared view of where an opportunity stands, what needs to happen next and where support is needed.
When you enter an investor’s buying process affects your ability to influence the decision. In this video, we explain how joining at the WHY, WHAT or HOW stage changes the competitive landscape and your chances of winning. We explore how to recognize the investor’s stage, assess your position and decide where to focus effort and what to do next.