What’s the Status of That ‘Sure Thing’ You Forecast?

By:  Gary Walker, managing partner, CustomerCentric Systems, LLC

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The key to selling is the ability to converse. If your salespeople are unable to have a meaningful conversation, an intelligent two way dialogue, with a targeted decision maker about the use of your offering to achieve a goal, solve a problem or satisfy a need, and document that conversation succinctly, then all the training on prospecting, qualifying, presentation skills, closing, handling objections, negotiating, etc., are a waste of money! The conversation is where the sale takes place.

3. No Power How many times have you spent months selling to someone who told you early on that the decision to purchase your offering was their decision, only to find out later they couldn't purchase ten sharp pencils without someone else's approval? While end-users and recommenders are fun to sell to, their needs and requirements may be altogether different than the ultimate decision maker, the person with the power and authority to buy. If they don't have the authority to purchase your products and services, you're not selling; you're simply providing this person with a free (but expensive for you) education.

Senior executives are charged with identifying and solving problems. Gaining access to the decision maker(s) early in the sales cycle can help eliminate the risk of no decision, protect your expensive corporate resources, cause unbudgeted money to be spent, and dramatically shorten the sales cycle.

4. No Value We've already established that for a company to change how they are currently doing business there has to be a goal. Remember, “No goal, no prospect” The goal has to be related back to dollars - reduced cost, avoided cost or increased revenue, among other factors. If you are asking a company to pay $100,000 for your product, the value of achieving the goal(s) better be at least $200,000. It makes sense, doesn't it? Would your spend $100,000 to solve a $50,000 problem?

I'm amazed at the number of sales people who don't take the time to understand the value of their products and services to their prospects and, more importantly, don't actively participate in helping their prospect prepare a cost/benefit analysis. Your prospect is not the only one who is competing for his/her company's potentially limited funding. You need to equip him with the logic and rationale to support his request for funding.

Think of the tactical advantage a sales person has going into price negotiations when he knows exactly how much his prospect will save and when he will achieve a return on his investment. It makes it very easy to say ‘No’, in response to a request for a discount.

Now, let me ask you a question. Think of all of your ‘year-to-date’ missed opportunities. What would it have been worth to you and your organization if your sales people could have reduced their losses to ‘No Decision’ by twenty, fifty, or even seventy-five percent?

Published by Bizlogx, LLC.
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