The power of partnership.

Sales Training Series

Closing Best Practices

Training Module Run Time: 16 minutes

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Welcome

This training module will present strategies and tactics that

help you

• Better qualify leads

• Shorten sales cycles

• Improve close ratios

Complex Deal Sales Cycle

Get In the Door

•Right person?•Right time?

Discovery

•Understand the problem/ needs of the customer?

Validation

•Desire state?•Compelling reason to change?•Favorable to our solution?•Validated Approval Process?

Propose

•Compelling reason to buy from you?

Close•Decision makers on-board?•Handled objections?•When are they ready to buy?

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How has the sales environment changed?

• Market is getting more competitive

• Customers are more sophisticated – they realize they have choices

• Companies/organizations replace vendors more frequently

• Decisions get made at higher levels

• Vendor professionalism, viability, and value proposition become

more important in the decision process

• Pricing has become much more important, transparent

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Why deals are won and lost?

Won• Relationships

• Ability to influence

requirements, purchasing

process, RFP

• Scope/price

• Solution fit to requirements

• Qualifications

Lost• Lack of relationships/access

• Poor discovery

• Did not validate/made too

many assumptions

• Decision criteria did not

map to our strengths

• Internal snafus

Qualification is iterative and non-emotional • Is the iterative process of gathering information to decide whether to

invest or continue to invest in a pursuit

• Should be a non-emotional business decision that is not be influenced by:

−How positive an outlook you have−How much you want this deal −How sure you are you can do a great job

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The costs of not qualifying are significant

• Financial Cost: Out-of-pocket time and expense

• Opportunity Cost: Could have been pursuing a winnable deal or making a more strategic investment

• Personal Cost : Work-life/wasted time

• Relationship Cost: If you don’t qualify hard, the prospect or customer may lose respect for you

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Qualification – The Two Tests

1 Is this a real opportunity?

2 Can we position ourselves to win?

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Is this a real opportunity?

• Do they have a problem? Is it worth solving?

• Can we provide a solution that solves this problem? Should we?

• Is the problem urgent and are they planning to take action?

• Do you have access to key decision makers?

• Do they have expectations of what it will take to solve the problem?

Are their expectations realistic?

Can we position ourselves to win?

• What is our history with the prospect?

• Is there an incumbent?

• Have vision, requirements, RFP been created by another firm?

• Who is the competition?

• How do our strengths line up with customer requirements and hot

buttons?

• What is our current position? If not good, can we realistically

position ourselves to win in the time we have?

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A Pursuit Drill is a key tool to help close deals

A Pursuit Drill is a tool (template):

• Helps pro-actively manage complex sales opportunities

• Generates dialogue between a sales person and others assisting

on the deal

• Will help determine which deals to pursue and which ones to let

go

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The Pursuit Drill has two components

Qualifying Questions

Relationship Map

Pursuit

Drill

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Step 1 - Qualifying Questions

Is this a new initiative or are they looking to replace a current vendor? If replacing current vendor, what are the reasons why?

Describe the sale cycle to date (How did this project get initiated, how did we get the lead, where are we at in the process?)

Describe the goals of the project? (Who are they targeting, why, result desired, etc.) What specific business impact are they looking for?

Describe the goals of the project? (Who are they targeting, why, result desired, etc) What specific business impact are they looking for?

What are the project requirements and scope? What is the budget? Who owns the budget?

What are we proposing? How does our solution map to their requirements?

What other alternatives are they considering? Are we positioned to win this deal? Why or why not?

What is the decision process? (Steps, what happens in each step, timeline, decision criteria). Which decision makers do we NOT have access to?

What compelling reason have we provided the decision makers to go with AccuData? What compelling reason do they have to buy now?

What is preventing this deal from closing?

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Step 2 - Decision Stakeholder Relationship Map

Stakeholder / role in decision

(decision maker, influencer, user,

financial approver)

Where at?

(on-board, against,

neutral, un-aware)

Where need to be?

Our plan?

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2.

3.

This exercise will expose potential relationship issues. List out all the people who will have influence in the decision and what you believe to be their current feeling towards your solution – Then, where do we need them to be? How do we get them there?

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Qualification and Pursuit Re-cap

• The cost of not qualifying can be significant

• Complex deals can be defined as sales cycles with multiple

steps and multiple decision stakeholders

• Sales reps must analyze the situation and develop pro-active

closing strategies

• Tools to utilize include the Pursuit Drill

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Creating a compelling reason to buy is critical

• Companies of all sizes are scrutinizing every expenditure— “Why should we do this?”— “Why should we do this now?”— “Why should we buy from you?”

• As a sales person, you MUST help the customer answer these questions

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Create a Compelling Reason to Buy - Examples• “Why should we do this?”

—New customer acquisition is a top priority right now and this solution will help us make our numbers

• “Why should we do this now?”—If we delay a decision, we will fall behind our customer

acquisition plan and may never catch up—Our competitors are falling by the wayside and we have a

great near term opportunity to increase market share• “Why should we buy from you?”

—Solution that maps to your requirements (best/only solution)—Experience/track record (reduces risk)—Price/value (fits budget)—Service/relationship (we have worked together in the past)—Terms of the deal

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Create a Compelling Reason to Buy

Gut Check: Review all the deals in your pipeline that are at least in proposal stage. For each deal, ask yourself:

• Does the customer have a compelling reason to move forward with this project?

• Have we provided a compelling reason to buy from us?

Common Scenario

You are restricted from talking to key decision makers regarding your solution. Your “champion” tells you “not to worry – I will get everyone on board with your solution.”

How can you get more control of this situation?

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An Internal Selling Document helps your champion sell your solution

Volunteer to help create an Internal Selling Document for the decision maker that briefly outlines the following:• Project objectives• Options we evaluated• What solution we recommend • Why• Details (cost, time frame, etc.)• How this will support our project objectives (why this is a good

idea)

Why isn’t your deal closing?

If a deal is not closing, you must uncover why the customer is not buying

• Customer: “Thanks for your proposal. We will get back to you at a later time”

• Sales Person:

− “Can you tell me what is preventing you from moving forward today?”

− “Is this project no longer a priority?”

− “Do you believe our solution will solve your problem?”

− “Are you ok with price?”

− “Are you comfortable with our team/company?”

− “Have you done enough due diligence to make a decision?”

− “What could we do to make this a no-brainer decision for you?”

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Summary: Five tactics to close deals

Thorough qualification

Pro-active deal management (Pursuit drill)

Creating a compelling reason to buy

Help your champion sell internally

Determining why the customer is not buying

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The power of partnership.

For Further Information:

Call your sales rep

800.732.3440 | info@accudata.com