No. 18 – Year end closing plan
October 8, 2009HOW SAFE IS YOUR YEAR END QUOTA?
Many sales and business development people are looking at how they are going to finish the year and bring in their outstanding deals to hit quota so here is a closing checklist to help you. 1) Are you really dealing with ALL the decision makers? 2) Is your proposition a "nice to have" or a "necessity" what urgency to buy have you created? 3) Have you submitted a quote or proposal? 4) Does your proposal show hard cash savings or revenue gains with a real ROI agreed with the prospect? 5) What risks do you have to minimize to avoid a no go decision? 5)What else could "your" budget be spent on instead of your solution or service how will you counter this?
Don't fool yourself, if there is the slightest doubt go back get this information. Make a list of what you need to do to close the deal, with dates, and have a formal closing plan.
Consultative Solution Selling by Telephone?
October 6, 2009I once had a sales manager who used to say you've got to "see 'em to sell 'em". These days, whether we like it or not, a number of factors collude to make it either impractical or not financially viable to "go see 'em" higher volumes, lower margins, geography for example.
Demographics play a part too there is a generation of B2B buyers out there who have been brought up on cell phones, the Internet, facebook, twitter, ebay et al, and they really don't feel the need to deal with sales people face to face.
The challenge of getting your sales message over (especially for more complex products such as software, consultancy, financial services) still requires a consultative, solution sales approach.
So here are a few pointers
1. When you get a lead or a download trial from your website don't launch straight into a sales call do your research, is the enquirer the decision maker, could you call someone else higher to see if this is a real opportunity and check things out [discreetly] before you speak to the enquirer?
2. Do a good discovery / needs analysis job before you present or demo your product, use the demo / presentation to prove the case not open the sale.
3. Don't send your proposal too early, get all the decision makers and influencers lined up and present your proposal to them DON'T SEND IT- you can do this online.
4 Above all stay in control don't get rushed into selling and presenting too early and to the wrong people just because its all being done on the telephone.
We came across a great product recently, we use tools such as Webex and Adobe Connect but we have found the killer app is this space Vonei Meeting. Its a great system you can talk, present share screens and documents but where Vonei Meeting is really different is with its video capability. The video is "many to many" rather than presenter to many so everyone can see everyone on the call. The user interface and connection is simplicity itself AND you don't have to mess with client software on your PC. (Go try out Vonei Meeting and mention Ian Farmer!)
Vonei Meeting is great because you can see the prospect's reactions, its more personal, you can gauge their "buy in".
We have helped a large number of clients (such as Oracle, BEA Systems, Orange, Embarcadero Technology, TeamStudio) to develop their "solution selling by telephone" skills and processes. Tools like Vonei Meeting are going to make telephone selling even more viable and productive.
Heh.... perhaps we can "see 'em to sell 'em" after all!
Good luck, good selling!
