I have to lean on the wall of many great sales mentors and scream up to the proposal heavens. “Get commitment before sending of that proposal!.”
Sure they said they were interested in your solution, and of course you learned everything you could about:
So often, a representative comes to me and asks, “What did I do wrong, they will not call me back.” I always ask them the same thing, “What were your conditions for sending a proposal?”
The first time I ask this of a team member, they look at me as if I cursed their mother. They have no idea what I mean. I then go on to ask them how much time and effort was put into that ‘perfect proposal’. Usually an amazing amount of time and energy was invested in crafting this offer. What is equally as common is that the rep does not ask a simple question before putting the proposal together:
“If I understand correctly, these are the things you need to see to be willing to make an investment in my offering (List them). If I meet these conditions, what will happen next?”
If you do not get this simple answer, do not create a proposal. “We will probably buy your product.”
If you get any other statement, sing song response, etc… you still have work to do. Uncover what is still preventing your sales from going through, then ask the question again. Do not propose until you get the answer….that simple.
I think I am not the only one that sometimes experiences this:
Your offer is out, you call them back few days later and they did not have time to go through it.
You try again after 5 days, still nothing… you offer to meet them again if there is something else that needs to be discussed, nope.
20 days later from when the offer is out, still nothing happens.
Obviously their interest has dropped below zero so, how can I bring to my prospects some reasonable arguments on moving forward or simply, to retire my offer?
A yes, or a not, but not a standby and/or “I’ll call you back”.
Conference seats sellers can kill the lead with “Is not anymore available”, but I cannot do this with my services. How can I take back control by staying professional and leaving as little as possible to them?
-Denis Rasia
This is a common question in most modern day sales environments. Even when asking questions and building rapport so many of our modern day salespeople still can not wait to jump out a build the proposal. Often the proposal is built on solid understanding of what the prospect is look for and who we are dealing with. Much time has been spent presenting solutions and trying to gain buy in. However, and Denis I recommend you read ”High Probability Selling” which you can buy here. The section that talks about gaining commitment before moving the sales process along would help you immensely.
There are two things to keep in mind before proposing to a prospect:
1. Only propose to people that you have met their conditions of buying. This means that if you propose what they expect, they will become your customer. If this is not an agreement you can come to, do not propose. If you are part of a bidding process, it is your call whether you want to get involved, but if you do without knowing the conditions of making a purchase, quote them and move on. I personally just move on without the quoting part. People that go out to bid do not really understand what they want, and usually make lousy customers (see Governments).
2.Make a proposal only after you clearly understand the buying process and where you stand in the measurement of sales potential. If you do not understand the criteria for purchase then you should not propose. “But what if they demand a proposal?” Again, read the book and heed this advice: “I only propose to people after I understand who is involved in the buying process and how purchases are made. It takes a great deal of effort to build a proposal and do not want to guess at what your requirements may be. It is better for all of us to sit down and determine the best course of action before I draw up a proposal.” If they do not agree, then shake hands and walk away.
If you live by these two credo’s you will rarely, if ever get stuck with a proposal out and no sale. Instead you will usually end up with a lot more sales.
Another day goes by and there sits your rep’s opportunity randomly forecasted at 60% to close in three months. This is exactly the way it looked last month and the month before Why? Because the sales rep is afraid to get it on the radar and have you ask questions they are not prepared to answer. The amusing, or sad, depending on which side of the conversation you are on, thing about it is, the questions you ask are exactly what you can teach them to ask.
Why are reps afraid to ask the big questions? Most of the time fear of loss is the reason things hang around in the ethers right outside of the 30 day pipeline.
“I don’t want to push.”
“They are going through a process.”
“I do not have the right contact to determine their plan.”
To all of this I say, HUMBUG! The sales process must mirror the buying process, as I shared in the last post. If you do not know the stage of the buying process you are in, you cannot determine in what stage of the sales process you reside. Let me say that again, IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE BUYER IS DOING, YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO!
Make things easy and ask the questions that may lose opportunities. They will not, again I repeat, THEY WILL NOT cost you sales. Personally, I teach my team members to dig deep into the personal and professional history early. This makes it easy to ask straight forward business questions, because you are perceived as someone who asks questions that matter. So, now that I have built it up, what are the questions that gain time commitments?
There are many variations of these three questions, but they are the crux of understanding timing. You want to know if they are ready to buy (1), ready to determine what to buy (3), and the real purchaser or just an influencer (2). You can ask many other things but anything beyond a yes or no for question 1 paints the the picture for what you are up against. A yes, get rolling, a no, get it out of the pipeline.
Question 2 should unravel a simple or elaborate process. If this question is not answered, move on. The contact or organization is wasting your time. Otherwise, start envisioning the process flowing through your own company and how loing it would take to get what they are suggesting done. Take into consideration what you know about their efficiency vs. your company’s and adjust for a few weeks here or there. THIS IS HOW YOU FORECAST!
Question 3 delivers a time-line like nobodies business. If it is not budgeted, you are wasting time. This could be a wallet full of cash, or the national budget in congress. Either way, it has to be there or you will not get a sale.
Focus on variations of these questions and you will get your timing questions answered. If you cannot accomplish this task, take the deal out of the pipeline, period.
Another one of those fantastic assumptions that sales people tend to make is that if it is good enough, everyone will buy it. Wait, let me take that a bit further; the assumption that too many CEO’s, VP’s, Board Members, Directors, Managers, and CTO’s, Product Engineers, and Product Managers tend to make is that if they do there job, then everyone is a sales ready lead.THEY ARE ALL WRONG!A sales ready lead has to have money to make a purchase. If they do not, then it is not worth your time to get the sale. Now do not fret, as this does not mean that they have to have a budget allocated to your particular offering. What it means is that they have to be able to allocate the funds and have an interest in doing so. No amount of evangelizing is going to get you that funding without first gaining the commitment.
So many times I hear the questions roll down the sales row:
What a monumental waste of times these questions tend to be, Why? Because if you are talking to the4 budgetary decision maker, you should already know it, and if you are not, then you are probably not going to get a straight answer. MOST PEOPLE WANT TO THINK THAT THEY MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS, whether they hold the purse strings or not. Also, these types of questions spark the sales to buyer fight or flight instincts, and tend to get answers that lack truth.
So, what kind of questions get you the answers? A few of my favorites:
When these questions are asked, the answers will tend to hint at the prospect’s sales readiness. If there is no chance that the3y can buy today, usually this will come out before they walk you through the steps, as a way to get out of it, or during the process as they start to share some of the people involved. Listen carefully for these queues and save time by not chasing leads that are not ready to become opportunities.
Welcome to week two of “Ask the Coach”. I have to admit, the first half dozen questions I have been asked are those from people facing challenges that require detailed and relevant answers. This is encouraging as the mentor, and I apologize to those of you who would like to get your answers sooner. I will get to you, however if you have an urgent need, just drop me a line and I will answer privately first.
Our second question is one relating to getting the data out there, but not seeing the revenue come back.
Dr. Wright of The Wright Place TV Show asks:
I am getting shopped far too often. I have people ask me to be part of a project, I work out a proposal, and then suddenly they have a friend that does the exact same thing and they want to work with that person.
I got shopped!
How can I keep that from happening in the future?
The answer Dr. Wright is relevant to the trainings I am discussing in my current posts. They are focused on gaining commitment. This is as I stated a couple of days ago, a lost piece of the sales process. It is one of the most important pieces, and without it you will lose most of your opportunities.
Clearly at some point in the process you have stopped asking for, expecting, delivering on commitment. I would recommend reading “High Probability Selling” for some great tips on gaining commitment. Also the last two posts clearly address this issue. For a quick overview:
1. Do not give quotes until you know who you are quoting in detail.
2. Do not offer a price until you have a commitment to buy.
3. If you do not have commitment to buy the entire way through the process, end the selling relationship.
4. Understand the budget before you present a quote.
5. If someone is unwilling to share data with you, you either have not done a good job establishing trust, or they are not worthy of your business.
A difficult part of honing the sales process is accepting that without this commitment you do not have an opportunity. My recommendation is to:
1. Examine how you are getting leads and determine if they are “Sales Ready”.
2. Analyze your prospecting and discovery process and determine if you are uncovering real opportunity.
3. Study your value proposition and determine if it shows that people should be giving you money.
4. Look at the final steps in your sales process and determine if you have willing buyers before delivering proposals.
If you want to discuss this further, feel free to contact me for more advice.