Craig Klein of SalesNexus
But in a complex sale with several steps in the buying process, you’re always happy to dish out the next step in the process just so that you can get closer to the closing step.
How many of the clients you’re spending all that time and money on are buying anything? Not enough right? Your artillery is firing at any target they can find. There is no other way is there? Yes there is!
In the last installment of our "Double Your Sales in 2009", we covered how timing your presentations and proposals so that they’re not wasted on the wrong prospects can increase your close rate and boost your bottom line.
The idea is simple. Qualify the prospect aggressively early in the process. Then conserve your sales resources for the prospects that have a real shot of buying. But its a big switch. Most sales people use presentations and proposals as their initial hook. Of course putting those presentations together and coordinating the meetings is where most of their time goes.
If qualifying is about figuring out how the customer will cost justify your solution, then if you don’t have the answer yet, how do you decide what the best next step is?
What if you start by asking yourself what’s in it for you? I don’t mean the obvious size of the potential deal. I mean what do you get out of the next step? That’s the counterintuitive part. We’re talking about selling something here. You don’t get paid until the deal is closed. So, its not always clear how to quantify the return on the interim steps in the sales process. No one’s going to pay you to show up and give a presentation.
If your sales process is demo, needs analysis, proposal and close, then first of all, it should be needs analysis; demo, proposal and close (see Double Your Sales in 2009 installments 1 and 2). When you’re finishing up the needs analysis, you first decide if their needs justify your solution, then you ask yourself what the prospect can do to ensure that your demo has the desired effect. What’s that desired effect? THEY ask YOU for a proposal!
So what does your client need to do for YOU to be sure that the upcoming demo is a home run? In the case of a demo, they need to be sure that all the right players are there and they need to tell you what they need to see. Read the entire article: http://sellsellsell.salesnexus.com/
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