The sale was lost before you started!
There is a reason they call it a bluebird. The bluebird is rarely seen and almost impossible to catch, and there are many reasons that a critical, ‘must win’ sale, which is meant to achieve year end numbers, fails to close before year end. - Or at all!
The Elusive Bluebird
Yet, companies continue to forecast bluebirds and company year-end plans are negatively affected by sales not won. By wasted time that could have been more used to greater effect, focusing on a controlled sales strategy.
In most cases, procurement buyers have long-established relationships with their preferred commercial friends and have already made emotional commitments to buy from a specific person or company. However, it’s also true that many companies have procurement policies that enforce getting two or three supplier quotes before they can proceed to purchase products or services.
There are many sales qualification methodologies used to analyse and control sales proposals, with the purpose of ensuring best possible management and forecasting, all have common focus areas, which include the following - ANUM: (Authority, Need, Urgency, Money), BANT: (Budget, Authority, Need, Time frame), (FAINT: Funding, Authority, Interest, Need, Timeframe) and SCOTSMAN: (Situation, Competition, Basis of Decision, Timescale, Solution, Money, Authority, Need).
How to Join The Cannon Fodder Club
Procurement and Senior business leaders know that Sales Reps engage with the intent of winning new contracts, and they know that the sales rep needs to ask qualification questions and needs to go back to their company with answers about the project budget, authority, needs and timeframe. If the end customer is not engaged in the sales qualification conversation questions, a big warning bell should go off in your head that you are about to join The Cannon Fodder Club.
Boss Sales Engine help companies implement sales qualification methodologies and tools to ensure the highest levels of sales opportunity control, influence, verification and validation. The key benefit is that your sales team will spend significantly less time on ‘rubbish’ sales opportunities and will instead, be focused on clear, accelerated sales engagement and closing activities.
Naivety and opportunistic sales activities are another reason companies waste important selling time which results in losing sales. If your sales reps are honest, in many cases they are ‘reacting’ to a sales opportunity that was never theirs to win. Put simply, your company has tried its luck and simply wasted valuable sales engagement time. The point is, tactical sales focus is typically opportunistic, giving false hope and artificially inflated sales pipeline figures.
Develop a Sales Strategy You can Influence & Control
Before engaging in the 2020 sales process, take an honest look at your company products and services with the intent of developing a realistic Sales Strategy that your company can influence and control. Consider what is unique and competitive regarding your products or services, and consider too, which markets, industries and territory influence your company has - If any…
The Software Tech industry is moving at a thousand miles a second. My point is: Be great at something - Versus trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole and pushing on your customers the notion that you have the best sales proposal, product and services.
Focus Your Sales Team Where You Have the Best Chance of Winning
The reality is, thousands of products are released into the cloud or apps weekly. With the speed of technology change, it is important that your company creates a sales plan that ensures your sales resources are focused in the areas where you have the greatest chance of winning business.
Boss Sales Engine can help your company develop a sales strategy that focuses your company on the right industries, demographics, verticals and territories. Which in turn, results in a higher sales win conversation rate – and, importantly, lower cost of sales.
Also, it's important you "Love Your Customers and listen to what they want! Using the analogy of architecting your own dream car: the customer wants a red car, that is electric, that can do 200 miles before needing a recharge, with a big boy radio system, that can hold four people, with a large boot – All for £25,000 or less.
Be explicit regarding how your product or service will address the specific requirements and needs, with a very simple pricing model.
STOP disrespecting customers by copying and pasting pages of old template, irrelevant proposal junk. Customers will not read 200 pages of additional junk material. This is old school tech vanity and self-indulgence – A hangover from the days of IBM and Microsoft complex solutions sales.
This does not work in the modern world.
Master the EIGHT SECOND Sales Cycle
If you are in a competitive tender position, you have EIGHT SECONDS (8!!) to get and keep the buyer’s attention. To address this, create a single page covering letter that focuses only and explicitly on addressing precisely what the buyer wants and needs - And present it in a way that they can speed read it in eight seconds.
In the 2020 Software Tech sales game, less is more.
Offer web links to supporting materials and offer to provide additional material as required. Make it super-easy for the customer to quickly connect with your proposal.
Boss Sales Engine offer a service to diagnose your proposals, your web site content, your brochures and presentations, to help you adapt and gain attention in the EIGHT SECOND sales cycle.
You can also learn more about Boss Sales Engine at www.bosssalesengine.com
