How Winners Close

How Winners Close
The New Economy is forcing us to change the way we sell. Buyers are much more savvy, tougher, willing to play you against your competition, and are reluctant to divulge information about how they are going about making a decision. A lot of what we used to do just doesn't work anymore.
What doesn't work anymore? Asking an executive what keeps them up at night. Selling what you have, not what they need. Not differentiating yourself and your offering based upon unique business value. Another thing that doesn't work is following the old "ABC of selling." Always Be Closing.
Executives don't like to be hard-closed. They can see it coming a mile away. And if your credo is "I close hard and I close often," with some executives your first close may be your last.
What are the best practices around closing? It's a bit more involved than that. Since closing is a critical component of every sales process, there are dependencies, milestones and conditions that must be met for the close to be effectively executed.
Trouble Closing?
I often consult with companies that believe their problem is that they are having trouble closing deals. After analyzing their situations, I often find that the problem really goes back to ineffective qualification or lack of process.
If an opportunity isn't effectively qualified, the sales rep will operate under the mistaken impression that the deal is theirs to win. Any number of things might be wrong: the competition is already in and has set the ground rules; there is not a sufficient fit against the prospect's requirements; the prospect has not budgeted enough money to fund the investment. Attempting to close under circumstances like those is worse than just a waste of time. It's an embarrassment to the sales profession and will ruin the reputation of the company that employs that salesperson. Even if the opportunity is qualified, if there is an absence of a logical selling process, where the close is disconnected from other critical components of the sale, the buyer will be caught off guard, become resentful, or perhaps even angry, and a sale will not be consummated.
Collaboration Required
Sure, the prospect will have had to agree on terms and conditions as well as pricing—things that some sales reps save until the end of the selling cycle to discuss. However, when you consider these additional areas of discussion between you and the prospect, you'll see how it all begins to fit together as logical steps in a collaborative process:
1. The prospect will have agreed with you that there was a business issue, pain, problem or challenge that wasn't being addressed. (Hopefully you were in the position to uncover this with the prospect before competition was introduced.) Example: The prospect says, "You're right. We do not have the appropriate level of internal expertise to comply with certain requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act."
2. The prospect will have agreed with you on the business results they expect to receive from an investment in a product or service such as yours. Example: You say, "Do you agree that once you have clear, concise, and compelling messages, and your salespeople have been trained on how to employ them, they will be better equipped to prospect more effectively?" And your prospect responds, "Yes, I can see that."
3. The prospect will have agreed with you on the timeframe in which they will make a decision based upon appropriate lead times for achieving the expected business results. Example: The prospect says, "We need to have this capability by August 15th, or our most important customer will transfer 50 percent of the business they do with us to another supplier." And you say, "We can do that."
4. The prospect must have agreed with you on the value that this new capability will provide them. Example: You say, "Can you see from my business assessment that you can expect somewhere between a 10 and 15 percent reduction in customer attrition, resulting in perhaps $3 million in additional revenues next year?" And the prospect says, "Yes."
5. The prospect must have acknowledged how the benefits will be delivered or realized, making a direct connection between your product and service and the highest-level business value they expect to receive. Example: The prospect says, "I understand that the installation of your RFID equipment and the implementation of the related software will take 3 months and at that point we will be fully compliant with Wal-Mart's requirements."
6. The prospect will have acknowledged that you, your company, and your solution provide unique and measurable value. Example: You say, "Do you agree that we are the only potential supplier whose balance sheet is strong enough for you to undertake the risk of this investment?" And the prospect says, "Yes, I understand that."
7. The prospect will have acknowledged that your proposal went into sufficient depth on all the items above and provided them with an ROI within their department, agency or corporate guidelines. Example: You say, "We've gone through each section of my proposal in considerable detail. Is there anything you feel is missing or not explained well enough?" They say, "You proposal is fine."
8. The prospect will have acknowledged that all of their questions and concerns have been addressed, potential risks mitigated, and that pricing and terms have been agreed upon.
Now you are ready to close. And, most importantly, your prospect is expecting it because, early on, you explained what to expect at each step. You integrated your selling process into their buying process, collaborated with them every step along the way, and will therefore gracefully be able to transform them from a prospect to a customer.

Sales Tactics to Beat Your Competition
This month I want to share a success from a friend and customer of mine. You'll find in this story two important sales tactics for beating your competition.
From Chris Chalmers of Quova Inc:
"We sell a commodity product (geographic data) that is available from a variety of competitors and public sources. Recently, we lost a major account to a competitor, and based on our long-standing relationship with them, they consented to debrief us on what went wrong. Obviously we had an account management issue, and there had been a service problem or two. But the clincher was our competitor was perceived as "more helpful" and "more expert" because they were offering all sorts of unsolicited suggestions about how to use the product.
"That was a real surprise - Shouldn't the customer already know what they were going to do with the product? Otherwise they wouldn't have bought it, right? How much advice can you give when your product is a simple commodity?
"So we tried our competitor's approach in our next sales cycle. When the customer was talking about their perceived needs and uses of the product, we used to sit mildly and take notes. This time, we launched into a barrage of questions about the intended use our product, interspersed with short stories about how other customers were using it.
"What about this application? Have you ever considered this alternative? Here's how someone else in your situation is using it.." and so on. Instead of going into detail about the functionality of our application, which was simple and undifferentiated, we went into detail about the usage of our product, which was highly differentiated.
"Much to my surprise, it worked! Now WE were perceived as 'experts' and 'adding value' to the product - even though it was still a commodity that our competitor was selling for a lower price. Our coach really wanted to do business with us, and we were able to defend a higher price point and get our deal closed."
Thanks for sharing your story with my readers and me Chris. You and your sales team were smart to adopt your competition's tactics to beat them at their own game. Sales Tactic - Asking questions