Picture this: It's
the middle of the month and you are sitting at your desk reviewing the
preliminary monthly sales forecasts submitted to you by your sales
representatives. You note for about the eighth month in a row, you see the same
prospect you've seen lingering, month after month, again, forecast to close.
This is the same prospect you authorized the multiple "four-legged" sales calls,
prototyped the "must have, or we won't buy" reports and hosted a full day visit
at your corporate headquarters. Your company has put a lot of time and expense
into selling this account. You are under increasing pressure to close this sale.
Having considered all these things, you decide to place a telephone call to your
sales representative to determine what else needs to be done in order to insure
that this prospect closes this month…as forecast. Upon reaching your sales rep
he informs you that he has just spoken with the prospect and they have decided
to do business as usual; they have simply elected to do nothing. He tells you
that he has been encouraged to follow-up in about three months. The opportunity
has been lost to 'No Decision'.
Have you experienced
this lately? If you have, you are not alone. One of the chief concerns we are
hearing from the senior sales executives with whom we have worked is their
frustration with the large number of qualified sales opportunities that are lost
to 'No Decision' after long and expensive sales cycles. Our research shows that
between 60 and 80 percent of all losses are due to 'No Decision.' That's more
losses to 'No Decision' than to any single named competitor, making your number
one competitor…No Decision, Inc.!!
Why do your prospects
elect to do nothing, despite you and your sales representatives best efforts? We
see primarily four major reasons.
1. No Goal
CustomerCentric
Selling® is helping the buyer achieve a goal, solve a problem, or satisfy a
need. It should go without saying that if a buyer is unwilling to share a
goal with a sales person (much less a problem) then the seller doesn't have a
prospect. It is as simple as that. When we help our clients define their sales
process, an opportunity typically goes from "Inactive" to "Active" status when
the buyer shares a goal. We use to define a prospect as a buyer who had
admitted a problem or "pain". Over the years we discovered there were very few
sellers (particularly young sellers) who are able to get a C level executive of
a public company to publicly admit a problem. As my partner Mike Bosworth likes
to point out: As we approach middle-age, it is much easier for us to 'volunteer'
that we'd like to lose a few pounds (a goal), than to get us to admit
that we're fat (a pain). Think about it.
Business executives
don't authorize the spending of large sums of money just to be the proud owners
of whatever it is you are selling. As a result, we subscribe to a core concept,
"No goal, no prospect." At the very minimum, the buyer must be unhappy with some
aspect of his business, and want to fix it, to engage and initiate a "buy cycle"
with a sales person.
TIP: Sales people who fail
to take the time to diagnose and understand their buyer's goal, and the business
issues/obstacles that are preventing them from achieving that goal, either lose
the sale to no decision or, get outsold by the sales person who does.
2. No Solution
Despite your
best efforts (the four-legged sales calls, the "must have, or we won't buy"
reports, corporate visits, etc.), the buyer still does not have a clear
understanding of how he will achieve his goal(s) by purchasing your
product or service. Again, this is a result of the sales person leading with
product feature and function, before first taking the time to understand the
goal that the prospect wants to achieve, then diagnosing and understanding the
business issues and obstacles, and then relating how the capabilities of
the product or service can be used to eliminate the prospects business
issues/obstacles allowing them to attain their goal.
TIP: The key to selling is
the ability to converse. If your salespeople are unable to have a meaningful
conversation, an intelligent two way dialogue, with a targeted decision
maker about the use of your offering to achieve a goal, solve a problem or
satisfy a need, and document that conversation succinctly, then all the training
on prospecting, qualifying, presentation skills, closing, handling objections,
negotiating, etc., are a waste of money! The conversation is where the sale
takes place.
3. No
Power
How many times
have you spent months selling to someone who told you early on that the decision
to purchase your offering was their decision, only to find out later they
couldn't purchase ten sharp pencils without someone else's approval? While
end-users and recommenders are fun to sell to, their needs and requirements may
be altogether different than the ultimate decision maker, the person with the
power and authority to buy. If they don't have the authority to purchase
your products and services, you're not selling; you're simply providing this
person with a free (but expensive for you) education.
TIP: Senior executives are
charged with identifying and solving problems. Gaining access to the decision
maker(s) early in the sales cycle can help eliminate the risk of no decision,
protect your expensive corporate resources, cause unbudgeted money to be spent,
and dramatically shorten the sales cycle.
4. No
Value
We've already
established that for a company to change how they are currently doing business
there has to be a goal. Remember, "No goal, no prospect." The
goal has to be related back to dollars - reduced cost, avoided cost or
increased revenue, among other factors. If you are asking a company to pay
$100,000 for your product, the value of achieving the goal(s) better be at least
$200,000. It makes sense, doesn't it? Would you spend $100,000 to solve a
$50,000 problem?
I'm amazed at the
number of sales people who don't take the time to understand the value of
their products and services to their prospects and, more importantly, don't
actively participate in helping their prospect prepare a cost/benefit analysis.
Your prospect is not the only one who is competing for his/her company's
potentially limited funding. You need to equip him with the logic and rationale
to support his request for funding.
TIP: Think of the
tactical advantage a sales person has going into price negotiations when he
knows exactly how much his prospect will save and when he will achieve a return
on his investment. It makes it very easy to say 'No', in response to a request
for a discount.
Now, let me ask you a
question. Think of all of your 'year-to-date' missed opportunities. What would
it have been worth to you and your organization if your sales people could have
reduced their losses to 'No Decision' by twenty, fifty, or even seventy-five
percent? Isn't it time to enroll in a CustomerCentric Selling® workshop?
Gary Walker is
managing partner of CustomerCentric Systems, LLC and coauthor of the
CustomerCentric Selling® sales methodology.