Watching my beloved Warriors this weekend play the Tigers, naturally I thought the game is in the bag when I saw the score was 22 – 4. Boy was I wrong! They got mauled by the Tigers in the last 20min. You have to ask the question; what happened?
Did the players take their foot off the gas? Did they think the game was in the bag? Whatever the reason it got me contemplating about how many times I’ve heard salespeople say “don’t worry this sale is in the bag”! If you are a Sales Manager, next time you hear that, you should be skeptical.
It’s all about the mind-set of the salesperson. The sale is almost completed and they get lackadaisical about that final push across the line or perhaps the opportunity is not as qualified as they think. Most salespeople use subjective gut feelings to gauge whether the sales is going to proceed or not. The reality is that instinct and gut reactions don’t close sales. Worst case scenario the salesperson is just telling you what you want to hear in an effort to buy time or give some credibility to their blinkered vision.
SalesStar.com adopts a simple but effective strategy around revenue generation. “It’s not in the bag until the money is in the bank”.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel. A determinable pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
The SalesStar.com Management Programme allows us to work with a number of Sales Managers to reduce concerns by objectively qualifying the buying process. When sales people use a “qualifying check-list” it stops a “quote and hope” situation, improves the quality of opportunities and increases the chance of closing deals.
Types of questions that could be included in a “Qualification Check-list”?
- Do we understand their problems
- What was the compelling need
- What is the gap
- Are the happy to move from the current vendor
- Do they believe we have a solution
- Is our solution budget friendly
- What is their time frame
- What do we know about the competition
- What will they base their decision on
- What is their buying process
- Who are all the decision makers
- Is the quote for the final decision maker
- They are committed to buying from someone
- They agreed to buy from us
- Our solution will fix their problem
Creating a qualification check-list will increase the closing ratio of sales people while providing an objective process to qualify opportunities and reduce concerns. Bottom dollar is you will know whether it is in the bank or not!
To find out more about how we can work alongside your business to improve performance and grow sales click here
To find out more about our SalesStar.com Management Program click here
Happy Selling
Paul O’Donohue
