How do you create a sense of urgency and avoid losing momentum in a complex sale?

Urgency only happens if there's a true problem to solve. They'll never have urgency to buy your solution if they don't already have urgency to solve their own problem. Find the problem, validate the necessity to solve it, and attach your solution to being part of addressing that problem.

The best way to create a sense of urgency is the time because it works for you. You must know how to introduce time into the equation. Does the client have a deadline? Does the project require a lot of dedication? Could there be deviations? They can all work very well.

Según mi experiencia, es clave también preguntar por todas las acciones que se llevaron a cabo en el pasado: 1) ?Cuáles fueron las que produjeron los resultados deseados? ?Qué factores lo permitieron? 2) ?Cuáles fueron las que no funcionaron? ?Por qué? Es relevante saberlo, para no repetir los mismos errores. 3) ?Qué obstáculos considera el cliente que, sí o sí, debemos superar para que nuestra solución tenga éxito? Si el cliente no sabe responder, entonces empieza nuestra forma de crear valor. Vamos a guiarlo para que logre responder. Ahora, cuidado con qué tipo de interlocutor hablamos para elegir la mejor manera de acompa?arlo en este diagnóstico inicial.

Any seasoned salesperson has been told to dig for pain from their first training session. Getting more skilled at this can be helpful, but when you “struggle” to find the pain and can’t seem to get a prospect to care about the problems you can solve, that’s normally a lack of good prospects in your funnel, not a lack of skill in your pain discovery skills. Beating the dead horse with a client and frustrating yourself is a sign that you aren’t talking to enough clients to find the ones who have viable pain points you can solve. Move on, keep them in a communication plan long term, and look for hotter prospects.

ROI Return Of Invest. This acronym is the key of success a lot of times. If you can't measure it, you can't prove it. Sometimes it's difficult to calculate but having it will help you a lot.

In my experience as a business value consultant for tech companies, I've discovered that buyers often don't relate to the cost of decision delays or doing nothing. So that's why it's a key component of my business case narrative. By demonstrating the financial and strategic impact of 'no decision' outcomes you can assume the role of a trusted advisor with all members of the buyer's committee. My point: return on investment isn't merely a financial calculation because it also has strategic implications relative to business agility. Fast movers gain an edge in today's hyper-competitive global networked economy.

Deals with genuine pain are lost all the time, because your champion didn’t tell a compelling story. They need a specific, compelling problem statement that grabs and holds attention. Here’s how to create one with a simple formula: Costs Every [Frequency], at least [Reach] are [Pain], costing us [Impact]. Consequences That means [Impact #1]. If that’s not addressed by [Timeline], then [Impact #2]. Part 1: Focus on Costs We all feel more upset if we lose $10, than we feel happy if we find $10. So highlight active or immanent losses first, before calling out new opportunities. Part 2: Highlight Consequences Overwhelm and burnout can force us to live with a lot. So once you’ve quantified impact (above), point out implications.

Always better to be conservative in quantifying impact - better to show up credibly, especially considering most vendors will over-inflate their ROI (leading to most executive teams dismissing them). Even more important than the quantification is the story behind it. What makes the increases you're proposing possible? What impacts the rate of increase (either reducing the impact or increasing it further)? What participation is required from the customer to make that ROI even possible? The more of these that you've identified, the more believable the ROI story becomes and the more likely they'll adopt it as their own.

1. Layout your customers’ typical buying process. Make a list of every step from agreeing there’s a problem, through onboarding and adoption, unique to your product. 2. Organize your list into a simple grid. Since this is a mutual plan, split out the tasks between your own team plus the buying team. 3. Adapt your baseline with your champion’s feedback. Now, you’ve got a baseline. Something you can introduce in a conversation with your champion. Share it during a call and ask what you should adapt. 4. Work backwards from a compelling event. Each step needs a deadline. These deadlines, and the length of time needed for a task, lets you know how far ahead of a “compelling event” you need to start a task.

Build a reverse timeline. Identify an "anchor point" - some milestone that the customer cares deeply about. The more critical this milestone is reached by this date, the better. Now work backwards. What is the series of events that allows this milestone to be reached? Plot them out on a timeline. Build the narrative around that critical path to the customers' anchor point - why is each step needed? Why that amount of time between events? Where is there risk? Walk your champion through that timeline to improve upon it, then watch them sell internally why that path needs to happen.

Sharing specific challenges overcome and objectives met demonstrates real-world success stories, making your offering more tangible and relatable. And knowing how previous clients felt about working with you adds an extra layer of authenticity.

The best kinds are where the customer remains the hero of the story - you (or your solution) are just the means that allowed them to do something great. Not only will your customers be more motivated to have you tell their story, your prospect will see themselves in that story as the hero.

When someone raises an objection, they debate how much to reveal on a spectrum. Often, their first objection tests the waters. They’ll give you a fraction of the story: Secrecy < X———— > Transparency Tug on the thread until you’ve unraveled the full story. There’s typically a 2nd or 3rd order concern: Secrecy < ————X > Transparency Here’s an example. “This seems expensive.” “This is more expensive than my $50K approval limit.” “I told them I could approve this, and don’t want to admit I can’t.” “I’m anxious I’ll never be promoted into a leadership role where I matter.” - “Handling” the objection = talking about the ROI. ”Tugging” = a story about a past deal champion, who was just promoted after leading a company-wide rollout.

Here’s the short version of the 'Formula for Change' equation with both sides of this: C = D x V x FS > R Each of these variables stands for: D = Dissatisfaction with the current state. V = Vision of what’s possible. FS = First concrete steps to move towards the vision. R = Resistance to change Notice how the equation relies on each variable. Since they’re multiplied by each other, if any of them are incomplete or missing (so they’re equal to 0), change resistance wins.

So activities like presenting a massive ROI or a better feature set don’t matter on their own. You’re playing by logic in that moment, but as advertising legend Rory Sutherland says: "The human mind does not run on logic any more than a horse runs on petrol." So here's how to design a buying experience around the 3 drivers in the Formula for change noted above: (D) Build an unbearable level of dissatisfaction with the current state. (V) Paint a clear and compelling vision of the future together. (FS) Outline specific and concrete steps to move toward the vision.

On complex sales it helps to gain agreement early with the key players on why they are seeking change and why changing is urgent. More urgent than other things going on in the organization. Particularly the key players who have the authority to make the changes needed. Recirculating their own reasons to the questions above throughout the buyer journey helps to maintain the momentum. When the evaluation gets exhausting or the feelings of buyer risks elevate then they will have those reasons of importance and urgency to balance their feelings. Not the seller’s reasons. Their reasons. Why must we change? Why now?