5 ways to win bigger deals and master complex sales processes

This week, Christopher Engman joined?Meet the CEOs?to give us his best advice on winning complex sales processes. Christopher is a serial entrepreneur, investor and advisor specialising in larger deals. He spends half his time running?Megadeals?and the rest on advisory.

Watch the episode

Here are five (of many) takeaways summed up for you.?

Takeaway 1: Megadealers are harder to recruit than other salespeople

Megadealers are super valuable in startups and scaleups. Their impact is noticeable - and sometimes, they account for up to half the revenue with just one person.?

It's not easy to recruit these people. They're usually trapped in golden handcuffs with great incentives, option programs and other benefits. If you're trying to recruit a megadealer from a large company, they usually have a monthly salary of €20.000 at a minimum. And it's often higher than that.?

These people have usually gotten accustomed to a particular lifestyle, and switching jobs is an unnecessary risk.?

Takeaway 2: Only a handful of Megadealers are a good fit for your company

Only 15% of enterprise megadealers succeed equally well with an unproven brand. That adds another complexity to the equation, because you can't just pick anyone with a "perfect resume" and expect them to drive your business forward.

For a small/medium-sized company, YOU are the brand. And the majority of megadealers can't adjust to that fact. They're dependent on having a well-known name enabling their work. So, be careful and recruit those who can fully adapt to your business and sales process.

Takeaway 3: Don't just scale revenue; build dominance

Most companies look too much at revenue and too little at dominance. If you become the segment and category leader, you get 76% of the global shareholder value, which is tremendous. Building a position in the market is very important to become a dominant player in the long run. People will have a hard time beating you if you're dominating the market.

Takeaway 4: Areas where most companies underperform

Mistake 1: They don't map what they're selling into the prospect's key initiatives?

Larger companies typically have three to five key initiatives they'd like to achieve within one to three years. Your solution must fit into one of these initiatives. Make a habit of asking your salespeople in the weekly sales meeting about which initiatives you fit into.?

Mistake 2: Salespeople don't know the difference between a budget owner and a sign-off level

A middle manager can have a budget of €100 million but a sign-off level of €100.000. So, even for relatively small amounts, the C-level has to be involved. Many salespeople think the deal is 90% done just because they've gotten a verbal yes from the person holding the budget.?

It's good to have a sense of the typical sign-off levels. Then you can predict whether your buyer will have to escalate the deal internally before you can count it in. If you know that the VP of sales sign-off level is typically around €100.000, and your deal value €200.000, you can proactively involve people higher up. Worth mentioning is that sign-off levels usually decrease drastically during recessions.?

Mistake 3: You underestimate how many stakeholders there are

We usually put way too much faith in our contact. Often, plenty of more stakeholders need to be involved, both cross-hierarchy and functionally, to anchor the deal internally. Make sure to do your homework.

Takeaway 5: Many companies leave money on the table by not adjusting their messaging

Getting to the economic buyer or the C-level can be tricky when talking to someone lower down in the organisation. Running marketing parallel to sales activities can help a lot. It's also important to adjust the messaging, because it should be completely different depending on who you're talking to.?

A technical buyer could be looking for a very specific solution, while the C-level are exploring completely different ways to solve the same problem. We often let people lower down in the organisation mislead us. Many companies do their regular demo pitch to the C-suite, and they're just not interested. The C-suite is solving a puzzle, and you need to help them figure out which pieces should be fitted together.

For more insights, watch the entire episode.

/ The team at Revenue Journal