How do you know if you have a deal or not?

If you are climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, you will not see the top of the mountain. It’s just too high.

So, when you start how do you know if you are on track?

The likelihood of you being the first person to climb Kilimanjaro is zero. Sorry to say but it’s been done before.

However, good for you is that there are waypoints along the way to indicate you are on track.

Complex selling is the same.

There is a journey that may not be so obvious, but there are milestones you need to hit that will show you are on the right path.

There are numerous sales systems with slightly different milestones depending on you the complexity of the deal as well as your personal personal preference - SCOTSMAN, BANT, Solution Selling, Miller Heiman, MEDDICC….choose one. They will all help.

This one below is MEDDPICC.

It’s very practical, and when used in the way I suggest will be of huge value to the prospect and to you.

Why?

It will help create trust and a working relationship with your prospect that will likely lead to you doing business together.

It will clarify the key information you need to have in place to do value-added business with the prospect.

So, get your deal qualification boots on, let’s go…

M is for Metrics

“What gets measured improves.”

?This is the basis of a very interesting part of your engagement with the prospect and will be of huge value for your prospect.

Establishing the success criteria will give you a guide on what you need your solution to deliver for your prospect (and hopefully future client).

These outcomes need to quantifiable i.e. measurable.

You can use their current KPIs and OKRs (Objectives and Key Results).

You can also find out things such as:

• What does success look like for them?
• What goals have they already established?
• What is the order of priority of those goals and objectives?
• Why have they chosen those specific objectives?
• Are there any objectives that were considered that didn’t make the list and why?
• What would it enable them to do if they achieved these objectives?
• What are the implications if they do not achieve them?

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Your job is to ultimately demonstrate and connect a clear link between these and your solution?

Another way of saying is this how is your offering a RESULTS MECHANISM for these outcomes?

If the prospect does not have clarity over their objectives and goals, then this is a huge opportunity for you to coach them to clarity on their goals.?

If they need help with clarifying their goals and objectives make sure your intention is to help them more so than to serve your opportunity.

E is for Economic Buyer (EB)

“Who heads the team?”

?The Economic Buyer has the ultimate authority over the final purchase.

?This also means that they also have the power to VETO the purchase.

?Your task is to find out what are this person’s goals at three levels:

1)??????? The organisational level, what are their goals that meet the overall company objectives?

2)??????? Their team. What are their goals at a team level.

3)??????? Themselves. Everyone has a boss. How does this person’s boss measure their performance. Their goals will be related to that.

?You can also find out:

?What are the impacts on them if their goals at all 3 levels are not achieved?

What is the order of priority for these goals?

When meeting with the EB you need to bring value. This can be in the form of insights:

• About the market they compete in
• Their immediate organisation (i.e. information from your meetings with people in the teams who report to them)
• Their competitors (without disclosing sensitive information)
• Market trends, geopolitical and global influences

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Meeting with the EB requires preparation, especially their DISC profile.

If you can demonstrate how their specific goals are met through the work you are proposing to do together, you will have a high chance of success.

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D is for Decision Criteria

How will the Buyers choose a Vendor?

Every business will have a decision-making process. Sometimes it’s clear and well managed, other times it’s ambiguous and inconsistent.

If they are clear you need to understand what they are and what you need to do meet them.

Decision Criteria will be closely related to their Success Criteria.

You have an opportunity to influence their decision criteria if you they were not clear on their Success Metrics.

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D is for Decision Process

Who is involved their decision-making process and strategy?

Closely related to Criteria is Who is involved.

• Who is involved with the decision?
• How have they purchased similar solutions to these in the past??

If they are not experienced with making purchases like these before you will need to coach them through to clarify what will work best in this case for all parties involved.

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P is for Paper Process

Paperwork

Sometimes overlooked, this less valuable but just as crucial part can really streamline the purchase.

What legal or administrative steps are required for them to acquire your solution?

Who are the key people involved in that process – on their side and yours?

How early in the process do you need to meet and appraise each person in the sales process?

How long does this process take? Have you factored that into your forecast?

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I is for Identify Pain

Pain = Change

In sales you are essentially managing change. It takes a lot of effort for a company to change their current way of doing things.

Their current way of doing things is familiar, it may have other processes reliant on it. No doubt there will be disruption.

Is the prospect motivated enough to go through that change?

The magnitude of the challenges they are experiencing will directly correlate to the degree of motivation they will have to move away from that situation…and towards your proposed way of working.

So the better you can become at establishing and discussing their challenges the more sales you will make.

You will need to be patient during this conversation.

Practise your clarifying skills, ask questions to get them thinking and embrace the aspects of their business that just aren’t working as well as they need it to.

Here are some sample questions to get you started…

• What specific challenges are being encountered by the prospect?
• If they have more than one challenge, what is the order of priority?
• What have they tried in the past to address these challenges?
• Which one of those challenges can you help alleviate or eliminate?
• What is the current cost of the problems?
• What are the consequences to the prospect of not addressing these challenges?
• What would the prospect gain if these problems were reduced or eliminated?
• What would they do once they have additional capacity and resources due to the problem being reduced or eliminated? (These will be resources to achieve their success criteria.)

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C is for Champion

Who is your ally? Who believes in your solution?

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This person will be your main voice representing you when you are not there.

What can you do to coach them so they can best represent you when you are not there?

It helps to understand what your champion gets out of a successful project with you. How does it help them in their career and their role??

They will know other people you need to connect with in their organisation.

• Who can they introduce you to?
• Who else can be a champion for you?

If you try to educate them on how to best represent your solution and they feel that they can’t, and the benefits of the solution to them are significant, then you really must get them to introduce you to the key players and decision makers so that you can best represent your solution.

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C is for Competition

Who do you need to beat??

Be aware of the competition, even if it's not making any decision at all!

• Who else is the prospect speaking with?
• Are they developing a solution in-house?
• Have you competed against the external competitor before?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses in comparison to your offering?
• What success criteria can you build into your proposal that is unique to your offering and beneficial to the prospect?

I hope this helps you in some way to closing more business.

I have dedicated my career to helping business sales professionals gain successful and enjoyable careers, and this qualification matrix is a fundamental part of that.

The more you use it, the more fluent you will be in getting to these “waypoints”, and the more natural it will feel when in front of prospects.

Happy selling!