Selling Trilogy – Part III

?Closing the Deal

And not just winning it

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Everyone in selling refers to ‘The Close’.? That moment when a customer says “yes”, we sign contracts and (hopefully) delivery begins.? Yet many of us also know the scene where the customer says “yes” but getting the contract signed and the Purchase Order landed suddenly seems to be in the distance.? We give our ‘Forecast’ both in Revenue terms and on a timeline.? And sometimes we have experienced how getting a ‘Win’ is different from getting a deal ‘Closed’.

“Its $250,000 and they’ve agreed to the deal so it should be done by next week or week after at the latest.”

Sounds just like me in my early days of selling. ???Do yourself a favour and remove words such as “should” or “hope” from your forecast and pipeline discussion. ??It presumes there are uncertainties.? Or ‘unknowns’ at the very least.? Whilst Selling is not a science, it is most certainly a discipline where every opportunity to remove risk must be considered.

“The deal will be for $250,000.? My buyer has agreed to this and confirmed to me verbally that the process to provide the Purchase Order is under way and will be with us by Thursday.? We are already in their system as an approved supplier and I am now liaising with the CFO and Procurement department to make sure the paperwork is produced on time.? Everyone in the chain has confirmed the deadlines that have been set and everyone has agreed to get the job done within these deadlines.”

Compare these two scenarios.? We have probably been in both scenes. ?After hearing scenario one, there is still a lot of work to be done to eradicate the risks. The Sales VP you report to is under pressure to make a ‘Commit’ statement.? And you are the person that put him or her there.? Delivering this type of open-ended unassured forecast is really not good enough.

Closing the deal, for me, starts to happen 3 – 6 months before this.? I’m certain all good Sellers do this.? Occasionally I come across one or two individuals or perhaps a complete sales team that don’t.? And that needs to be fixed.?

Your ‘Selling Power’ (as discussed in Part I and Part II) has come from detailed and compelling Value discovery over this sort of period. In scenario two above, your customer understands how you have engaged in the process and shares the goal of both sides winning.? You will get a Purchase Order (PO) and they will get the value they were looking for. You played a vital role in discovering all the value your customer should expect.? And perhaps your competitors didn’t.

Months in advance you’ll need to have started scheduling the purchase, agreeing the timeline you are working with your customer. MEDDPICC will walk you through this quite simply. But as a one off, ask your customer this : “Is my company registered as a Supplier to your company?”? If not, the time to do it is now, even if months in advance.? It can take 6 – 8 weeks depending on the procurement system your customer is using.? They probably cannot produce a PO for you unless you are in the system.? Simple, but often missed.

In truth, the whole promise of doing business should be agreed as early as possible. If you are in a Tender or Request for Proposal scenario, it’s likely the timeline has been set.? Useful nonetheless to ask what the impact would be should the timeline slide.? Are there benefits to being early?? Are there cost or strategy impacts if it is late?? How soon after the decision day is the customer expecting to be using your ‘stuff’???? If not in one of these formal buying processes, it is still essential that you establish the deadlines that you and your prospective customer are working to.? It helps you in qualifying the deal (how often have you worked on a potential deal only to find out after months or years (Public Sector) of hard work, it is unlikely ever to happen?).? Try establishing a timeline with your customer at an early stage.? Know why this date is important to them, so that you can use it and leverage it in the future.

?Create a Sales Risk Register.? Thousands of sellers will give you hundreds of reasons why a given deal will close.? Personally, I liked to throw in the questions: “Can you run me through the risks that might mean this deal will NOT close?? It’s not meant to catch anyone out, but it is intended to look at every deal from all angles.?

·????? Could the budget be re-assigned??

·????? What other projects are competing for this same budget (even if it’s not in your area)?

·????? Do we actually know the person who signs it off??

·????? Have we met them and others and understood anything about their preferences??? (We’ve all experienced a shock or two in these circumstances.)

·????? Is there any urgency or could they just as easily close it with us in 8 weeks time?

?What we are getting at here is the difference between a ‘Win’ and a ‘Close’. ?One of my clients recently learned a few things when his business was awarded a contract to deliver a solution.? But the Purchase Order took another 22 months.? Win and Close.? Another client had all the assurances of a customer making a major enterprise purchase after a year’s selling work and just waiting for the PO. And then the call came that the whole contract got canned, the very day the PO was expected.? With the benefit of hindsight, they could see that this was entirely predictable 6 months earlier.

?Sometimes there will be unavoidable events such as in this example, but we must always ask and learn.?Could we have seen this earlier if we had been more rigorous? It’s all part of the discipline and laying down of markers with your customer.? Timing, Compelling Events, Benefits, Impact of delays, Stakeholder engagement, Budget and many other factors need to have been studied in order to avoid such a disappointment.

And notice something, I have not included features and functions in this list.? The focus (as per Part I) is about the Value.

Even when everything looks good, you’ve had all the re-assurances and the right people appear to be engaged in getting you the PO you want, take time out to be your own devil’s advocate.? Forget positivity for a few moments and re-examine anything and everything that could be a risk.? ??

As I mentioned above, personally I have heard Sellers reel off a hundred reasons why a deal will close.?Frequently I am in the habit of asking the Seller to give me 5 reasons why it may not.? We all have the experience of last-minute disappointment and want to avoid it.? Do your ‘Sales Cycle Risk Register’ (I have capitalised this because I view it as essential though not everyone actually does it) and try to eliminate the unclosed win.

Conclusion

These musings are not exhaustive and those who have followed ‘SPIN Selling’ and the ‘Challenger Sale’ disciplines will reflect many of the same ideas, theories, and possible actions.? No approach is 100% right.? Selling is not a science though we should be trying every day to be as scientific as possible. There are many ways to get the job done.? Above all, use your personality.? Being personable, humble, open, consultative, engaged and committed can cover a wealth of errors.? Your customer will permit mistakes if genuine character and intent is obvious.?

The majority of the personal gains I made for myself in the past 10—12 years are a result of learning and practicing the points I’ve brought out in this Trilogy. The privilege of working with salespeople who mastered the art of doing as little as possible but getting deals over the line (you know who you are!).? ?And salespeople who worked endlessly to cover all angles, paranoid about the risks and spending days and nights going over and over the detail for that final Purchase Order.? Not everyone can do it.? It requires levels of resilience, tenacity, and a studious attention to detail to remain consistently successful.

In the paragraphs above I have shared the thoughts, ideas and experiences that struck me over time and helped me become what I am now.? This is not a ‘Bible’ or a book on selling.? You can probably add another dozen stories of your own.? Good scientific approaches to find the answers whilst realising it can never be entirely scientific. ?But it can be great fun and immensely satisfying.?

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