Shooting the sheep

SHOOT THE SHEEP

The recipe to a successful sale often comes down to the final presentation. That’s the one that keeps salespeople awake at night and more often than not gets them to involve some one more senior to run a part of the race that gets you through the last couple of meters.

You’ve been working on the account for months, understanding the business, getting to know the people, identifying the value leaks and applying your mind to the solution – vital steps in the process that you can only gain from going the entire journey. Are you willing to entrust the last part of the entire process to someone else?

Please don’t misunderstand me, senior players play a critical role in the sale. However, you’ve been on the journey and you know what’s going to get you the business.

From a customer’s perspective, you’ve sold your capabilities throughout the entire process – but now you can’t present the results? Where does that place you in their mindset?

There are orders takers where this process works nicely but if you are selling a solution “it’s not just what you do it’s how you go about doing it” (Basil Hersov).

I posted an article a couple of weeks ago that attempts to draw attention to the importance of the start of the sales process – make a statement, create an expectation and if you can’t do that then sales is not for you. It’s your income and too get to that stage means you are doing something right. It’s your customer – lead the charge and take the Bull by the horns.

AND?

What should you not be doing?

Templates are a sales person’s biggest enemy. If you are working off templates then you either don’t fully understand what the customer wants, you’re lazy, you lack confidence, you are forced to conform to Company Culture (I challenge a corporate to debate this with me ) or you view sales as a journey to where you want to be.

Your company history, financial stability, products / solutions on the table and your performance management process – with case studies and referrals seem to be a typical presentation template. Does it separate you? Does a 50 page document grab your customer’s attention? Do they even look at it –you’ve been working with them for sometime – if they haven’t done a due diligence then, quite frankly, they won’t respect your solution.

Depending on the industry, your percentage chance of winning is equally shared amongst your competitor’s, because you haven’t clearly defined differentiation. You’ve started the process by being different but does the same relate to the rest of the journey?

What should you be doing?

1. Throw away the template.
2. Know your customer, the challenge they face and how you plan to solve it.
3. Take the responsibility on your shoulders.
4. DON’T EVER START APRESENTATION WITH DETAILS OF YOUR OWN COMPANY – THAT CAN COME AS SUPPORT DETAIL.
5. Tell a story – something has led to their challenge, start with a general story around that issue.
6. Use that base to zone in at the impact on their business.
7. Describe your proposed solution.
8. Quantify the change to THEIR balance sheet.
9. Propose the implementation propose and timelines.
10. Make sure your Ops Director is confident his team can deliver.

In summary, a professional sales person owns the entire process, if you don’t have the confidence then you have two options:

1. Get coaching.
2. Realize that it may not be the right role for you and speak to your manager.