When does a deal become a deal?

How often have you qualified a deal based on speaking with one stakeholder?

78% of reps are single-threaded on deals! It's the number one reason most sellers lose deals.

I understand the pressure we’re all under given the need for pipeline and revenue but that doesn’t mean we should take shortcuts to winning business, no matter how much the pressure for pipeline heightens.?

Is a deal really a qualified deal if you haven’t:?

1. Qualified your buyers motivations - are they committed enough to making a difference within the organisation? ?
2. Qualified the problem deep enough - did your buyer present the problem or did you uncover it through directional questioning? ?
3. Quantified the problem - has the problem been quantified in terms of cost, value and risk, to the business, and all the stakeholders you need to help the buyer obtain support from?
4. Defined purchase criteria - has the criteria of the problem been defined and potential solution options explored.?Is the definition written down.?Has the criteria been circulated with senior stakeholders to solve?
5. Executive sponsorship - has your buyer received board or executive support - and have they qualified with them if this is a top 3 priority worth solving and by when?
6. Buying process - Is your buyer familiar with the steps they need to go through to build consensus, successfully complete the purchase and retain the support needed from stakeholders, to realise the value?
7. Trust - How willing is your buyer to leverage your experience as a guide??To successfully climb Mount Everest you need a guide who’s helped others to the top successfully many times before. We think it's hard to sell complex B2B solutions, it's even harder for a buyer to buy - often stuck in loops with senior stakeholders and having to jump through many different hoops which can feel like they're climbing a tall mountain, in fierce weather conditions.

Is it clear that you have helped buyers before them climb Everest and realise the value they so eagerly want, for the next promotion, bonus or new role?

By working with you can they begin the climb with certainty of reaching the top without incident?

So how do you develop your influence among the decision making unit and appear as the trusted advisor (guide) that you are?

Step 1: develop your passive personal brand across your socials so that when your buyer comes across you, they instantly come to the conclusion YOU want them to, YOU are the guide that is proven to help them climb Everest with certainty and return home safely.

Step 2: connect with as many employees within your target account as possible, not just your primary influencers. You’re well connected in the organisation therefore you are more familiar with the business and more likely to help compared with someone who isn’t well connected in the organisation.?

Step 3: map out who your primary and secondary influencers are for your target account, get to know them, research them and insert yourself into as many social networking conversations as possible, making yourself visible to them and gradually demonstrating your influence around topics they need to address in order to climb Everest safely.

Step 4: create a variety of content that makes you stand out, look like the expert guide you are at the same time you’re a genuine, authentic person, someone who’s trustworthy and can be relied on, on the treacherous climb.?Your buyer will lean towards YOU.

Step 5: once you are deeply connected and develop a series of conversations with multiple stakeholders in each account it becomes far easier to establish strong connections and trust with potential buyers and stakeholders influencing purchase decisions. ?

Recent Example; US headquartered global AdTech business

I’m working with a Sales Director in North America who is operating a focus account territory of circa sixty accounts.

Before working with him, he and his SDR had secured one meeting in the previous four months of working together on his accounts.

After working with him for the last four and a half months they have secured:

• 30 conversations
• across 13 accounts
• engaged multiple stakeholders in each account
• averaging 2.3 meetings per account
• is the top rep in the US for pipeline growth

The traditional approach of calling, emailing and sending DM’s on social didn’t work for them.?Social Selling & Influence is, and I have no doubt he will over achieve on his quota this year, something fewer reps are doing in 2022/23.

Imagine what this could mean for you or if every sales person on your team was doing this in your organisation?

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