Sales cycles and specifically opportunities often take on a life of their own. It can become difficult to assess where we are in terms of a specific sales methodology or process. We may have achieved a specific milestone on paper, but find ourselves in a very different situation in the real world of a competitive sales campaign.
When this happens, our sales methodologies and processes often break down, and deals get stuck. Our sales cycles lengthen, allowing competitors in and we often attempt to take a smaller deal off the table just to make something happen. The effect snowballs into deep discounting, resulting in smaller deals, longer sales cycles, and lower win ratios.
In order to break this cycle, the last thing that we need is a new sales methodology or process. Instead, we need a mechanism that will help us assess an opportunity at various stages in a sales cycle, a mechanism that will lead us to take actions appropriate to moving the deal forward without jeopardizing our revenue stream.
The five key elements to winning a sales opportunity can be used with any of the accepted sales methodologies in use today. These 5 elements are like light switches that must be turned on in order to reach our goal. When we use these elements to look at an opportunity, it should be very clear as to which ones are on and which ones are off. You can then use your own sales methodology to address the missing elements, always driving towards the finish line.
We can express the five elements as questions that only require a yes “on” or no “off” answer. They are listed in the order that they typically occur, but can, and often do, occur in a seemingly random manner. Any of the elements could be the problem, depending on the dynamics of your current situation. The five elements are listed as questions below:
- Can our respective teams and companies work together?
- Does my client have real business issues that my offerings can solve?
- Is there sufficient value in solving these issues?
- Does my client believe that they will be successful in deploying my solution?
- Have I proposed a fair deal?
If we can answer yes to all of the questions, there should be nothing in the way of our deal. I will explore each element in more detail in future posts. These simple questions can be the key to not only winning deals, but for allocating resources, managing sales teams and moving stalled deals forward.
-Bruce A. Brien, CEO, Stratascope Inc.
