Are you in control of your deals…

I often see sellers and sales teams lacking control of deals: simply accepting that if the customer is not in a rush, or doesn’t focus on the deal, it will take its sweet time until they are ready. With the predictable result of deals slipping.

This happens for two reasons.

1. A Supplicant Mindset: Sales professionals can perceive themselves as subordinate to their customers, believing that their role is merely to serve. As a result, they hesitate to challenge the customer’s timeline or priorities.

2. Lack of Structure: Without a defined process to guide the deal, customers lack accountability for their actions or progress. This leads to delays and uncertainty.

I constantly preach that sellers are peers with prospects and customers. Your time is as valuable as theirs; you should be treated with the same respect that you treat them. Things which are important to you and your company are also important in the conversation. You can share your goal to get a deal done by a certain timeframe. You can explain that it is important to maintain a certain size of project or level of commitment. If they are not able to respect your needs, they should not expect you to respect theirs.

THE POWER OF A GO-LIVE PLAN

The best way to fix the second issue is one of my favourite responses: create a structured process which you always follow. In this case, I recommend a Go-live plan (to use the MEDDICC terminology).

Critically, THIS IS A SHARED PLAN, with owners, due dates and status which is worked on by you and your prospect.

Once it is created you review it on a regular basis – likely weekly – with your Champion. You should review it with the Economic Buyer monthly. This forces your prospect to make commitments, allocate resources, or explain why they won’t. If they are turning up to the meetings and making no progress, then you need to know why. Is the deal not real? Does this person not have influence? Is there a blocker somewhere that you can help with? Get the deal back on the rails, or disqualify and move on.

Note that the Go-live plan should almost certainly be created BEFORE THEY HAVE SELECTED YOU. It should be a useful tool to help them evaluate your solution, and by extension others. This will help you have input to the Decision Criteria and the Decision Process. Start by asking your Champion the approximate steps from now to the project being live. Initially, you will just have half a dozen high-level bullets, which you can agree in email, and subsequently put into a shared spreadsheet. You can then iterate this with your Champion, adding more details under each section as you move through the process. Always, always ensuring you have owners, due dates and accountability.