10 Questions Than Reveal What You Must Do To Win The Sale

The professional salesperson is a student of buying. This is particularly important at a time when buying decisions have become increasingly complex. The success of a deal depends on understanding now only how the buying decision will be made, but also the business decision that so often underlies it.

With this in mind we have put together 10 of the most important questions that salespeople need to answer in respect of each opportunity in their pipeline. Answering these questions and considering the implications of each has the potential to significantly increase your chances of success.

Questions To be Asked	Implications To be Considered
1. Who are all the stakeholders?	Do we understand the requirements of all stakeholders, not just technical, for example? How can we ensure access, without by-passing agreed channels?
2. Who are all the decision makers & influencers?	Have we had contact with all the decision makers? Do we understand their personal, as well as business drivers? How are we positioned with each?
3. Is there a clear definition of requirements?	Is the requirements definition clear? How has it been gathered? Is it complete – are there needs that we can additionally address? Has it been validated? Have requirements been prioritized, with any contradictions and tradeoffs addressed? Is the weighting of requirements reflect our strengths and minimize our weaknesses, or can be influence it to do so?
4. What is the buying process? What are the key steps? How long will it take?	How sophisticated is the buying process? What stage is the prospect at now: ·Recognition of need? · Search for a solution? · Selection of supplier?
5. What about competing projects (that includes ‘do it in-house’)?	Are there competing projects for the same budget? Could the project be delivered in-house? Could the project be delayed till next quarter, or next year? What factors will determine the selection of these options?
6. Is a business case required? What format will it take? Who will write it?	Can we provide information that will help build the business case, in terms of: Costs? Benefits? Risk? (including implementation) That includes a model to create quantify benefits and total cost of ownership.
7. What is the role of procurement?	Have we had contact with procurement? Do we understand their requirements?
8. Is there a shortlist of vendors? How many? What is the criterion?	How do we rate on the shortlist criteria? Can we help shape the criterion?
9. At what level is final sign-off required?	If this requires board level sign-off for example – how will this impact on selection? How does our proposal connect with strategy? Has our proposition being CEO proofed? Can we have access to / inform board members in advance of the decision?
10. Who is in the role of business analyst – that is the bridge between technical and business – whose role it is to create the business case?	Who has this responsibility? If there is no person (for example the IT director is creating the business case) then this raises issues regarding how the proposal will be reviewed at board level, for example.

So, for each opportunity in your pipeline, ask each of the questions outlined above, considering the implications of your answers for your next steps in managing that opportunity to the point of closing.

How to Spot Sales Opportunities in Trouble - The Tell Tale Signs

In a tighter market, there is increased pressure to maintain, if not improve win rates. This can be a challenge in the face of increased competition.

Visibility and Predictability Can Be A Challenge

Managers and their teams tell us they fell less in control of sales opportunities, or sales cycles, than at any time in the past. They complain of having less visibility and predictability in respect of what deals will close and when.

Salespeople tell us that they are increasingly taken by surprise by events and setbacks in respect of key opportunities. We know however that in many cases however results from a failure to recognize the early warning signs of a sales opportunity in trouble. To put it another way, as salespeople focused on getting the deal across the line, we fail to see when yellow and amber lights that are flashing.

You would imagine that as organisations place more attention on managing sales opportunities, including pipeline reviews surprises would be reduced. However, the nature of most opportunity, or pipeline reviews, mean that salespeople are generally not comfortable in openly expressing their concerns, or anxieties, regards an opportunity. They can certainly be reluctant to reduce the probability figure on an opportunity in the pipeline forecast.

Looking out for red lights?

Below is a list of the most common red, or yellow flags. We encourage salespeople to openly acknowledge and proactively address these issues:
• Don’t have access to stakeholders
• Don’t have all the information you need
• Covering old ground (same issues keep resurfacing)
• Salesperson is doing all the running (buyer does not complete his actions)
• Delays, setbacks, or surprises
• Last minute, or rushed changes in requirements, or specifications
• Price issue arises too early (before requirements / scope has been set)
• The temperature of the relationship appears to have suddenly changed
• You hear conflicting stories
• Credibility questions are continually being asked about your company
• You don’t have a champion / coach
• Sudden internal changes (people, priorities, mergers, etc.)
• You don't feel you are being respected (e.g. buyer turns up late for meetings, etc.)

This is a useful checklist to have by your side when reviewing pipeline opportunities. When red or yellow flags appear the salesperson must slow down and take care. Yellow and red flags are to be welcomed, this is particularly the case when they are indentified early in the sales cycle – that is in time for the underlying issues to be addressed, or for the salesperson to decide to walk away.

Pipeline Reviews - Time to Beat Up the Salesperson Again?

Its hard to believe we have half the year over. At this time of the year lots of sales people are being asked to prepare for a half year pipeline review and most are looking forward to it like a hole in the head!

Sales people, the good ones and the not so good ones will all agree that there should be processes and a system in place to review the pipeline. But what they don't want is all their hard work to be questioned and perhaps even discredited.

The easiest thing in the world is to tear somebody's pipeline apart, ask all the questions and second guess the answers. You may even feel good after doing it. But rest assured the salesperson will not. A pipeline review should be something positive and forward looking. It is not an opportunity to beat up the salesperson leaving him, or her motivated and disoriented.

So if you are about to embark on a pipeline review with your team over the next few weeks, I suggest you think about the review from the sales persons perspective. A pipeline review is the perfect forum for coaching your sales person, don't miss out on it.

With many organisations suffering from a defecit of sales opportunities as a result of the slowdown, proactively managing the opportunities that you have got is more important than ever before.

The pipeline review should:
1. Help, support and encourage them
2. Challenge the pipeline
3. Identify gaps so they can be filled
4. Share ownership for pipeline development
5. Review next actions against key opportunities
6. Focus on ensuring the sales person has the time to advance each opportunity

Yes the review should be metric driven, but to be effective you need to put yourself in the sales persons shoes. We have written a lot about team based selling and the pipeline review is an ideal opportunity to coordinate and orchestrate the efforts of your entire organisation in the advancement of the various opportunities in the pipeline.