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The New Solution Selling. The Revolutionary Sales Process That is Changing the Way People Sell Authors: Eades K. M. Published year: 2003 Pages: 68-70/106 |
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ADVANCE THE EVALUATION PLAN: SUCCESS CRITERIA
One item on the suggested Evaluation Plan that deserves special attention is Measure Success Criteria. The objective of putting together a list of Success Criteria is to determine if and when a project is successful. The approach is straightforward: It establishes a baseline and measures how business is done before your solution is implemented, monitors the postsale results, calculates the delta (the improvement), and then reports the findings.
Success Criteria identifies specific elements that the buyer and salesperson agree will be impacted and that should be measured once the capabilities have been implemented. It could be one or two items or it could be a long list, but it’s essential that they be measurable. The actual criteria are mostly derived from information uncovered during the vision processing conversations and the elements defined in the value justification.
Establishing Success Criteria helps salespeople in multiple ways. Initially, it helps to establish credibility and trust—key ingredients in any relationship. It’s important for the salesperson to let the customer know that he or she isn’t going away, that the salesperson is interested in the customer’s overall success, not just in making the initial sale. Success Criteria allow the salesperson to put a stake in the ground to measure against postsell. It’s often hard to go back and get baseline metrics after the sale is closed.
I recommend that you measure performance quarterly, though this may vary depending on your customers’ business. Look at the example of a Success Criteria chart in Appendix A.
YOUR SUCCESS DEPENDS ON YOUR CUSTOMER’S SUCCESS
There are important benefits to establishing Success Criteria during the evaluation process and then measuring to determine the amount of success later on. When your customers achieve a measurable change in their business, it’s a success for them and it’s also a success for you. Their success becomes a Reference Story that you can leverage.
Reference Stories tell of other customers who reduced costs or increased profits by a specific amount because they used your capabilities. The best way to obtain these compelling results is to determine the elements to measure during the evaluation process and, postsale, follow up and measure them on an ongoing basis. Today’s success becomes tomorrow’s Reference Story.
Chapter Thirteen: Closing: Reaching Final Agreement
Overview
I was asked to speak at a company’s national sales meeting held near Tampa, Florida. I was warned that the president was very strong willed and that I should solicit his input for my speech. I called the company in advance to discuss my participation so that I could better support the theme of the meeting and the president’s message.
Because of the president’s schedule, we had a difficult time meeting before the event, but he agreed to pick me up at the airport on the day of the event so we could have thirty to forty-five minutes to talk during the drive from the airport to the meeting.
After we exchanged pleasantries, I asked him, “What message is important for me to deliver to your salespeople?”
He turned and looked at me, taking his eyes completely off the road, scaring me half to death. He said, “Keith, the one thing they really need help with is closing. They need to learn how to ask for the order and close more sales. I want your message to be close early, close often, and do not take ‘no’ for an answer.”
He concluded his minitirade by hitting his clenched fist against the steering wheel, emphasizing the point, and asked, “Can you do this?”
What should I say to this man? I thought. After all, I don’t believe in the approach he was describing, and that was certainly not what I planned on speaking about. I pondered the question, Do I tell him now, or do I wait? After all, it was very close to the time I had to go onstage and speak. However, being true to myself and true to what I believe in, I looked at him and said, “That’s not my philosophy on closing and that’s not what I had planned on speaking about.”
“What do you mean, that’s not your philosophy on closing?” he said.
I confidently said, “I don’t believe in nor do I teach people to close the way you’re describing.”
“Let me get this straight. You’re a sales consultant and a sales trainer and you don’t teach people how to close?”
Before I could respond, he said, “Why did we fly you down here, agree to pay you a lot of money, and ask you to be our keynote speaker if you’re not going to talk about closing?”
I could tell he was more than a little agitated. I figured I had better start to explain the logic behind my statement before he pulled the car over to the side of the road. I said to him, “I do have every intention of talking to your people about how to successfully close opportunities; however, my focus won’t be on this big event at the end of a sell cycle that everyone refers to as ‘the close.’” He began to calm down. Looking at me with a puzzled grin, he said, “Please continue.”
So I did. I said, “I believe that closing should be the natural evolution of the sales process. If everything is done well throughout the sales process, then the close becomes almost a nonevent. When salespeople have problems closing, it’s usually because of something they did or didn’t do earlier in the sales process.”
He didn’t say anything, but his nodding head provided me the approval I was looking for. Knowing that I had his attention, I continued , “Don’t get me wrong—I’ve been in plenty of negotiations near the end of a sale where closing the deal was a challenge. I think of those situations as hurdles associated with reaching a final agreement. No matter what your sales process looks like or the steps you’ve taken prior to the end of the sale, having to deal with obstacles and hurdles near the end are inevitable. I do plan on sharing thoughts around those types of circumstances with your people today.” A relieved look appeared on his face.
I further explained to him that sales research has verified that there is a direct correlation between the effectiveness of closing techniques and the size of the price of the item being purchased. In other words, the pressure associated with closing techniques works better when the price of the item is low and the impact of the decision on the buyer is not so great. On the other hand, closing techniques appear to be less effective and in fact harmful with expensive and major-impact purchases.
My comments on the research got his attention, because his company developed and sold higher-priced strategic application systems. I then asked, “How do you feel when you know that someone is using a closing technique on you?” He sheepishly said, “I don’t like it.”
The keynote address was a hit. The president hired us to help him implement Solution Selling.
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The New Solution Selling. The Revolutionary Sales Process That is Changing the Way People Sell Authors: Eades K. M. Published year: 2003 Pages: 68-70/106 |
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