What’s YOUR “Strength of Sale?”

In a recent conversation with a sales executive at a global firm, he commented, “our biggest problem in sales is understanding, realistically, what the status of our sales opportunities actually are. The word realistically is hardly understated or anecdotal – annual research conducted by CSO Insights reveals that only about 50% of forecasted opportunities actually close and almost half of salespeople (46.2%) need improvement in qualifying opportunities.
  
Do you know What YOUR Strength of Sale is?In essence, sales organizations are not very good at objectively assessing the probabilities of winning sales opportunities. By default, they spend more that 50% of their precious selling time on opportunities that are lost to competition or to “no decision.” There’s also a subtle, deeper problem with this issue. What the research is really telling us is that sales organizations are not applying process and structure to selling on a consistent basis, so they have no real way to understand where sales “quality” problems exist, and how to address them. The situation is analogous to the old marketing joke, “We waste 50% of our budget on advertising - we’re just not sure what half.”
 
Part of the problem is that the traditional BANT (budget, authority, need, timeframe) model for assessing sales opportunities is often inadequate for qualification purposes. To that end, we’ve developed a free mobile learning module for smartphones called The Successful Sales Formula™.

The Successful Sales Formula™, a mobile learning module (Solution Selling mlearning) provides an introduction to a more structured approach to realistically qualify your sales opportunities. While this mobile lesson is a simplified version of what is taught in our formal training programs, it provides the starting point for something we call “Strength of Sale” - a  more objective framework for understanding the overall quality of an opportunity. In addition, following this model also encourages proven best practices for navigating and winning sales opportunities (or exiting opportunities that are a waste of time and effort). 

To access the free learning module, sales people can register on their smart phones at www.spisales.com/mobile under the Mobile Learning section. Following registration (or login if you are already registered), you can immediately begin the lesson, and return as often as needed to revisit key concepts. After taking the mobile learning course, you can apply the concepts using a simple “Strength of Sale™” application (Flash-based app usable on your PC or laptop). From your PC, click here to access >>>

This is just the beginning. In early 2012, we’ll be introducing innovative, easy-to-use software and tools that will allow almost any sales organization to learn and apply best practices for selling on a daily basis. In the interim, have fun with the free application - share and compare YOUR Strength of Sale™ with others in the sales community.

Solution Selling Essentials: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Parts of this post adapted from the Solution Selling Fieldbook (2005, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 978-0071456074) by Eades, Touchstone and Sullivan.

According to the latest survey of sales managers conducted by CSO Insights, almost half of salespeople (46.2%) need improvement in qualifying opportunities.

Salespeople’s Ability to Qualify Opportunities
(Copyright 2009, CSO Insights, used with permission.)

Although many managers believe their sales teams have a problem with qualifying new opportunities, we find that most salespeople have a bigger problem - they are increasingly reluctant to disqualify opportunities that they have been working on for a while.  That is, many salespeople wait far too long to qualify themselves out of deals that are going sour, especially when their pipelines are lean.  As a result, they waste their most precious resource - their time - in bad opportunities that they can’t win.

Both qualification and disqualification are important skills for sales professionals to master.  The skill of qualification is the ability to help bring an opportunity to an established standard - one where the salesperson has a good chance to win the business. Disqualification is the ability to disengage from an opportunity, if it does not meet the standard.

Why do too few salespeople disqualify out of bad deals?  We have found that most salespeople don’t understand what the standards should be to make a good decision to engage or disengage.

The biggest myth of qualification

We often ask salespeople this question: “What elements make an opportunity qualified?” Without too much variance, the answers we hear most often are:

• Budget – the project is funded
• Authority – a decision maker is in place within the prospective buyer’s organization
• Need / fit – your offerings match the list of requirements
• Timeframe – the prospective buyer has identified a date that the purchase decision must be made

Some people refer to these four elements simply as “BANT”. This is useful information, to be sure – BANT elements are very important in any selling engagement. However, using BANT as your sole qualification method may cause you to stay in opportunities that are better qualified for someone else. If a buyer can give you answers to these four elements, then they probably can tell you the answer to the more important fifth question – who they have already decided to buy from. If they already have a clear idea of BANT elements in their head, they must be “down the road a bit” in their buying process, and you are arriving into the opportunity late.

In other words, if a prospect can clearly describe their BANT elements for you, then you are most likely not in first place.  In fact, you are probably way behind.

So, should salespeople automatically walk away from deals in which prospects can articulate BANT?  Not necessarily.  Important information around “BANT” is critical for a salesperson to discover during a sell cycle, but real opportunity qualification should include some additional criteria as well.  BANT only provides some of the picture of a sales opportunity.  To qualify in or disqualify out, we need some additional information.

The Successful Sales Formula

The formula below expands the basis for qualifying opportunities. In addition to BANT, if you don’t have an affirmative answer to each variable, then the chance of a successful sale is zero.

Pain x Power x Vision x Value x Control = Sale

Let’s examine each of these elements:

• Pain - he basic principle “no pain, no change” speaks volumes about why this element is so critical to the successful sales formula. High priority pain, which also includes potential missed opportunities, helps answer the question “Is the customer likely to take action?”
• Power - simply defined, the person within the buying organization with the ability to make or influence the purchasing decision is power for this opportunity.  The questions to ask about power are: “Do we know who Power is?” and “Are we aligned with the Power people?”
• Vision – the prospective buyer must understand what your offering will allow them to do, but also be able to visualize themselves doing something different in the future.  The question to answer here is: “Does the buyer have a clear vision of how they can solve their problem with our solution?”
• Value – buyers must grasp the quantifiable value they’ll be receiving by making an investment in your offering.  The question to answer here is: “Can the customer articulate the value they will receive from our solution?”
• The term Control might sound a bit heavy-handed, but it is really about guiding your buyer to a good decision, not manipulating them. The question to answer here is: “Can we influence the buying process?”

If you don’t know the answers to any or all of these questions, then you don’t know enough to qualify yourself into the opportunity, even if you know all of the BANT elements.  Your decision to invest time and effort into the sales opportunity should depend on whether or not you can get these answers, and whether those answers favor you and your solution - or if you can influence the buyer enough to earn their favor before they make a buying decision.

Opportunity Assessment

Qualification does not happen just once – it is a continuous process. Every time you learn new information in an opportunity, reassess using the Successful Sales Formula. You may find a once-qualified opportunity become unqualified due to changes within the buying organization or other factors outside of your control. The only thing wrong about being wrong is staying wrong!

Good luck and good selling!