CLOSING SKILLS
3. Reps fail to understand the impact of proposed solutions on both prospect companies and individuals making buy decisions. “It’s not just the ROI or cost sav- ing for the company, but also the impact on individuals.”
4. Reps have expended selling ef- forts on people who cannot buy. “The person may not have the authority or ability to make the buying decision. They have not found the right decision maker because they have gotten too comfortable and cozy with the person they have access to.”
How to Boost Closing Rates HENRY CANADAY
Clients often tell Julie Thomas, president and CEO of ValueSelling, they have one big problem. They have great initial meetings and successful demos – and prospects appear to love them – yet, when they send in a proposal, “It’s suddenly crickets, dead silence, no response.”
Thomas says those crickets often chirp because salespeople jump way too quickly to proposals and then have very low closing rates. “They are trying to close unqualified opportuni- ties,” Thomas says. “Critical steps have been missed in the sales cycle; the prospect is not ready to make a decision. Closing is just the outcome of a well-executed sales cycle.” There are five key reasons that
reps can’t close a deal. 1. The prospect has been given no compelling reason to make
28 | APRIL 2020 SELLING POWER © 2020 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.
changes required by the sale. All competent reps are good at find- ing prospect problems or pain points, “but not all problems are created equal – some business problems may not be worth solv- ing,” Thomas says.
2. Reps have not sufficiently differ- entiated their companies’ prod- ucts or services from competi- tive alternatives. The prospect may be confused and select an alternative supplier or solve the problem in-house.
5. Prospects perceive too much risk in adopting reps’ solutions, even if they like the rep and the con- cepts proposed. “They are not convinced they can introduce the solution into their environ- ment without too much risk,” Thomas explains. “The rep has to mitigate the risk with a pilot, a trial, a proof of concept, or a customer reference.” The best reps notice when they have missed any of these steps. “The best reps dismiss the unwin- nable opportunities sooner rather than later,” Thomas says. “Then they find new opportunities.” In contrast, Thomas recalls a client who told her that any opportunity that stayed in the pipeline more than 100 days almost never closed. It just made the rep feel good and kept the rep busy with lots of activ- ity when the rep should have been pursuing other opportunities. ValueSelling teaches all reps how to
ensure no steps are missed. Gener- ally, the remedy for low closing rates is spending more time upfront, doing thorough discovery, understanding prospects’ business problems, and seeing that all decision makers and decision influencers have been identi- fied and engaged.
For more information contact Julie Thomas, president and CEO of ValueSelling Associ- ates, at
julie.thomas@
valueselling.com.
NICOELNINO /
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
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