Over? Over?

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?  Oops, wrong movie! No actually the word today is Optimism and Over-Optimism. As salespeople we have all been raised to being optimistic about life. Otherwise you woudn't get up and do this job every day. And most have heard every motivational speaker talk about optimism. My father-in-law would come to breakfast every day and yell "I feel great!" and make us yell it too. The curious thing is that after you yelled it, you did feel great!

Positive mental attitude is important for salespeople and entrepreneurs. But in a complex sale with multiple decision makers, politics and competition can cause some disappointing surprises. In research of over 1800 companies by CSO Insights this year, they report that only 46.3% of forecasted deals actually close.  Forecasted deals! Roughly a quarter of the lost pipeline is to competitors and the rest to no action with anybody.

This is one of the lowest performing areas of business. If airlines allowed this failure rate there would only be one plane flying at the end of 30 days - and they would probably lose your luggage.

What is needed is a healthy dose of critical thinking in strategy reviews with the front-line sales manager who can find blind spots, challenge assumptions, help read the politics and competition, and help refine an action strategy to win.

If you have a losing plan, from whom do you want the bad news? Your competitor or the customer? CSO Insights also says that organizations that do this well see an average of 11% more wins and less turnover from failing salespeople. Yes it takes time, but nothing wastes more time than pursuing a deal and finishing second!

But many sales managers either don't think it's their job or don't know how to coach a deal. We polled successful sales managers we know to ask them what questions they ask to coach a competitive, political solution sale. There were over 50!

That's too complicated some reps will say. That's what it takes to win, I say. Of course you wouldn't ask all 50. There are 12 questions that you should ask in reviewing every deal. If you aren't confident of the plan in that area, then you drill down. It could take only 5 minutes or it could take all day. More experienced eyes can increase your odds of finishing first.