1. Rapport & Credibility Build

Most sales reps are amicable enough types, with the skill to easily form a somewhat superficial new business relationship. However, the ability to establish a real & trusted connection with key contacts at the client is a higher-level skill and much less common. This skill separates the top 5 percent of achievers from the rest of the selling world.

So what does it mean to form a real & trusted connection? It all comes down to how quickly your rep moves from the kind of schmoozy, superficial connection to a deeper relationship with the client. They do this by making a personal and professional connection – both are important.

By doing this, your rep will gain superior insight into all aspects about the client’s process (key personalities & perspectives involved, major pain points, risks, opportunities, etc.). Your rep is spending more time with the contacts at the prospect, and that time is providing richer and better information than the competition.

Moving to the Trusted Advisor role with the client. The personal connection is easy for most reps. It’s all about finding areas of common interest (family, interests, hobbies, etc.). The personal connection is really “table stakes” in the process. If your rep is having problems in this area, they should likely consider a different career choice – it’s a success killer.

However, many reps spend too much time on the personal (real) connection and not nearly enough on the professional (trusted) connection, which is also highly detrimental to success. The professional connection involves getting to know the client’s business, their overall business objectives and the people involved and their perspectives – it’s essentially getting deep insight into the dynamics of the evaluation and decision process. Top sales reps show their industry knowledge by asking the right questions, thereby teasing out critical information that will be used throughout the sales process. The prospect has a strong feeling that your rep “really knows their stuff” which allows them to transition to a trusted advisor role. Once a rep has achieved trusted advisor status, they have gained a key advantage over the rest of the competition, giving your solution the inside track and an easier path to success.

2. Discovery

During the discovery phase, your rep gathers all the information necessary to conduct successful product demonstrations and to build a compelling business case for the decision team. Many reps struggle with the discovery phase, because it requires the patience to ask the right questions and to truly listen to the client. It’s a mixture of research, follow-up questions and some limited selling. This is inherently difficult for the bottom 95% who just want to sell, sell, sell.

Any top-tier solution provider will have a well thought out and organized discovery form that their reps should use as a template (more to come on this document in a future article). The discovery document should be broken down in the following areas:

The key to optimizing the discovery process is to make sure that 80+ percent of the time your rep is asking intelligent (open-probe questions), which get the client to open up and be more transparent about the evaluation process, pain areas, etc. The rep’s job in this phase is to tease out more and more valuable information through initial questions and intelligent follow-up questions.

Asking effective follow-up questions is not easy in the heat of the battle – this is where a rep’s industry/product knowledge are key. By developing the skill of effective follow-up questions, the prospect begins to trust in the rep’s knowledge, allowing the rep to gain that “trusted advisor” status. The result is a rich tapestry of information to build the business case on. Too often, the rep wants to launch into long-winded sales pitches (phone or in person), which turns the client off and the invisible sales rep shields go up. It’s not about showing the client how much you know or how good your product is, it’s about listening and gaining critical information that will be instrumental later in the sales cycle.

Pain Area Identification – current inefficiencies and associated pain are the most information to take away from the discovery process. Uncovering inefficiencies will be critical to forming the business case through product demonstrations and any ROI (Return on Investment) analysis you put in front of the decision team. Inefficiencies fall into the categories of productivity (hours), added cost/profitability, risk and lack of information for decision making. Its critical that discovery uncovers clear examples of pain that your solution effectively addresses. Clients generally won’t enter a change process without the clear idea of how the solution will improve performance and profitability.

3. Product Demonstrations

Many sales campaigns are won or lost during this critical phase of the selling process. Product demos fall into 2 categories:

1. Overview or Inspirational Demos
2. In-depth Due-Diligence Demos

Both types have very clear goals and objectives, and the sales campaign hinges on absolute excellence in each area. Too many companies spend too much money finding qualified opportunities, only to stumble making the business case for their solution during this phase.

Overview or Inspirational Demos – these demos are an effective way for clients to pre-screen solutions in order to short-list 2 or 3 products for the in-depth presentations. Overview demos typically last 1-2 hours and may or may not involve decision makers.

The big mistake many vendors make is taking these presentations too lightly and not allocating the right resources for success. It is very common for the sales rep to provide these overview demos, which can be risky depending on their experience and product knowledge. A mediocre overview product demo can cause elimination from the finals, even though you may have the best solution for the client. Alternatively, a top-notch overview demo can inspire the client and put your team on a very strong trajectory to win the business.

Dos’ and don’ts about overview demos:

In-depth Due-Diligence Demos – these demos take much more time and prep work to effectively manage and excel at. In this step, the client brings in stakeholders who will be using the solution to get their “read” on how they feel it will work in daily use. Getting the enthusiastic buy-in from these groups is pivotal to winning the business, requiring significant research (discovery) and prep time to ensure these users have a great experience and give your solution the top grade.

Preparation is key – in-depth demos can last hours or even days, so you must draw on your discovery data to make sure these users feel their work-life will be significantly improved with your solution. It’s easy to get bogged down in details, making it critical that you make a clear and effective case for a specific feature, then move on. If end users feel the solution is overly complex or confusing, your proverbial goose is cooked. Your presentation team should act like a group of experienced trial lawyers, making the most clear and compelling case possible, while avoiding landmines - or at least minimizing them. Typically, solution engineers are presenting the in-depth feature set and answering questions. However, the sales rep must stay engaged in order to manage the presentation and take constant reads on how the presentation is being received.

Raising the bar on your competitors through a Business Case Study – it requires more preparation and work, but many top-tier solution providers will ask for sample data from the client in order to make the demo even more relevant and easy to understand. Clients react very favorably to seeing their data flowing through the system, making it much easier for them to understand key features of your solution. Showing the client’s data moving through your solution helps the client better visualize the solution, reducing confusion and lowering the learning curve. Case Studies, if done correctly, help increase buy- in and reduce resistance to change.

4. Making The Business Case

Many companies don’t understand this phase of the sales process, or they don’t make a compelling business case in order to win the business. Most sales professionals would agree that the number 1 competitor is: “do nothing” or “status quo”. In many of these opportunities, the solution provider did not make a compelling business case to decision makers relative to the investment. Companies by their very nature have competing investment priorities. If you don’t make an effective business case for your solution, you will lose to a competitor, to other unrelated business priorities, or to simply inaction on the part of the client. This outcome is extremely prevalent in high value sales.

The key to making an effective business case is to tie the pain (inefficiencies) during the discovery process to quantifiable outcomes using your solution. Often, this is referred to as ROI (Return on Investment). However, there are risks to your credibility, and ultimately whether you succeed, if the client doesn’t buy into your ROI methodology and assumptions. Your ROI presentation must be reasonable and understandable, otherwise the client simply won’t believe your business case. ROI business cases fall into these categories:

The most commonly used ROI category is: Productivity. During discovery, it is critical to understand the client’s key business process (workflows) as well as how long and what resources are involved in completing the process. Once you’ve documented the processes at the client, you can then show how your solution is working at clients who use your solution. By showing real-world client examples, you gain the credibility that the solution will indeed provide the benefits touted. Business owners will rarely make a significant investment without some proof that their investment will return the results expected.

Intangible ROI – don’t underestimate the power of intangible ROI (i.e. better business insights, risk reduction). Most decision makers have a fundamental need for better control and visibility in their businesses in order to reduce risk, and this type of ROI can be very compelling on an emotional level. Intangible ROI is best used in conjunction with productivity ROI examples to optimize the overall business case.

Client Success Stories & Reference Checking - most clients want to see examples (or speak with) companies that are similar to theirs before making a final decision. This step can dramatically help ease concerns, creating a clear path forward to the purchase. However, many vendors struggle by providing mediocre (less than fully satisfied customers) or clients who do not fit the profile of the prospective client. Both of these failures can be deal killers, and it is critical that the reference phase gets the prospect excited about your solution. A bad or mediocre reference can delay (or kill) a deal, and it is very difficult to recover from a misstep here. Note: call or email your reference customers and give them good background on the opportunity and who will be calling from the client. This is professional and will help your customer provide the best reference possible. Never – hand out blanket reference lists as client temperatures and satisfaction levels can change.

5. Getting Over the Finish Line

If your sales organization has done a stellar job during phases 1-4, you have certainly put your company to be in the best possible position for success. However, there is some basic selling process “hygiene” tasks necessary to make sure you get the decision you want in the timeframe you want. These tasks are as follows:

1. Trial Closing
2. Remaining Steps
3. Decision Path
4. Risk Identification

Trial Closing – this is a commonly misunderstood skill in the sales process. Many reps confuse Trial Closing with asking for the order (Closing) – a very overrated step of the process. Trial closing is essentially checking in with the client after each key event in the sales process (overview demo, in-depth demo, ROI, references, etc.) to make sure that the solution is the leading contender at the prospect. We trial-close by asking a series of open-probe questions in order to ensure our solution is the leader and that any concerns are uncovered. If the client hesitates or equivocates, or worst case says our solution is number 2 or 3 in the eyes of prospect, we know we have significant work to do. If this happens, it is absolutely critical to document any concerns and determine a game plan to address in the best way possible. The earlier you hear about concerns, the better your chances are of addressing. Hearing about concerns later in the sales cycle must be avoided, if at all possible, because you may not have time to properly address.

If the client readily agrees that our solution is number 1, we have greater confidence in forecasting the business for upper management. However, your solution may be considered the best of all the options reviewed, and the client still doesn’t feel you’ve made a compelling business case. If this happens, you must go back and shore up the business case, and trial-close again to see if the client is comfortable. A sales rep should rarely get a surprise relative to the client’s final decision. In fact, the final decision should be somewhat anticlimactic. Effective trial closing is one of the most important skills for top 5 percent sales reps, and they religiously trial-close to ensure they understand where they are at relative to their pipeline of business.

Remaining Steps – most reps are inherently optimistic and commonly underestimate the remaining steps to finalize a sale. In order to document remaining steps, your main contact has to be transparent about what has to be done to sign the order. The larger the client, typically the more steps there are. Documenting remaining steps, and getting the client to agree on the timeframe to complete is absolutely critical to accurately forecasting the amount and timeframe associated with the sale. Reps are judged by upper management on the accuracy of their forecasting, so this skill is critical.

Decision Path – too many reps get caught by not understanding the decision path. This is the exact series of approvals and people who will have to sign-off on the order. In larger companies, there may be a board approval step, which can seriously delay the decision timeframe. There is also risk if additional approvers are identified at the end of the sales cycle. Does the rep understand who these people are, and what their attitudes are relative to the investment in the solution? Deals can definitely get derailed by a decision maker who is inserted later in the process, and who hasn’t participated in product demonstrations, ROI presentations, etc. The goal is to gain a clear understanding of the path and to eliminate surprises.

Risk Identification – even if a sales process is proceeding as planned, there can be risks that can derail the decision. Top tier sales reps have candid conversations with their clients to try to uncover hidden risks so that they can address if at all possible. There are 49 ways to lose or (delay) a purchase and only one critical path to the successful culmination of an order. Its critical to stay vigilant to risk areas as they will inevitably happen.

Summary

Managing a high-tech sales process involves strong interpersonal and relationship building skills. However, applying in-depth research about the client’s needs and pain areas in order to create the most compelling presentations and business case documentation, are even more important to ensure success. Top 5 percent sales reps are truly the quarterbacks of their opportunities, and their ability to coordinate and manage the myriad of steps and details and marshal the necessary resources is the key to higher win rates and success. It takes an exceptional, organized and motivated individual to win in this zero-sum game.