eBusiness Weekly
Sales Corking
The idea of any business growth or sales development is to make sure teams understand the process of sales. Questions which are objective, simple in nature are used here to get a clearer understanding of what drives sales from a consumer perspective. We take the baton from where we left off in last week’s article.
- How did you feel about the timing of our sales process? When did you start investigating a new product/service?
How it helps: Nobody likes to be left hanging, but they also don’t want to feel rushed along. A process that’s too slow or too fast will deter sales. It is vital to know after six months what the perfect timing to make a sale is for a customer and when to move on during the buying journey.
Next steps: Here’s another area that has implications for the buyer’s journey. If your company doesn’t understand the length or the amount of steps in buyers’ research and decision processes, your sales team is bound to present the wrong information at the wrong time. If you sense that your timing was an issue, follow up with the second question to uncover the time-frame of the prospect’s project. If a time trend emerges among several prospects, adjust your pacing accordingly.
- How do you feel about our road map? Is there anything we’re missing?
How it helps: It’s possible that you didn’t win or lose based on anything your team presented today. Adopting a new product or service is a significant change management undertaking for organisations, and one they’re not eager to repeat a few months down the line when they realise their choice wasn’t such a great fit.
Next steps: If road map concerns were a primary reason a prospect signed on with a competitor, direct their concerns back to your management team to possibly adjust your development agenda. If the road map was a primary reason a prospect chose your company, relay this feedback to parties involved in future offers to ensure you can deliver.
- What is your decision making process like?
How it helps: Especially at mid-market and enterprise-sized companies, buying is a complex process that involves multiple parties. It is entirely possible that one person, say the Head Buyer, could be 100 percent on board with your product, but procurement vetoed the deal. Don’t lose out as a result of neglecting to get all the key stakeholders together.
Next Steps: Identify and round up all relevant parties the next time your team presents to a similar company in terms of size or industry. Address each person’s specific needs; what a Director wants is not necessarily the same with what procurement is looking for.
- How would you rate our product/service? What in particular did you like or dislike?
How it helps: Since salespeople are the employees explicitly tasked with closing new business, they often get blamed when a deal goes awry. But it’s rough to shoulder the blame if it’s not really your fault. Diving into the product or service features can expose issues out of the sales team’s control.
Next steps: Relay any feature feedback to your development team.
- Why did/didn’t you decide to buy now?
How it helps: In B2B sales, you’re not just competing against rival companies; you’re also combating the dreaded lack of a decision. Understanding why a prospect did or didn’t buy can bring to light trigger events or deal -derailing problems that your team may not have been aware of.
Next steps: Incorporate any new trigger events into your sales research process. Develop plans to pro-actively address and draw-out issues that could put off a decision.
- What’s the one thing you would advise us to change for next time?
How it helps: Win or lose, you should always be seeking feedback from prospects.
Next steps: Take comments to heart, and execute.
- What was the biggest difference between us and the other solutions you considered?
How it Helps: This is a more tactful way of asking: “Why did/didn’t you choose us over our competitor?” It opens the door for your prospect to share what differentiated you from other solutions in your space, for better or for worse.
Next steps: If you’re missing a feature your competitor has and losing business regularly because of it, take that data to the product offering team. If people love your pricing structure, use that as a reason not to experiment with a new pricing plan this quarter. Listen to your clients/prospects and implement what they have to say when you identify trends, all within reasonable limits.
The questions in this and the preceding article as mentioned are far from being exhaustive, however they do act as a guide in performing any sales win/loss appraisal successfully.
“The views given herein are intended solely for information purposes; They are guidelines and suggestions but are in no way guaranteed.’’
Robert Gonye is a Business Growth Expert and Influencer. He writes in his personal capacity. Comments and views :[email protected]
