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Winning Every Time

Selling is an intellectual process.

Winning is all about understanding why and how we are going to win.

Think about your pipeline and choose the deal you are keenest to win.

This sale can be broken down into a number of segments.  Each segment is a discrete part of the sale.  I call these segments battlegrounds.  A critical thing to understand is that you do not have to "win" each battleground.  What is very important though is to know your situation in each battleground for this sale.  Does your sales strategy require you to "win", "draw" or "lose" the particular battleground?  (You do not set out to lose a battleground it's just that you can "lose" this segment and still WIN the sale.)

THERE ARE 8 BATTLEGROUNDS:

People & Politics

Price

Experience

Extended Vision

Risk

Technology

Product

Sales Strategy

 

PEOPLE & POLITICS

This is definitely the key battleground to win.

 

PRICE

Their perception of your price/value is the key.  To lose on price is to have sold ineffectively.  The prospect has no perception of your added-value

 

EXPERIENCE

Their perception of your experience is the key.  Your experience is a major benefit whether they are your first or hundredth client.

 

EXTENDED VISION

Quantify what you have introduced to show how you are selling outside-the-box.  What have you introduced which was not a part of the prospect's original concept of what they wanted to buy.  This can be a different vision for different people.

 

RISK

Quantify where the risks are.  Consider their options to do nothing and to do something.  Who are the winners and losers?  How do the risks vary by implementing your solution instead of the competition's solution?

 

TECHNOLOGY

What are the technology issues?  Why is your solution the most appropriate for them?  What are the key differences and who do you sell them to?

 

PRODUCT

Do you have a "good" solution for their perceived requirement.  You do not need the "best" solution.  Ironically most salespeople focus most of their time trying to show that they have the best price/fit.  You can actually "lose" this battleground.  I almost always go for a "me-too (draw)" in this area.

 

SALES STRATEGY

   The sales strategy needs to be considered as a battleground in itself. By definition this is the one battleground which MUST be won.  The sales strategy lays out the objectives, step by step, needed to win the sale.  If the objectives are achieved then logically we must win the sale. 

A sale can be won even if the prospect Management Team has written the ITT/RFP with the incumbent supplier because the prospect wanted to give them the business.  What is critical is to be able to strategise a winning scenario.  If we can do this and achieve the objectives then we will win. 

(I have personal experience of a deal where I could not win any of the above battlegrounds but did win with an effective strategy for winning the sale.  I discovered some years later that the incumbent supplier's salesman was predicting a 99% chance of winning the day before he lost the deal!  He had absolutely no idea of where his exposures were in the sale.)

   If you would like to put this into practice contact me about arranging a  Sales Strategy & Battlegrounds MasterClass on this topic focused on selling YOUR solutions into YOUR marketplaces.

 

For more information:  derek@dcaint.com

 

For more information:  derek@dcaint.com
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