The ability and willingness to uncover the truth will lead to more wins. If you can uncover the real pain, priorities and motivation for every opportunity, you will increase the amount of “truly qualified” opportunities and dramatically increase your closed win rate. Don’t be afraid of the truth.
If I told you that 6 out of 10 of your active opportunities were not going to close would you continue to pursue them? The reality is that most sales people believe they can close a higher percentage of their opportunities than what is realistic. Why is that? Most sales people have been told over the years that they need to close a high percentage of the opportunities in their name. The problem with that model is that most opportunities are assigned to the closing sales rep before they are “truly qualified”.
Sales people should be judged based on the number of “truly qualified” TQ opportunities vs. closed won and lost.
Winning formula is Closed won / TQ = 70% win rate, Closed lost / TQ = 30% loss rate
Sorry, but you can’t win them all. It’s OK to be honest about your opportunities and the chances of winning. Not all opportunities are equal and not all opportunities are winnable.
How do you increase your win rate?
#1 Don’t suck at sales
#2 Truly qualify opportunities before taking ownership and moving forward
#3 Get to the truth – pain, priorities, motivation, competition
#4 Close more deals – 100% close rate win or lose
Asking the right questions and probing deeper will help get to the truth. To help increase your chances of winning opportunities start asking thought provoking questions that uncover the pain, priorities and motivation.
Here are some sample probing questions:
What are your top two priorities and why? Are they aligned with company goals?
What is stopping you from achieving better results, success or meeting your goals?
If you could change one thing today that would have a positive impact on your business, what would it be?
If you did nothing how would that impact your business or your status at the company?
What does your decision making process look like internally?
If budget wasn’t a factor, what would you want to get done?
What other initiatives are you working on that will have a positive impact on this year’s revenue?
What does a successful integration look like?
Who is your best partner vendor and why? Why does a partner vendor relationship fail?
Who’s involved in setting (technical, marketing etc.) priorities and what does the process look like?
How can you get your projects moved ahead of others on the list?
Please add to the list of questions that work for you in the comments area.
NO FEAR.
Happy Hunting!
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You can also find me @vincebeese and LinkedIn
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