Who’s your biggest sales competitor? It’s not whom you think.

It’s the status quo.

Doing nothing is the easiest thing for people to do, even if the process or products they’re using now aren’t doing a good job.

Research shows that less than 50% of forecasted deals actually close. Around 30% are lost to a competitor, but 23.6% stall and actually buy nothing or change the way they operate.

So here are some questions you should ask yourself or your sales team whenever you come across a new opportunity.

Transcript

Who’s your biggest sales competitor? It’s not whom you think. It’s the status quo. Doing nothing is the easiest thing for people to do, even if the process or products they’re using now aren’t doing a good job.

My name’s Rashid Kotwal.

Research shows that less than 50% of forecasted deals actually close. Around 30% are lost to a competitor, but 23.6% stall and actually buy nothing or change the way they operate.

So here are some questions you should ask yourself or your sales team whenever you come across a new opportunity.

Will we win this deal?

Sales people are often overly optimistic regarding the chances of success. So ask yourself dispassionately if you’re a good fit for whatever they’re looking for.

Do you really understand the problems they’re looking to solve and the outcomes they want?

You need to determine the logical and emotional payoffs both for the organisation and the individual decision makers.

Can you articulate your value and differentiate yourself from the competition?

Is there any urgency?  Unless there’s some imperative to take action, not much will happen.

Are they emotionally on-board?

Have your prospects bought into your solution emotionally? Will they go to bat for your solution when there is pressure not to spend money, go with a competitor, or try to reduce the scope?

Whether you’re at the coal face or managing a sales team, it’s up to you to keep asking these questions and not taking the answers at face value. Anything else is fooling yourself and wishing upon a star!

These are just some of the areas we cover in our Sales Accelerator program which is designed to help professional consultants who sell high value services close more business, naturally and smoothly.

So, if you’d like to close more highly profitable business in less time, give me a hoy at RevealedResources.com to get started.

Till next time, this is Rashid Kotwal.

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