We definitely live in exciting times with so many new disruptive business ideas with incredible potential. And this puts the ability for sales leaders to generate original and authentic ideas for their customers into even sharper focus.
Today I believe there isn’t a single sales method which can be applied the same way every time to win big deals. Albert Einstein said “not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted, counts”. I have often reflected how true this is when taking on the challenge of winning a big deal.
Invariably winning a large contract requires a unique combination of selling elements, and at the core the thinking has to be based on robust analysis and imagination. It was this need to understand how to apply the right combination to win big deals that set the context to develop a model for my sales leaders some time back.
The story behind this model is one I’m sure many of you have experienced before….. After an internal review of a big deal with a sales leader that didn’t go well at all, I decided to invest some serious time to help him.
The visible issues: his big deal win rates were too low, his teams was investing hundreds of hours in proposal time for no return. The product and services architecture offered were ok, but the clear alignment to the customer’s vision just wasn’t apparent during the internal reviews. The root cause issues: the sales leader and his team were just not doing their homework in enough depth, and developing the business case collaboratively with the customer. And even though a business case within the proposal existed, the customer was coming back asking for a steep discount……a sure sign we were not aligned.
I was asking myself, how can I help this sales leader? How can I ensure he retains the empowerment to lead, but adopts a much more thoughtful approach to winning these big deals?
To prepare, I wrote down a list of all the important elements I believed should be considered to set a big deal win strategy…..and called this The Periodic Table of Selling. At the time I laughed at the title, but have since come to respect the significance of the concept. If you take a look at the diagram below, I think you’ll see how this can be applied to create an approach to win a specific big deal, and help an individual to understand the interdependencies across the groups, and relative value of each element.
What were the results?
After the first session it was clear the table was too much to absorb so we agreed to selectively apply this to specific deals going forward and measure the value. It took about six months of coaching and application before we got traction to the standard I was after. I had to be patient, and give him the space to learn. This guy clearly had the ability and the cost of replacing him in the short term made no sense at all.
In the end his results were strong. His team’s big deal win rates improved from around 30% to 50%+. The frequency of internal big deal review meetings increased, but the overall management time required to evaluate each deal was reduced by about 30%. Of course his team got really excited….from their ability to clearly articulate the business impact for their customer from their work, and a much clearer answer to the “why am I here?” question every employee asks at some point.
There were four organizational alignment lessons regarding the management of big deals which have stayed with me ever since:
Engage early in the sales cycle to ensure alignment.
Insist on looking at the plans through the customer’s lense but keep a sharp eye on the competition.
Agree upfront and monitor the risks and dependencies. And agree with the sales leader the criteria in the event you have to ‘walk away’ from the deal.
Ensure the sales leader clearly understands (especially in a company with a sophisticated product / sales management matrix) they are empowered to lead, but accountable for the results.
The Periodic Table of Selling may have potential value for you. I used it to help Sales Leaders to understand the analysis and imagination required to generate original and authentic ideas for their customers, win big deals, and drive internal alignment.
If the elements I’ve inserted into the table in its current form are suited to your circumstances, then I hope this gives you an accelerated base to apply to your own organization. But if the elements don’t really match your needs then maybe you could create your own using the same concepts.
My best wishes to you all for every success on your big deal pipeline. If you would like to explore this topic further, I’d be happy to try to help you. Please contact me at Email: sales@Watermark.com.sg
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