Assign Your Best Salespeople Early in the Cycle
You have one meeting with the top brass in your biggest sales target. How do you prepare (Lay, 6)?
- Lodge a provocation. Come prepared with information that will unsettle the potential client. "If you don't do this, now, this will happen."
- Capture their reaction. No reaction? Leave. Concern? Push your case harder.
- Give war stories. Tell them what happened with another client when they did it your way.
- The close? A diagnostic. Charge for the diagnostic. If you do this right, expect them to find budget, even when there is no budget.
Who do you take to the meeting? This is not consultative selling. In consultative selling, you save your best sales people for late in the dialog. Regular folks found out what is going on. The sophisticated closers come in late, to close. Not any more. Take the best people early on. Arm them with the best information you've got, including war stories. Make the close earlier, even when you are not sure there is budget to do what you want to do.
Provocation is compelling, with new information (Lay, 5). You know they have angst. Address it. State your case and prove it with hard facts. Keep it executive level. Dealing with a manager? Go higher. Provoke. Lead. Force issues out.
Lay, Phillip, Todd Hewlin, and Geoffrey Moore. In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers. The companies you serve are slashing their budgets-but you can still make the sale. Harvard Business Review. 2009.