Think about your own salespeople. There are many reasons they fail to close business. Too often, they fail simply because they don’t muster the courage required at the beginning of the sales process. When they are prospecting, they are not prepared to ask the right questions, and they aren’t ready when their prospect asks them unexpected questions.

Closing should refer to the whole sales process, not just the end. Closing is about asking questions versus pushing a client in a certain direction. “The sale should close itself” – the process should be natural, not forced. If you’re a good negotiator and influencer, the close should happen on its own. According to Objective Management Group, the pioneer and leader in the sales evaluation arena, there are 13 specific skills that lead to success. In essence, closing is not about expert closing techniques; it is about having excellent qualifying skills.

Let’s focus on the top two attributes that are essential for closing:

1. Gets prospect to agree to make a decision: In your sales process, do your salespeople even ask the prospect if they are willing and able to make the decision? It is not uncommon for salespeople to deliver a proposal or a quote only to find that their “person” is not the ultimate decision-maker. Is that because they did not ask about the decision-making process? Or did they fail, in general, to communicate that they would deliver the proposal with the agreement that a decision would be made, Yes or No? Or did they even fail to clarify if the problems uncovered were compelling or costly enough to make a decision now or soon?

2. Not Likely to take “Think it Overs”: We call these TIOs, and they are the death of most unclosed deals. They can come in the form of “I really like your proposal and will get back to you,” or “Let me think about it and talk to the team.” These are all understandable responses, right? Not if you have utilized this expert closing technique: “When I deliver the proposal that addresses all of the issues you have shared, within the budget we discussed, I ask one thing – and that is for you to make a decision, yes or no. I would prefer to hear yes, but no is okay.” Think about your own pipeline and deals lost. How many of them are attributable to the dreaded “Think it overs”? When faced with this response, skilled salespeople know how to go back to the pain and the cost of not fixing the problem. They are able to remind the prospect of the urgency they shared, why it is a priority, and balance that with the right amount of patience.

Closing is not about the close. It is about understanding and helping the client solve their problems and take advantage of opportunities, acting in the role of a valued business partner.

by Alex Cole-Murphy with contributions from Objective Management Group and distributors

Eloquently stated by Howard G. Hendricks:
“The measure of you as a leader is not what you do, but what others do because of what you do.”

This mindset of developing others is the hallmark of great leaders and effective sales coaches. How does that translate into actions and behaviors? An effective sales coach monitors the performance of their salespeople to identify areas for improvement and reinforces behaviors that lead to success. They also build confidence in representatives by providing them with the tools, skills, and training they need to succeed. This is what they do, but the importance of sales coaching lies in the how of coaching—helping a salesperson discover for themselves what is hindering their success by asking insightful questions and providing feedback at critical times. Practicing for upcoming calls, offering feedback on potential questions and challenges they may encounter—these are integral parts of the coaching process.

Here is a short list of opportunities a sales coach has to support their team, illustrating the importance of sales coaching:

• Make sure they have written goals.
• Help them follow those goals with a plan.
• Encourage them to take responsibility for their behaviors and success (no excuses).
• Provide tools and training to build strong self-confidence.
• Help them understand and develop supporting sales beliefs.
• Encourage them not to shy away from tough questions due to a need for approval (desire to be liked).
• Support their recovery from rejection.
• Provide opportunities to practice and get comfortable discussing money.
• Help them understand their own buying cycle and how it influences their sales process.
• Improve effective listening and questioning skills.
• Offer tips for building rapport and bonding early with prospects.
• Help them get comfortable uncovering budgets and price tolerances.
• Guide them in understanding why prospects buy.
• Increase their win rate with qualified proposals and quotes.
• Teach them the importance of reaching the decision-maker for decisions.

Much like a salesperson follows a stage-based sales process, a sales coach is more effective if they follow a coaching process.

If a sales coach does not provide insights, feedback, demonstrations, or encourage role-play, the salesperson may practice on clients without the chance to improve before critical calls. Sales coaching is all about helping salespeople get better at asking questions, listening to understand, drilling down, discovering motivation, securing commitments, practicing skills, refining strategies, and demonstrating effectiveness in qualifying, presenting, and closing situations. It is a daunting responsibility, but also highly rewarding when coaching leads to improvement and success.

Tips to ensure the most effective coaching approach:

• Determine specific coaching needs.
• Coach consistently with planned repetition.
• Keep sessions short.
• Determine the content or agenda in advance (pre-call plan).
• Prepare (the sales rep should practice the pre-call plan).
• Always agree on outcomes and actions to take.

Need more information on sales coaching? Click the button below to download our free eBook on the 9 Keys to Successful Coaching! 

Creating a winning sales pitch that gets a decision 100% of the time is all about the qualifying process that salespeople follow. They certainly must have uncovered a compelling or multiple compelling reasons to take action from the prospect. There has to be pain or what we call severe mental anguish over something that is either a problem that exists today or a problem that will exist if action isn’t taken. Or there is an opportunity that has to be leveraged. That problem or opportunity has been monetized. The salesperson must also have identified that the prospect has the capacity to invest and has shared the decision-making process. The salesperson must have a solution that meets their specific terms and conditions. All of that contributes to creating a winning sales pitch, prior to presenting.

A salesperson’s ability to create winning sales pitches can be evaluated by checking their close ratio closely and understanding what contributed to the wins and losses. Salespeople and their managers must identify the choke points in their qualifying process. What are they hearing from the prospect at the pitch? What are their objections to buying? What are they ‘thinking over’? How often are they losing to the incumbent, not talking to the decision maker, or facing a money objection at presentation time?

To close 100% of qualified buyers, salespeople must also have the right attitude about the presentation. Attitudes are driven by beliefs. If they don’t believe that they must uncover all of these issues prior to pitching, then they will not gain a decision, and if they do win it, it will mostly be luck, which is not a winning sales strategy.

Salespeople should start preparing for their winning presentation as they are qualifying the prospect. That’s right, preparing starts at the very beginning of creating a winning sales pitch. Too often, salespeople make one of three assumption mistakes when it comes to presenting a solution:

1. They make assumptions that because they have extra features and benefits in their solution, the prospect will want them even if those come at an additional cost.
2. Assumptions are made about price—salespeople too often assume that every prospect will make a decision based on price. We know that is not the case. Or worse, that the price is not important to discuss prior to presentation.
3. They assume that prospects will be honest and not share their ‘stuff’ with the incumbent. How often have they lost a deal because the other company lowered the price of their offering to match theirs?

How often do salespeople lose sales to the incumbent? In many cases, salespeople are not creating a new sale; they are gaining market share by taking business from the competitor. That means that virtually 100% of the time, they are in competition. They must find out more about that relationship and the prospect’s willingness and capabilities to end that relationship.

They must ask questions like:

• When you told your current advisor you were going out to shop around, what did they say?
• When you told your current advisor that you were unhappy and were going to find someone else to work with, what did they do?

Understanding this in advance helps a salesperson better prepare for their presentation to get a decision. Dealing with it before the pitch will help eliminate the “I need to talk to my current provider” objection at the time of close.

Money is always a factor. Unfortunately, many salespeople fail to approach this part of the discussion, either because they are uncomfortable talking about money, don’t know how to ask, or don’t believe it is relevant to their type of sales. Insurance brokers are notorious for believing they don’t have to ask about budget because the prospect is already paying premiums. But when they get copies of policies and do a risk assessment, the premiums are ‘blacked out’ in the policy. Why? Because the prospect is playing the price game to leverage the current relationship.

Here is a recommended approach to set up a winning sales pitch with the prospect:

• I will present a solution to solve those problems we discussed today.
• I will provide a solution that meets your specs and fits within the terms and conditions, including budget.
• I will be in a position to answer all of your questions.
• When I’m finished, I will ask you three questions:

1. Do you feel like I understand your business and what you are trying to accomplish?
2. Do you believe that I can help you accomplish your goals?
3. Do you want my help?

• When I ask that last question, you will be in a position to say yes or no. Either one is okay. I’d rather hear yes, but no is okay. What objections do you have to that process?

This is when the rubber meets the road, and the salesperson finds out if, in fact, they have a 100% qualified prospect!

It is irrefutable that most salespeople feel pressure when it comes to giving the actual presentation—the show. But there are specific steps they can take, with the help of managers, to prepare more fully, which will help them present with confidence. So, here is the secret to effective sales proposals: present only to fully qualified prospects. To clarify, the definition of a fully qualified prospect is:

• They have shared specific, compelling issues that they must address.
• They have the capacity to invest the appropriate amount of time, money, and resources.
• They have provided clarity on the decision-making process.
• The salesperson can deliver exactly what the prospect needs to solve their problem.

The parameters above are stages of a milestone-centric sales process. When followed, they prevent a salesperson from rushing from the first base (uncovering compelling reasons) to the proposal stage. If they haven’t uncovered issues related to time, money, and resources during the discovery process, these will come up at presentation time and are likely to create a delay in decision-making.

Here is another secret for helping your salespeople make effective sales proposals. Secret #2 is to take a look at their closing ratios. Why? So that you can help them identify choke points in their qualifying process. To help them discover these choke points, review what happened at the time of presentation on recent calls. What did they hear from their prospect, exactly? What were the objections to buying? If they said they wanted to think it over, what were they going to think about? How often is your salesperson losing to the incumbent, not talking to the decision maker, or facing a money objection? This is the role of an effective sales leader: to help their salespeople uncover their choke points and address those earlier in the sales process. If you can help them do that, they will be well on their way to creating and delivering more effective sales presentations and closing more business.

Here’s a tool for salespeople and their managers to use to help determine if they have enough information to truly create and deliver effective sales proposals:

As this scorecard indicates, a salesperson actually starts preparing for their presentation as they are qualifying the prospect. Effective sales proposals start at the very beginning of the process.

Next, they must prepare their solution based on what the prospect needs vs. what they currently have. If a salesperson is trying to match what someone else is doing, they are already second. They need to do a much more masterful job of uncovering exactly what features, benefits, terms, coverages, and service plans their prospect truly needs to eliminate risks in their business or maximize opportunities. When your salesperson does this, they are in a better position to present EXACTLY what the prospect asked for and needs. This scorecard can help with that.

The final secret to helping your team with effective sales proposals is in the setup. To set up the presentation meeting for a decision, a salesperson should review everything that’s been discussed and what they are prepared to do. Here is a sample discussion:

• Joe and Mary, this is what I think I heard today—they should repeat everything they heard—and then ask, “Did I get that right?” Good.

• Here’s what I will be prepared to do during my presentation:

  • I will present a solution to solve the problems we discussed today.
  • I will provide a solution that meets your specs and fits within the terms and conditions, including the budget.
  • I will be in a position to answer all of your questions.

• When I’m finished, I will ask you three questions:

  • Do you feel like I understand your business and what you are trying to accomplish?
  • Do you believe I can help you accomplish your goals?
  • Do you want my help?

• When I ask that last question, you will be in a position to say yes or no. Either one is okay. I’d rather hear yes, but no is okay. What objections do you have to that process?

To review, the secret to more effective sales proposals is for salespeople to fully qualify the prospect from the very beginning and to set up the proposal so that a decision will be made—yes or no. No more secrets!

1. Must have a USA: This acronym stands for Unique Sales Approach. How are your salespeople distinguishing themselves from the competition? Have you heard and seen their first call approach by phone and in person? The 80/20 Rule applies to most salespeople and proves out that the majority of revenue comes from about 20% of clients. In order to have a USA, producers must spend time defining their profile and determining how to go about finding and reaching more of them.
   
   Working with clients over the past 30 years, we know that if a salesperson is an expert in a particular area, their ability to open doors, have compelling conversations and serve/sell to a particular segment is more successful. What specific types of clients are your relationship managers best at working with? Focusing on a segment allows salespeople to develop deep domain expertise in an area and that experience provides them with stories and an understanding of the challenges faced by that client type. Credibility grows as prospects and clients recognize that this salesperson is different. In fact, they are advisors with a particular set of skills that can truly help them and their company.
   
   When your salespeople are experts, their messaging will resonate on first calls and in social selling platforms like LinkedIn, Google, at association meetings.  Top salespeople are always gathering industry information about their target client and building their acumen in their expertise. Spend time with your team listening and helping them refine their Unique Selling Approach to help them develop a truly competitive sales strategy.
   
   
2. Must follow an ESS: This stands for Effective Selling System. According to our partner, Objective Management Group, the pioneer and leader in sales evaluations, an effective sales system measures an individual’s ability to follow a proper sequence of stages and milestones of a structured sales process. An effective sales process evaluates a salesperson on sales-specific attributes such as if their process has key milestones, and if their process yields consistent results. When a salesperson excels at sales process, opportunities will be consistently defined in their pipeline. When a salesperson is weak on Sales Process, their pipeline will have inconsistently defined opportunities, creating longer sales cycles and pipeline bloat.
   
   To demonstrate just how critical having an ESS is in developing a competitive sales strategy, you can see on the chart below the correlation of Sales Process to Sales Percentile. 87% of elite producers follow a sales process, while only 20% of weak salespeople do so. Which category do you want and need your salespeople to fall into? Make certain that your company has, follows and inspects a consistent and effective sales process.

3. Make sure to ABP: One last acronym for you, this stands for Always Be Prospecting. The skill and habit of prospecting relates directly to your producers’ skills and commitment to hunting. One of the findings on the sales evaluation we utilize includes the specific skills that top prospectors have mastered:

• Will prospect & prospect consistently
• Has no need for approval
• Schedules meetings
• Recovers from rejection
• Maintains a full pipeline
• Not a perfectionist
• Reaches target clients
• Gains referrals from clients and networks
• Uses social selling tools
• Attends networking events

Your best salespeople schedule time on their calendars to prospect as part of their competitive sales strategy.  And today it is even more important that they do so. Here is a sobering statistic about the world of modern day selling: the average number of attempts to reach a prospect has increased to 16-18, but most salespeople quit after less than 5 attempts. Maybe they think that, “in the good old days,” people used to return calls but the world has changed. Prospects are a hard fish to catch. Make sure that your team has persistence and a commitment to ABP as a key to developing their competitive sales strategy.