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!

• What are you doing to keep your clients happy and satisfied?
• Are they telling others about your business?
• Is your organization providing an excellent consumer experience for your clients?
• Are you getting to know the wants, needs, and pain points of your customers each and every single day?
• Are you under-promising and over-delivering results?

Now, can you think of a place where you go, wait in a long line, spend a lot of money, and yet can’t wait to tell others how great your experience was? Well, that could describe a number of places, but the frame of reference I want to use today is the Disney experience. Disney has been successful for years by building advocates for their brand.

No one would argue with the success that Disney has had in exceeding expectations and creating loyal advocates. In his book, Inside the Magic Kingdom, author Tom Connellan explains the seven keys to Disney’s success and how they work to create a dazzling experience for all of their guests. As you read the book, you can only imagine what goes into building and sustaining that kind of relationship with your customers.

In order to achieve “dazzling,” you must have a process that is consistent and predictable. People need to know what they can depend on when they trust you with their business. In other words, it’s not a once-in-a-while thing; it is just the way you do things, every day.

Keep in mind that it does not have to be the same thing for all of your clients. The way you support your top 20% should be different from how you support your bottom 20%.

But, at the heart of it all, everyone gets the basics. However, if you want to retain and increase sales within your organization and stand out from the competition, your organization must be willing to impress, dazzle, and treat your advocates like members of your family. It may sound drastic to some, but there is a reason that some companies truly stand out in a crowded market.

It’s the little things that matter in business.

Here are 4 strategies for retaining and creating loyal advocates for your organization:

1. You have to find out what they want. How do you do this? Ask! Give them a list of things to choose from with the option to add things that might not be on the list.
2. Next, prioritize critical areas. The key here is to find out what they won’t tell you. How many times have you left a restaurant after you told your server everything was fine when they asked? Some of your clients may do the same thing.
3. Identify performance levels and find out where they are setting the bar; don’t assume you know.
4. Negotiate expectations. Now is the time to deal with anything you are not willing to agree to. Sometimes we say “yes” because we think it’s a deal-breaker; just ask and then decide. If it is outside your process, then you are better served to move on because, unfortunately, it will always be a struggle and they will never become an advocate anyway.

A footnote to the above: I am assuming that you already have a strong knowledge base and industry acumen of the goals and challenges of the business you are working with. The only way to exceed your customer’s expectations is to know what they actually are, not what you think they are. Start by having that conversation first, and soon you will have them coming back for more and telling their friends. This understanding of client expectations is one of the most powerful customer retention strategies in sales.

Article by the late, great Walt Gerano, Sales Development Expert

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!

The Rules of the Game for Your Sales Team

1. Take batting practice every day – Practice that first call, how to overcome objections, how to uncover the decision-making process. In other words, pre-call plan.

2. Take what the pitcher gives you – Focus on the problem your prospect needs to solve and ask lots of questions. Leave your product briefcase and brochures in the car.

3. Swing at YOUR pitch – Just like a batter faces lots of pitches and only a few are ones they can really connect with, you will face many prospects, but only work with those you can truly help.

4. Take it base by base – When the 1st base coach is waving for you to keep going, go to second base. When you find out that your prospect has a “must-fix” problem, that doesn’t mean you should try to steal home. Go to second and make sure they have the money to fix the problem. Go to third to make sure they are committed to investing the time, money, or resources to fix the problem. Before you head for home, ensure you can score when you get there – and that means the prospect is committed to making a decision.

5. Shake it off – In the first inning, you might strike out, hit into a double play, walk to first, get hit by a pitch, or get stranded on first. You have to shake all of that off because you have 8 more innings to play. Our sales evaluation calls this handling rejection. Anything can happen as long as you keep going and getting at-bats.

In the end, selling is not for the faint of heart, nor is coaching. You and your team will withstand lots of pressure, demands, prospects who are not completely honest with you, rejection, and competition. Follow a sales process, love the process, and the process will love you back.

The sales process, albeit its own animal, shares certain similarities with the monster that is March Madness.  From prospecting, qualifying, taking the big shot, closing, assessing the opportunity to win, and much more, selling and sport's greatest tournament are linked in more ways than meets the human eye.

This might be the biggest stretch ever in the history of my blog. How can I possibly tie the NCAA Basketball Tournament (also known as March Madness) to selling? Honestly, I’m not sure…so I will be making this up as I go. Let me begin by setting the stage for selling and how I see it is similar to the event of March Madness.

• Prospecting > Games that are played by all Division I teams throughout the year.
• Qualifying > Selection Sunday – based on performance of the teams, 68 teams qualify to make the tournament.
• Assessing the Opportunity to Win > Selecting your teams from the ‘brackets’ that you think have the best chance to win OR the teams you want to win OR the teams you think will be the upset and give you a chance to win the office pool.
• Presenting > The Madness begins on Tuesday and Wednesday night in the "First Four" games.  On Thursday, the real fun begins, with a full slate of 16 games where the participating teams play their hearts out, and let the ball bounce where it may.
• Closing > In some cases, the game is over before it begins (or so it seems that way).  In other games there are more questions that need to be answered (Overtime) before a victor is declared.  In some cases, an unexpected outcome – an upset – a 16 seed beating a 1 seed (looking at you - UMBC - and you, Virginia!)
• Get a decision > The loser goes home while the winner savors the victory before facing the next big challenge.

And as Paul Harvey used to say, “And now… the rest of the story.”

Think about some of the outcomes of the presentations you’ve made where you were the top seed, or where you were the one in the game with all the right things in place to help you win the business. You have the talent, bench strength, great coaching, and preparation in place.  You have presented to the prospect what you said you would present but then… in the final seconds… someone throws up a “buzzer beater” and there goes your sale.

What happened?

• The prospect let the incumbent come in and they matched my price.
• I couldn’t get underwriting to change a covenant.
• They took it to the decision maker and that person didn’t want to change
• They said it was too expensive
• They are thinking it over
• Etc. etc. etc.

And just like in the ball game, it’s easy to point to the last play in the game that seals the upset – RJ Hunter’s 3 pointer with less than 2 seconds left to win the game for Georgia State comes to mind:

But, when the losing coaches review the game tape with their team, they point out to their players that there were several opportunities that, if the team had performed better ordifferently, the outcome would not have come down to the last shot.

The same is true in selling. It hardly ever comes down to the last shot when determining if you will win or lose the game:

• Matching price – You should have uncovered earlier who was going to win a price tie.
• Changing covenants – You should know beforehand the exact specs you need to get the deal done and, if you cannot meet those specs, you don’t present.
• Decision making – You should know the decision making process before presenting.
• They said it was too expensive – Why didn’t you know the budget before you presented?
• Think-it-overs – You must eliminate this as an option when discussing the decision making process.
• Other – Uncover in advance what can go wrong and deal with those things prior to attempting to present and close.

As the sales manager/sales executive, it is your responsibility to:

• Put the best possible team on the court.
• Make sure you have provided your team the resources they need to win.
• Prepare them with a solid strategy to win.
• Practice what you expect them to perform.
• Debrief after they perform so you can help them change behaviors and improve skill

Once you do your job, and you do your best to make sure they are doing their job, then get them on the court and see where the ball bounces.

Additional Resources:

Sales Management Environment – Building the structure to improve your chances for winning.

Sales Talent Acquisition Routine – Hire Better Sales People - get the right people to come to your team to play and WIN against the opponents in your market.

Goal Setting and Business Plan Development – Build a foundation so that your team has the required internal motivation to win in all market conditions.