2011_Mar_19 - Sales: What to look for to be productive?

A lot of great authors have suggested various ways to get closer to making a sale. Tons of authors have made great contributions to make this field of Selling very attractive one.

I was thinking of helping a novice remember what he/she has to look for while making that 'call' - so that he/she could have a very high efficiency rate. While there will be, for sure, at least a thousand books that can help you with this aspect. However, my motive is to have a little fun element and as well as Keeping it Short and Simple (say KISS it :) ).

Now.. here the story starts - (For simplicity sake - I'll keep this discussion from a B2B perspective - however, the story doesn't change much in other cases).. Now the first one..

1. We all agree that for a sale (deal) to be done the first and foremost aspect is to find out - what the real business pain (moving forward we'll just refer to this as 'pain') of that prospect you are working with is. We have to determine how important that pain is and what happens if they do (and don't) get relieved out of this pain etc...(another 100questions can be asked around this aspect)
2. Ok..Now that you have found the  pain.. the next question to ask is - are we talking to the right person-   does this guy sign a cheque? can this guy buy anything at all? or is he influential enough to get someone who could cut the PO or sign the cheque or give him funds? That is- has this guy got the Authority to buy / make a decision / influence a decision / influence a purchase?
3. With the first two steps (need not be in the exact same order)- we have identified the real pain and also the right contact to work with, then the important thing to qualify further is to determine - if they have got the right budget in place. Does this person / company have enough money to fix the pain? Can they manage those funds?
4. Now that we have identified the business pain and are talking to the right people with a lot of money - what's the most important aspect is to find out if we have a solution that can fix that pain. Do we have the right offerings in place to sell... i.e. do we have an Opportunity to sell there..
5. Finally, it's also important to find out - once we have everything in place - if the customer is co-operative enough to work within our time lines and Ts&Cs. Are they Willing to work on mutually agreeable Ts&Cs (includes the time frame/  obligations /  etc)..

Taking the above points - let's name :

• the first one the pain or the real business NEED as - N
• the 2nd one - the person in Authority / Decision Maker / trigger puller as - A
• the 3rd one - the budget or the money as - M
• the 4th one - our solution offerings - and the opportunity to sell as - O
• the 5th one - Willingness to work on mutually agreeable T&Cs as - W

Jumbling these letters will give us the word "WOMAN".. So in order to increase your productivity - seek WOMAN in every deal :)..

Guys, ain't this easy to remember :) ?

Cheers,

PK...