The Pipeline

AUGUST 10, 2012

As sales professional you work hard to get a sale to a point of proposal, and every day buyers will have you do things that could introduce unnecessary risk to the sale. Specifically when buyers ask you to ‘send’ them your pricing/proposal/quotes to potential buyers. . Obvious, yes; reality, not always.

Proposal 257

Proposal Negotiation Buyer Course 257

The Pipeline

MARCH 6, 2013

One example is the propensity to present proposal way too soon, long before key facts are uncovered. I was taught that there are five things that have to be in place in order for a proposal to be properly underpinned and solid. Slowing me and the sale down, if not risking it all together.

Proposal 275

Proposal Face-to-face Exercises Pipeline 275

The Pipeline

JANUARY 11, 2022

Better discovery, better proposals, picking up the phone more often, whatever. Where are they going and why? Do they have a plan to get there? So, when it comes to development, that should be the first thing. What are your objectives? Which ever one of these or others you choose, you need to get granular.

Territories 201

Territories Objections Quota Proposal 201

The Pipeline

JUNE 8, 2017

Proposal to Close. Discovery to Proposal. I find four numbers give you the opportunity to continuously leverage them to improve your sales approach and execution, and by extension your success. Initial meeting (live or virtual) to Discovery. To change any of the above, you will need to develop a strategy for change and improvement.

Proposal 228

Proposal Quota Commission Territories 228

The Pipeline

OCTOBER 23, 2017

I understand that there a lot of demands on a sales person’s time, the importance of focusing on current customers; I understand the importance of finishing that proposal, doing a demo, and all the things we signed up for as sales professionals. Is the very opposite of what it should be. No Distraction.

Banking 268

Banking Sales Qualified Lead Proposal Quota 268

The Pipeline

JULY 17, 2014

We agreed that based on the exchange they would forward a proposal by the following Monday, and “follow up with in a few days of sending.” Here we are more than month later, no proposal – no follow up. First mistake, they should have confirmed a time, especially with people not tied to their desk.). B) They are useless.

Follow-up 282

Follow-up Sales Methodology Trade Show Proposal 282

The Pipeline

JANUARY 21, 2020

More importantly, if they can’t live with your proposed next step, again, you have time to plan an alternate. As people come to the meeting above, if they see that as the right next step, they’ll be predisposed to it if the rest of the meeting unfolds according to plan.

Meeting 317

Meeting Proposal Positioning Pipeline 317

The Pipeline

AUGUST 18, 2014

TS: But at that point, they just ask for the proposal, and away we go. TS: But once you present the proposal, it’s done, no back and forth, no negotiations, no price haggling. VP: Rarely, we have to help them maneuver internally, that’s why we end up doing multi demos, and data crunching, all the players involved.

Conference 303

Conference Proposal Call-back Negotiation 303

The Pipeline

JULY 7, 2021

Simple questions, like of ten prospects who enter Discovery, how many will take a proposal. We use the Activity Calculator to help salespeople create their improvement plans based on their own performance. You would be surprised how many do not know, they say depends. Once we land on a number, we map out how we go from 50% to 60%?

Discount 361

Discount Quota Sports Objections 361

The Pipeline

JUNE 24, 2017

As the name says, this is call camp that will help you and your reps to conduct more effective discovery calls, leading more conversions to proposals, and accelerating your cycle. We will be listen to real calls, offering contextual coaching you can use to improve your discovery calls and results.

Proposal 211

Proposal Webinar Metrics Coaching Benefit 211

The Pipeline

JANUARY 7, 2016

Some core conversion rates: – Number of proposals that close. Number of real prospects required to generate a REAL proposal. Will you focus on improving your proposal to close rate, or one of the others? Making your monthly goal a $100,000. What you need to know: What is your average deal size? Average length of your cycle(s).

Proposal 120

Proposal Quota Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank 120

The Pipeline

OCTOBER 18, 2013

But more than a thank you note, it is an opportunity for you to recap what you took away from the meeting, action items everyone agreed to, and most important, what you propose the Next Step to be. A hand written note, will just blow their mind.

Proposal 301

Proposal Vendor Buyer Meeting 301

The Pipeline

MAY 11, 2012

Simple but to the point, you need to make your calls when the buyers are around, but I can write a proposal any time before I need to present it. A proposal written at 2:00 pm is not better than one created at 6:00, but chances are better that a prospect will be open to meeting at 2:00 more so than 6:00.

Banking 300

Banking Proposal Research Quota 300

The Pipeline

MAY 14, 2019

For example, once they have increased deal size, it is better to focus on Discovery To Proposal. As part of a continuous improvement plan, you can focus on the number with the most significant leverage, not the biggest gap. What Do You Really Mean?

Sage 313

Sage Quota Coaching Proposal 313

The Pipeline

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Proposals were done on Wednesdays and Mondays, all he had to do is set the right expectation from the buyer. He set certain activities to specific days, and filled in the rest of the time with things that were dependent on the buyers’ calendars. And so it went. But when it came to prospecting, there were no allocations.

Prospecting 300

Prospecting Cold Calling Quota Top of Funnel 300

The Pipeline

JULY 2, 2012

This is where you pack your offering, pitch, and proposal with “tons of value”, and throw it at the client with everything you got, and then defend that “value”. While we would all prefer not to deal with price, it seems almost unavoidable, almost a cultural must when it comes to buying/selling, and hey we do it when we are spending the cash.

Proposal 227

Proposal Negotiation Compensation Buyer 227

The Pipeline

AUGUST 7, 2014

While and some guests have share proposed best practices around e-mails, ContactMonkey has just released some interesting insights about good, bad and other types of subject lines. I have mentioned ContactMonkey in the past, I like many others use them to track the fate of e-mails I send out.

Real Estate 326

Real Estate Proposal Follow-up Objections 326

The Pipeline

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Lead – Prospects – Pre-Proposal – Proposal – Initial (verbal) Agreement – Won Business (Closed). A pipeline review is a snapshot of the state of the pipeline and the directly contributing factors, usually activity. Regardless of how you look at your pipeline or funnel, it is likely to have a minimal number of clear stages or sections.

Pipeline 244

Pipeline Opportunity Top of Funnel Funnel 244

The Pipeline

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

How many proposals will you need to present to get those 4 deals? How many prospects will have to go through the discovery process to generate sufficient proposals? Now you could put a plan into effect that will allow you to increase the average deal size to $30K – $35K, and that would involve a change in activity and execution.

Quota 120

Quota Proposal Inside Sales Relationals 120

The Pipeline

SEPTEMBER 14, 2017

I know this is an extreme, but you need to go through your pipeline and ask how much an extreme, how many opportunities do you have a proposal stage without a next step? Before getting to the nitty gritty, I asked which of these there were formal next steps with, only 2.

Prospecting 274

Prospecting Forecasting Call-back Pipeline 274

The Pipeline

JUNE 8, 2015

When qualifying a prospect, that crucial phase between hand shake to proposal, how well you choose to verify will dictate whether it will be a solid proposal that will lead to a close, or a not so solid one leaving you to having to resell and negotiate your way to the finish line, or an “oh so close death”.

Sales Qualified Lead 120

Sales Qualified Lead Proposal Face-to-face Pipeline 120

The Pipeline

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

If nothing, else sales people should know what their proposal to close ratio is; discovery to proposal; engagement (or first meeting) to discovery. These same people often know the stats of their favourite hockey or baseball players, but when it comes to key metrics involving their success, they are in the dark.

Cold Calling 120

Cold Calling Referrals Marketing Qualified Lead Proposal 120

The Pipeline

JULY 2, 2019

Time-limited offers or features, I bet you all have a ‘good through date’ on your proposals. We look at hoarders, knowing it is just an exaggerated form of an instinct we all have. This is highly visible in the consumer space and no less prevalent in B2B. The potential of not having – drives decisions and actions.

Face-to-face 227

Face-to-face ACT Margin Buyer 227

The Pipeline

OCTOBER 15, 2015

Let’s take three simple examples, number of potential prospects you need to engage one “real” prospect; how many “real” prospects you need in order to generate one quality viable proposal; finally how many viable proposals lead to won deal. There are others I know, but for the sake of this discussion these will do.

Account 120

Account Proposal Coaching Follow-up 120

The Pipeline

FEBRUARY 4, 2020

AE’s should do more, especially with better handoffs; leading to more quality proposals and a higher proportion of those accepted. We are not fully harnessing the opportunities presented by combining an improvement in technique, technology, and execution. The drag at the top of the funnel cascades down even when you change the players.

Revenue 370

Revenue Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank 370

The Pipeline

DECEMBER 29, 2014

While and some guests have shared proposed best practices around e-mails, ContactMonkey [link] just released some interesting insights about good, bad and other types of subject lines. Why Set Out For 2nd Prize?

Face-to-face 241

Face-to-face Cold Calling Commission Proposal 241

The Pipeline

JANUARY 23, 2014

I could hear Joe chuckle as he calmly replied, “every dollar of value you sell from the time you prospect them, take them through information gathering, through to proposal, also goes to the bottom line, but I don’t have to add an unnecessary stage to the sale, I’d rather sell it, then negotiate it.”.

Negotiation 296

Negotiation Proposal Course ACT 296

The Pipeline

NOVEMBER 9, 2017

This means they need to both understand and explain the change you are proposing to others in the process, meaning that a “just in time” approach to answers will likely serve you better than spewing facts. Individual buyers we deal with, are part of a group of buyers, often with varying opinions and wish lists.

Buyer 185

Buyer Guarantee Objections Proposal 185

The Pipeline

JUNE 14, 2013

Me: But once they get in front of the right prospect, getting the buyers to buy into your value prop, and getting to proposal is just a formality, right? VP: No, no, no, we need to prospect like mad, we are always looking for ways to get enough of the right prospects in the funnel, we get a web leads, but they need to prospect more.

Sales Qualified Lead 288

Sales Qualified Lead Fashion Top of Funnel Lead Rank 288

The Pipeline

APRIL 3, 2018

The two most common cliffs are right at the start, when you are first trying to engage; then when you present your proposal. Objections come in many shapes and sizes and occur at different parts of the cycle, each with its own drivers.

Objections 259

Objections Cold Calling Face-to-face Call-back 259

The Pipeline

MAY 5, 2014

The agenda should feature key points/areas to be covered during the meeting, and your proposed next steps as a result of progress on the above items. Use an Agenda - I have posted about this in detail in the past , but there are some basic aspects worth repeating. One being able to avoid surprises.

Decision Maker 267

Decision Maker Distribution Call-back Referrals 267

The Pipeline

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

I propose they are hoping the client has a need, hoping they can strike a relationship based on something other than the buyer’s objective, hoping for the order. Having clear objectives, measures and next steps defined and planned in advance will also allow you to do one other thing with great confidence, that is disqualify buyers.

Sales Meeting 306

Sales Meeting Meeting Sales Cycle Objections 306

The Pipeline

JUNE 12, 2014

Let’s use the example of a core metric important in driving sales, one of the simplest, proposal to closing ratio. Straight forward enough but not necessarily simple. You would expect that most sales people would know their own, and that their manager would too, otherwise how could they possibly coach them.

Penetration 267

Penetration Sales Qualified Lead Face-to-face Coaching 267

The Pipeline

AUGUST 14, 2014

Examples in sales may be lead to opportunity conversions, or proposals to close. Determined in advance, measurable and quantifiable, they are instrumental in helping to assess progress, and plan course correction if needed. You often hear sales managers and director speak of how they are doing against their KPI’s.

Workbooks 288

Workbooks Incentives Incentive Distribution 288

The Pipeline

JUNE 25, 2015

No the buyers I am talking about did not expect your call or e-mail, these buyers would swear up and down that they don’t Need whatever value you are proposing.

Prospecting 120

Prospecting Call-back Sports Proposal 120

The Pipeline

AUGUST 17, 2012

“We will meet to review this on Tuesday at 11:00 in order to finalize the floor plan and order the braces”, or “”we will have a conference call Friday at 2:00, with you and the engineer to finalize the specs for…”, or as simple as “we will meet Wednesday at 10:00 to present final proposal”. Concrete, clear, and MUTUALLY AGREED ON.

Pipeline 265

Pipeline Call-back Conference Negotiation 265

The Pipeline

APRIL 23, 2012

That is very few are complete sales people, meaning competent at all key elements of B2B sales, starting with lead gen and management, to prospecting, a thorough discovery process, presenting a winnable proposal, winning the deal, and then penetrating and maintaining the account.

Lead Gen 288

Lead Gen Penetration Top of Funnel Proposal 288