Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 23, 2014

Matt Heinz wrote a provocative post, “ News Flash, Sales Doesn’t Control When The Deal Is Closed.” Many of us, in and out of sales, operate under the illusion that we are in control, but we aren’t. Many might respond, well the customer is in control, so we have to work with them.

Forecasting 87

Forecasting Relationals Sales Operations Sales Process 87

Partners in Excellence

JULY 12, 2014

The “Target Close Date” is one of the most important aspects of pipeline, forecast, and deal integrity. Anything else in our deal strategy can change, but the Target Close Date must be kept as sacred! We set unrealistic target close dates, with no commitment to meet them.

Closing 92

Closing Forecasting Lead Rank Lead Scoring 92

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 15, 2015

It may be the manager of a product development team that needs to get a critical product launched by a certain date. Or someone building a new factory, needing to get it into production by a certain date. The projects all had a common theme–“we need to get this complete and in service by a certain date (and on budget).”

Closing 48

Closing Relationals Sales Process Revenue 48

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 16, 2017

We’ve all been subjected to high pressure selling tactics. As customers, we resent those techniques used on us. We, also, know these tactics don’t work very well. Since it seems to be fashionable to put labels to these things, rather than High Pressure Selling, what if we considered the idea of High Urgency Buying?

Discount 52

Discount Fashion Incentives Incentive 52

Partners in Excellence

MAY 18, 2015

There’s a disturbing pattern, as we start approaching the end of the month, all of a sudden the target close dates start getting pushed out. Deals we expected to close this month slip into the next month. I looked at one deal, the target close date had shifted 11 times in the past 6 months!

Top of Funnel 48

Top of Funnel Funnel Relationals Closing 48

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 28, 2016

It’s a common lament among sales people, “I’m trying to close the customer, I can’t get them to move forward! How do we get them to move forward? Too often, we engage the customer in a “selling cycle.” Perhaps they are exploring, learning, trying to keep up to date with new solutions.

Customer 48

Customer Buying Cycle Closing Relationals 48

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 7, 2015

#sales” Andy’s a super smart guy, we are usually absolutely aligned in our point of view, but in this case, I couldn’t disagree more. Can we produce it with satisfactory yields? We need them to make our numbers. All the time, the customer is managing risk around a new technology — Will customers buy it?

Face-to-face 48

Face-to-face Comparison Buying Cycle Construction 48

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 29, 2015

Perhaps we can visualize the concept of speed much more easily than other metaphors. As sales people, we try to move things faster through the sales process. We want to get things done, book the order, move on to the next opportunity. ” The issue we really must confront is Buying Acceleration.

Fashion 48

Fashion Buying Cycle Inbound Sales Process 48