What is the paranoia about?

#1 reps aren’t paranoid that they’re being watched or being followed but rather that their hard fought deal is going to evaporate suddenly, inexplicably. What might cause an imminent purchase order to disappear?

• Competition swoops in and steals the deal
• Budget gets cut due to high priority projects or other business mandates
• Management changes render the project sponsor irrelevant and stalls the deal
• Product deficiency becomes a showstopper in the customers mind

And the list goes on. The key point here is that the #1 rep is actively conjuring up ways for the deal to go south. Now that might seem nerve racking, and it is, but there is a very real benefit from all this angst---risk management.

How do #1 reps use paranoia to help them win?

Another way to look at this paranoia is scenario analysis. That’s the business planning tool strategist use to chart out different possible future scenarios and what actions can be taken if and when a particular undesirable scenario unfolds. Here are four actions reps take to mitigate risks of nightmare scenarios:

Build multiple relationships within the customer’s organization. The idea here is to minimize the risk of any one person (e.g. technical evaluator) from killing the deal. The best reps build relationships horizontally and vertically. That means mapping out the customer’s organization chart from your primary contact’s peers to their subordinates and superiors. It means taking the time to understand each of their roles, their personal objectives and challenges, and showing how this purchase creates a personal win for each stakeholder in the process. And all this is nicely documented in an account plan which the rep keeps up to date (see. “Attention Sales VPs-Make Account Plans Count")

Sell “whole product” strengths and differentiate. They do not just mindlessly answer the Request for Proposal (RFP) questions on the technical features but also sell every strength the company has—executive/management experience, customer base, product differentiators, services and support, technical expertise, financing or business model, etc.

Create urgency. Great reps know that the longer the sales cycle the greater the risk of the deal falling through. So they find ways to accelerate the deal such as attempting to close the deal with an attractive proposal with a short term deadline. Reps might propose ways to eliminate the customer’s perceived need for a lengthy product evaluation or proof of concept phase (See article “Turning Evaluations into Sales Advantages").

Gather real-time intelligence to avoid surprises. Great reps proactively call and maintain ties with all customer contacts in order to learn something new that might help them close the deal or avert disaster. This approach might surface a sales objection or new threat. Reps can then act quickly to react and blunt the threat.

© Sridhar Ramanathan Pacifica Group

This article strikes a major note that we've been saying at our company for years. Sales reps should approach sales as if they are managing a project, and that includes assessing and managing risk. That is a common lacking we've seen in reps, and every time a major deal has gone south, the risk factor was either ignored or not managed.

Good strategies for dealing with it for sales! Thanks.

Posted by: Richard Larson | June 22, 2006 8:30 AM