Rebooting Your Sales Process

Problem Statement: sales stages don’t provide much utility if the intended outcomes of each are not clear. Also, you know a sales stage isn’t accomplishing much if the percentage of deals that close within that stage isn’t significantly higher than the previous one.

Recommendation: start by calculating the percentage of deals that will eventually close within each sales stage. Define the intended outcome of each stage in terms of both the buyer and seller perspective. Define what is considered evidence of the intended outcome. Provide tools and resources that help the buyer do their job.

As sales reps gain experience they start to tune out sales stages. They develop comfortable routines and habits for managing their pipeline—some more successful than others.

The Sandbaggers

You’ve got your sandbaggers, who hold onto information about their opportunities until they feel pretty confident that they will close. They fear increased visibility will raise unrealistic expectations and they’ve learned that mismanaged expectations lead to getting fired. The sandbagger’s deals seem to suddenly appear out of nowhere and then rapidly progress through your sales stages and close in record time as if by some miracle.

The Mirage Seekers

More common are the Mirage Seekers, who drag deals along in their pipeline that will never close. They fear the verbal lashing that comes from their sales manager when they finally break the bad news that a deal has gone bad or was discovered to be weak from the beginning, so they naturally put this off as long as possible. The Mirage Seeker’s deals crumble at the end of the quarter due to “unforeseeable” events that were completely “outside of their control.”

Both of these behaviors result from sales managers who:

A. Give lip service to the idea of tracking deals from the very beginning but in reality develop unrealistic expectations too early in the process.

And/or

B. Say they want to hear bad news early and often but then when they do become negative and even abusive.

Successfully implemented sales stages can cut out the drama and subterfuge. The key is to define what constitutes evidence that each stage is complete. If your organization hasn’t defined what constitutes a tangible outcome of achieving each sales stage then you will never get past the soap opera of the “Sandbaggers” and “Mirage Seekers.” And, your sales managers will continue to reinforce these behaviors without clear outcomes to focus on for each sales stage.

So, how do you get started?

Start by defining your metric of success such as calculating the percentage of deals that will eventually close within each sales stage (step 1). You need a baseline to measure your ongoing progress and you need to see where your biggest spike is. Most organizations have 5-10 sales stages but only one where there is an appreciable spike in the probability of deals closing. Up until that point the deals are moving through the pipeline but the percentage of deals in each stage that will eventually close barely moves up a percentage or two. Then you will likely see one particular stage where there is a sudden spike. This is the stage where your managers threaten “Do or Die” because it gets forecasted. The other stages aren’t helping you understand what’s going on and therefore aren’t accomplishing much of anything.

Next, define what is considered evidence of the intended outcome of each stage from both the buyer and seller’s perspectives (step 2). Remember the good ol’ Stephen R. Covey habit #2: Begin with the end in mind. It really makes sense because until you have a clear consensus of what you expect to happen in each stage you won’t make much progress on the next step. Take a good look at the distinguishing characteristics of the deals you are consistently closing as a guide for defining your outcomes for each stage. Talk to your Sandbaggers to find out what is really going on with their deals as they progress.

Finally, provide tools and resources that help the buyer do their job (step 3). These tools should produce something tangible—what Project Managers call “completion criteria.” To define the completion criteria ask: What is the format of the completed thing (email, notes from a meeting, project plan, RFP template etc.)? Also, as much as possible provide resources that move the process along from the perspective of the buyer. Ask yourself: “What are the outcomes the buyer should be achieving?” Then provide generic templates and tools your reps can provide to their internal champions that accomplish those objectives. One of the biggest reasons deals don’t close is the buyer’s lack of experience with managing a complex procurement process. Solve this problem for them and you’ve already proven your value as a solution partner.

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