Risk
is a big part of the sales game these days. Have you thought about how
you are minimizing your prospects risk? Are you even taking into
account the fact that they are assessing very carefully the risk of
every decision they make? When the wallets start to tighten up and
companies stop hiring and start firing; you’re prospect is going to be
very risk averse. Look at it from the perspective of the client – maybe
the incumbent doesn’t have incredible customer service but it’s
serviceable. Maybe they are more expensive, less knowledgeable and
their product/service doesn’t offer as much benefit as yours but they
are at least getting the job done.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you can do it better, faster, cheaper with no down time and higher levels of customer service. Here’s why – The vendor they don’t know and don’t have experience with could be much, much worse than the vendor they do know and kind of like.
Do your Sales Tactics Manage Risk Better than your Competition?
As a salesperson, now more than ever, you must become not only a manager of expectations, persuasive and provide more value but you must also manage risk much better than your competitors.
Who else is at Risk?
Let’s look at another situation; the prospective client doesn’t like the incumbent. They are putting out an RFP to pick their next vendor. You enter into the RFP with high hopes. You put together a good proposal, build a good relationship with your contact and make the final round, but are shielded from the decision maker until the last meeting. In almost every case like this you’ve already lost. Here’s why, the decision maker is talking to someone, it’s just not you. They went out and got a recommendation from their friend/brother/colleague/whoever that they trust. That recommendation gives your competition a direct competitive advantage over you. The trust of the referrer is carried with them, pretty much common sense, right? Except you put all this time and effort into the deal, you told your VP/Sales Manager/CEO that you guys had a great shot at this and convinced them to put company resources into competing for the deal. You put your neck on the line and the deal didn’t go through…
You are at Risk!
So there’s even more risk you must manage, your own. Every time you put a deal on the table and it doesn’t go through, you can diminish the faith your organization has in you. Especially if your industry is hit hard and you aren’t closing deals like your company needs to be.
Selling Strategies for Risk Reduction
If you aren’t building risk reduction strategies into your proposals and selling techniques then you are way behind your competition. Minimizing your prospects risk is the name of the game today. Because if they feel at all like you are a risky proposition, and they make a mistake on you…they are putting their own necks on the chopping block. Ask yourself this question when you get frustrated with a prospect choosing your competition; why should they risk their job for me when they don’t even really know me? Would you risk your job for a salesperson trying to sell you something if you felt any kind of risk associated with them? I doubt it. Neither will your prospects. Learn how to minimize their risk and you will close the deal!
by Chris Scirpoli
http://www.invokeselling.com/
Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you can do it better, faster, cheaper with no down time and higher levels of customer service. Here’s why – The vendor they don’t know and don’t have experience with could be much, much worse than the vendor they do know and kind of like.
Do your Sales Tactics Manage Risk Better than your Competition?
As a salesperson, now more than ever, you must become not only a manager of expectations, persuasive and provide more value but you must also manage risk much better than your competitors.
Who else is at Risk?
Let’s look at another situation; the prospective client doesn’t like the incumbent. They are putting out an RFP to pick their next vendor. You enter into the RFP with high hopes. You put together a good proposal, build a good relationship with your contact and make the final round, but are shielded from the decision maker until the last meeting. In almost every case like this you’ve already lost. Here’s why, the decision maker is talking to someone, it’s just not you. They went out and got a recommendation from their friend/brother/colleague/whoever that they trust. That recommendation gives your competition a direct competitive advantage over you. The trust of the referrer is carried with them, pretty much common sense, right? Except you put all this time and effort into the deal, you told your VP/Sales Manager/CEO that you guys had a great shot at this and convinced them to put company resources into competing for the deal. You put your neck on the line and the deal didn’t go through…
You are at Risk!
So there’s even more risk you must manage, your own. Every time you put a deal on the table and it doesn’t go through, you can diminish the faith your organization has in you. Especially if your industry is hit hard and you aren’t closing deals like your company needs to be.
Selling Strategies for Risk Reduction
- If the prospect likes the incumbent, don’t try to compete. It’s almost pointless; you’re probably never going to get in. You will have to at least wait until they screw up and that could be never. Instead find complimentary areas the incumbent isn’t covering and try to provide a product or service to fill those needs. Even if it’s only a small amount of business this can get your foot in the door on a key account. From there if they like the work you do, you can begin to discuss taking on increased responsibilities within the company. There may be areas the incumbent isn’t doing the best job in but they didn’t want to rock the boat. It’s often times better to have selling tactics like water, slowly chipping away to build the Grand Canyon rather than like dynamite which can collapse the tunnel behind you.
- Another great way to reduce organizational risk for your clients is to break the project up into phases or chunks. If you know you have great customer service, your operations are responsive and your product/service is going to knock their socks off. Don’t go for the entire contract at once. I’m not suggesting a try before you buy. I’m simply saying, break their spending up into phases if you’re confident once they pick you they won’t go anywhere else. You give the prospect a chance to work with you and truly understand the kind of value you bring to the table before they commit to a number that they may be uncomfortable with. Then simply moving into the next phases of the project becomes a formality. You managed their risk and hesitance to sign up front by making the numbers more palatable.
- Finally, manage your own risk. Don’t spend inordinate amounts of time on deals that have little chance of closing. Look at your past successes to truly understand the type of client you are best at getting to sign. You are often times better off spending your time looking for those clients rather than trying to close something that is on the outlier of your sales abilities. That doesn’t mean we don’t take risks in sales and go for the long shots. It means we put most of our time and energy into the solid deals we have so we can afford to take a long shot every now and then.
If you aren’t building risk reduction strategies into your proposals and selling techniques then you are way behind your competition. Minimizing your prospects risk is the name of the game today. Because if they feel at all like you are a risky proposition, and they make a mistake on you…they are putting their own necks on the chopping block. Ask yourself this question when you get frustrated with a prospect choosing your competition; why should they risk their job for me when they don’t even really know me? Would you risk your job for a salesperson trying to sell you something if you felt any kind of risk associated with them? I doubt it. Neither will your prospects. Learn how to minimize their risk and you will close the deal!
by Chris Scirpoli
http://www.invokeselling.com/
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