The reports are in. Sales cycles are getting longer and close rates are dropping.

Executives’ inboxes are overwhelmed with automated cold emails (read: spam).

There are more and more competitors entering the market, making it harder for you to differentiate.

Your customer is paralyzed by indecision because budgets are tightening.

If it feels like a “Hail Mary” every time you are pitching a new customer, you aren’t alone.

The funny thing is, sales has always felt this way.

What’s old is new again.

Increasing competition, busy executives, and overwhelmed buyers have plagued B2B salespeople for decades.

But the best salespeople know how to break through the noise and get the customer to make a decision.

‍The average close rate for sales teams is 22%.

The best sales teams are converting 40%+ of their opportunities to customers.

Let’s take a closer look at what drives conversion rate for your active pipeline….

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‍Why do customers decide not to buy?

Every 3 months or so you should look back on all of your closed deals and perform a win/loss analysis.

It’s helpful to understand why your customers are saying “no”.

But be careful, because the win/loss analysis can be misleading.

In most instances, the data that you are relying on for your analysis is the sales rep’s interpretation of why the customer decided not to purchase your product.

It’s rare that a customer will share the real reason why they don’t want to buy.

They will point to price, or budget, or timing. But these are false objections.

The most likely loss reason? The customer decides to do nothing. 

They stick with their current solution.

It’s easier to maintain “business as usual” than it is to force your organization to go through the migration to a new solution or partner.

Why? Here are a few common reasons:

1. The switching costs are high
2. There’s tons of risk that the solution will not work
3. The champion doesn’t want to look bad in front of their boss or peers
4. They don’t believe that the solution will actually deliver the value that you are proposing

Your number one competitor in a deal is “business as usual”. Or “do nothing”. Or “indecision”.

It can be infuriating for a salesperson who thoughtfully brings customers along the buyer’s journey, only for them to decide that they don’t want to pursue a change in their business at all.

But when you understand how organizations make buying decisions, you can use this to you advantage to avoid a negative outcome in your sales opportunities.

‍Navigating Dysfunctional Buying Groups

Any time 2 or more people come together to make a decision...

It is a dysfunctional buying group.

Why? Because humans are imperfect at sharing information with one other.

If you don't believe me, try buying a new mattress with your significant other.

I learned this from my good friend Steve Richard many years ago, and it changed how I approached enterprise sales.

You sell to a buying group every time you sell something to a business.

Even if you are selling directly to the CEO.

They need buy-in from the people on their team who will implement your solution.

So how do you navigate dysfunctional buying groups?

You have to understand how organizations make purchasing decisions.

It's simple to understand. Check out the image below.

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You know Neil Rackham, the SPIN selling guy?

This image is from his lesser-known book Major Account Sales Strategy (it's a real page turner).

What Neil explains is that every buyer must go through a buying process, let's call it the Buyer's Circle.

Every buyer starts out in "business as usual".

This changes over time until the buyer recognizes a need.

Then they evaluate options for addressing the need.

They choose the best option then resolve any concerns related to moving forward with that option.

Then they make a decision, usually a purchasing decision.

And finally they implement the solution to reach a new version of "business as usual".

If this seems familiar, you might remember the 5 Stages of Awareness from Eugene Schwartz.

This is not so hard, right?

Well here's where the dysfunctional buying group comes in.

The most common reason for losing a deal is that the customer decides not to move forward. They choose to stay in "business as usual".

This happens when your buying group is not aligned on what the business needs and how to get it.

You've seen it before...

You are working with your champion and they get all the way to the DECISION stage.

Then you bring in an economic buyer who is all the way back at "business as usual".

The economic buyer is very far away from making a decision on a solution.

They don't even recognize that the company has a problem or need!

So how do you overcome this challenge with dysfunctional buying groups?

You have to create a "collective learning experience" amongst all of the major stakeholders in the deal.

Deals move faster when you align all of the buyers together in the buying process.

‍Creating alignment in the customer’s buying group

Before we can talk about turning opportunities into customers, we need to get clear on what makes a good opportunity.

Every sales team needs a clear definition of what makes a good opportunity.

In my experience, an opportunity must have these three criteria:

1. The company is a good fit with our ideal customer profile.
2. Our contact (or “champion”) at the company is aligned with one of our buyer personas. They are a key stakeholder in the evaluation and they are tasked with improving outcomes for their business.
3. Our champion has expressed (verbal or in writing) they they are interested in evaluating our product as a solution for their business.
   

If you have these three criteria, you have the makings of a good opportunity.

Now that you have identified the opportunity, you must work with your champion to outline the business needs and understand whether your product can deliver the value for their business.

We call this process “discovery” and it is as much for the customer as it is for the salesperson.

This is so important. You can’t fit a square peg in a round hole.

Many salespeople get “happy ears” early in the sales process and try to force the customer through the buying process without fully understanding if the company is a fit.

You close more deals when you choose good opportunities to pursue and you run a proper discovery process.

Some helpful tips for aligning with your champion:

• Remember that this is a commercial relationship. You can be friendly, but you are not friends. At some point you are going to ask them to purchase your product. You are going to ask them for money.
• Focus on educating the customer on the problem that they are experience, and how other companies like theirs are solving the problem. This established authority and provides value to the customer before you ask for anything in return.
• Set the expectations for your evaluation process. Share a timeline for how most companies evaluate your product. Bring the champion into the evaluation plan. Make sure your plan aligned with their buying process.
• Be prepared to find that your champion doesn’t know how to get the product purchased by their company. They likely don’t buy things often for the business. That’s your job, take the work off their plate. Make it easy for them to get the product bought within the business.
• Get a list of all the key stakeholders in the evaluation, and bring them into the buying process as early as possible. This is hard to do, but it’s critical to getting buy-in across the organization.

Once you have completed discovery you should be able to articulate the desired outcome for the prospect’s business. 

Write it down in black and white. Put it in terms that the customer would use to describe their business.

You’ve set up the opportunity for success, now you need to run a process to move the customer toward a decision.

‍Converting Opportunities to Customers with the 4 Keys

In 2018, our sales team was struggling. Closing 15% - 20% of opportunities to customers.

We were growing the revenue, but we needed to grow faster.

The opportunities were qualified, but we couldn’t get the close rate to move up no matter what we tried.

So we threw out our sales process and rewrote the playbook from opportunity to close.

We agreed to implement these 4 plays on every deal, no matter what.

I call them the 4 Keys to Unlock a Deal. Here they are:

‍1. Find your champion. 

Someone that is going to stick their neck out and recommend that the company purchase your product.

The champion is critical. If you don't have a champion, you don't have a deal.

Once you have your champion, you have to help that champion get the product bought within their organization.

It's most likely that your champion doesn't know how to actually get the organization to buy the product. They don't know how to navigate their own internal politics.

That's your job as a salesperson, you take this work off their shoulders.

‍2. Create a Closing Plan for the buying process. 

Some call these a Mutual Action Plan or a Joint Execution Plan. It's all the same thing.

You should write out, step-by-step, every conversation and meeting that will happen between your first demo and the successful implementation of your product.

Get your champion involved in creating the Closing Plan and let them coach you on how decisions get made in the business.

Larger deals have more complex Closing Plans. Smaller deals can simply put them in an email.

‍3. End every meeting by scheduling a next step on the calendar. 

This should be easy because you already have a Closing Plan.

The next step should be on your calendar and on your Champion's calendar. It may include other stakeholders from the executive team or legal. 

Just make sure you have a next meeting set.

‍4. Manufacture a compelling event. 

A compelling event has a specific date and it is tied to an economic outcome for the champion and their business.

The best companies in the industry use a discount or some other financial incentive to create a compelling event in their deals.

SUPER IMPORTANT: Create your compelling event AFTER you have confirmed your champion and you have set a closing plan.

Offering a discount is a great way to control the timing of a close, but a discount will not influence a customer to buy.

Only offer a discount once the decision has already been made to purchase your product.

‍Implement the 4 keys and you will see results

That’s it. We implemented this playbook and increased our close rate to 40%+ on deals where the playbook was executed.

I can’t guarantee that you will get to 40% conversion, but I CAN guarantee that you will increase your conversion rate if you do these four things on every deal.

Keep in mind that I’m making some big assumptions about your product and market. 

This playbook works when your product delivers on the value that you are proposing. 

It works when you have a big market to sell to. 

It works when you have set up the opportunity in the right way with good discovery.

If these are true about your product and sales process, then I know that you will convert more opportunities by following the playbook.