Money Before Technology I will argue that you should talk to a buyer about money before you talk about technical details. Believe it or not, buyers are on board with this idea. It’s salespeople who aren’t. Doing a quick analysis and getting a buyer’s input on whether it makes financial sense to move forward is a much quicker process than dealing with technology. This saves … Read more
4 Rules of Price Concessions When a buyer puts pressure on a seller, the seller’s natural reaction is to start offering concessions. Yet if a seller gives big discounts quickly, they degrade themselves and diminish their offering in the eyes of the buyer. Before giving any concessions, savvy sales negotiators will deploy the mobile defense plan to politely, but firmly, stand behind the price. If … Read more
Revealing Cost: Questions to Ask a Financial Decision Maker When you have an opportunity to work with a prospect to build a business case, it’s important to involve the financial decision maker to co-build the business case. This is imperative to success because we have to let them do the math on the cost/benefit analysis. If they do not do the math, they don’t believe … Read more
Building the Business Case in Times of Uncertainty I’ve talked before about the competition for funding within a business and how financial decision makers will choose to fund projects that have the quickest and most reliable ROI. In the midst of the pandemic, cash is more precious than ever and many CFOs are unwilling to make investments unless they have a clear ROI AND a … Read more
Building the Business Case: Real World Sales Conversations In Building the Business Case: Financial Decision Makers, I suggested that, to translate technical wins to revenue, we have to ask questions that: Connect the buyer’s need to enterprise priorities (the arrow labeled 3 below) Quantify the financial impact (the arrow labeled 4 below). If you need help on how to translate the Need Diagnostic outline into … Read more
Building the Business Case: Financial Decision Makers In Building the Business Case: The cost of status quo, I observed that most of us were taught to focus on the buyer’s budget. I suggested that the budget doesn’t matter. Only the perceived cost of the status quo matters. Price and budget are on the same side of the see saw. The larger the cost of the … Read more
Building the Business Case: The Cost of Status Quo BANT = BUNK? A Zen Koan is a riddle that Buddhist monks use to open their minds. Here’s a sales Koan: The B in BANT does not matter. Most sales processes qualify based on the buyer’s budget. After all, we do not want to put tons of time into an opportunity only to find out there’s … Read more
Trouble Justifying the Price The sales challenge I recently talked to a sales manager about a coaching session he had with a sales rep. The sales rep was having a good sales call. The client had a problem they could solve. The conversation was positive and engaged. Then the inevitable price question arose. The client said, “How much does it cost?” The sales rep gave … Read more
Major Opportunity Planning When to apply a strategic selling process Not all opportunities require a strategic planning process. Too much process is like cutting butter with a chainsaw. But, if you are cutting down an oak, you don’t want to use a butter knife. Three Battle Fronts Major opportunities are fought on three fronts: Technology – WHAT do we need? Financial – HOW MUCH financial … Read more
Financial Selling A single silver bullet fired by the CFO shoots down many good projects. “Why now?” I just had lunch with a friend who advises Federal CIO’s and CFO’s on procurement. He said 75% of projects fail in the business case, not the technical evaluation. When we propose a solution, we may think the question we are trying to answer is, “Does my solution … Read more