We get a lot of prospective clients interested to know what we do. They like our case studies and projects get identified. But a lot of discussions turn cold after that. What are we doing wrong?
I would like to suggest some questions which may help your sales approach:
-> Does the fact that your products (quizzification and enterprise gamification) are new to the Indian market presuppose any buying challenges to your targeted prospects (understanding what benefits can they get)?
-> The fact that you were able to work with Top 5 companies may presuppose also that your prices may be perceived as high by the other targeted prospects?
-> Have you approached the decision makers, or at least, the influencers of your prospects, in the sales process? Have THEY liked your case studies and identified projects? Have they CLEARLY acknowledged the fact that they consider your products can bring important benefits for their business?
-> Do your prospects have the need, the budget, intend to buy NOW/in the immediate future your products? Do they have other priorities that would explain why you say that discussions turn cold?
-> Have you asked, DIRECTLY, your targeted prospects, why the discussions turned cold?
-> Are you sure you have eliminated all the objections coming from your prospects?
-> Do you have a clear set of predefined steps in the sales process to facilitate the buying stage as much as possible for your prospects?
==============
One of the ways that salespeople (no matter what their actual title is) screw themselves out of business is by being too passive during the sales process. Once you've got a prospect that likes your case studies and who has identified projects for you to work on you need to move the sale along and the best way to do that is to always secure a Best Next Action Step. make certain that every meeting and phone call ends with setting up another meeting or phone call.
By consistently working with prospects that will meet or speak with you again you invest your time with people who may actually be interested in working with you.
The typical salesperson leaves a meeting and their strategy is to go back to the office and think about what happened on the sales call then try to get in touch with the prospect again at an "appropriate" time. (When the proposal is ready, when they think the prospect might want to hear from them again, etc.) By securing another appointment while you're in front of the prospect you find out whether they have any interest or not. People who are potentially interested in doing business with you will meet with you again. People who aren't interested, but don't want to hurt your feelings by telling you "No" will tell you to "Give me a cal in a few weeks." (Next month, next quarter, when hell freezes over, etc.)
Always get a Best Next Action Step.
=============
Your product is strategic in nature and hence you need to chalk out with your client, how is going to improve their business. Conversely what will happen if they do not embrace {Pain & Nightmare Scenario}- This should be established from the client's perspective than coming from your product features.
You are bringing in a change of behaviour/culture to the organisation and your contact may not be in a position to make that change . Hence it is important that you must ideally involve & validate your ideas with the CEO/VPs(in the Indian context) . Therefore , Understanding and engaging Decision Makers & Influencers are must. You must also have a Champion (within the organisation or outside, say a consultant or a mutual friend), Who will help you with the organisation buying process. My guess is that their traditional buying process, may not allow them to decide on such a product and this might be one of the reason they are turning cold.
I always would suggest that you must have a "Check and Pre-Close" after the initial interest is established - You must meet the decision maker(along with the champion) in person and establish the need, the budget, time frame and the buying process. In fact if this positive outcome of this phase is you are able to get the concurrence on the time, need and budgets and the evaluation process Since you are in a niche area, it creates a discomfort for them to compare them with a competitor - You must ask a question that is going thru the decision maker's mind -" this is a new area; how can I trust Raj from quiz work on a new product -?" Hence the support of Champion really helps.
You must bail out of the account if the "Check and Pre-close " turns negative.
I have encountered a lot of Idiosyncrasies in the Indian context, especially in Service Design Proposal like you.
1) The indian prospects are not explicit about their buying power/authority. They will always give an impression that they are the one who will decide. They will not be open with you that they do not have decision making/influencing authority. You need to sense these cases during initial stage and bail out
2)I have always found that the interest rate is very high till you give them a proposal, after which, most of you will become cold
My suggestions
A) Sharpen the "Check and Pre-Close " stage - You should be ruthless to bails out of negative outcomes, that prospects turning cold later.
B) I would recommend that initial stages you personally should be involved in this stage. You get a sense of the prospect by eye contact and body language.
C) You must get a concurrence on the time ( leading question, would you like to inaugurate this when?), their budget (Is it there, should it be hijacked or created, who will do it from their organisation, and the evaluation process)
D) You must keep two kinds of prospects. High interest and wants to be educated and. High convergence, who will close. The former, put them as a part of your campaign and keep the relationship.
5) You must ensure that your sales really should justify a tech demo and the proposal. Ask them the outcome. why should you waste time and resources on this proposal?
6) I always give the proposal after getting an informal agreement with the client that the next stage is the negotiation. That way you can improve the conversion.
with Best wishes
BALA
==================
Raj, you’ve received truly tremendous comments so far.
The core issue is that you are proposing FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE; there are too many stakeholders in the old way of doing things. You’ll get head nods all day but no action until you create urgency.
Convincing the CEO isn’t sufficient. You may get the sale but your product will never work. You’ve got to get the folks who are going to implement your solution excited. You’ve got to identify opportunities with them to safely solve visible problems that have been vexing the organization for some time (i.e. teaching new-hires to make the better decisions faster).
To make that decision safe, you’ve got to create small, measurable and complete solutions where you control the variables (don’t rely on their departments to provide data, inputs, support, etc.). Then get buy-in that if this small project is successful that they are committed to the next step.
As has been mentioned, you need to develop internal champions or things will go nowhere. Businesses don’t buy stuff that’s unproven because it can be career suicide. So your job is to remove that career risk and turn it into career opportunity.
The good news is if you accomplish this you have developed a very reliable stream of revenue for a long time to come.
-> Does the fact that your products (quizzification and enterprise gamification) are new to the Indian market presuppose any buying challenges to your targeted prospects (understanding what benefits can they get)?
-> The fact that you were able to work with Top 5 companies may presuppose also that your prices may be perceived as high by the other targeted prospects?
-> Have you approached the decision makers, or at least, the influencers of your prospects, in the sales process? Have THEY liked your case studies and identified projects? Have they CLEARLY acknowledged the fact that they consider your products can bring important benefits for their business?
-> Do your prospects have the need, the budget, intend to buy NOW/in the immediate future your products? Do they have other priorities that would explain why you say that discussions turn cold?
-> Have you asked, DIRECTLY, your targeted prospects, why the discussions turned cold?
-> Are you sure you have eliminated all the objections coming from your prospects?
-> Do you have a clear set of predefined steps in the sales process to facilitate the buying stage as much as possible for your prospects?
==============
One of the ways that salespeople (no matter what their actual title is) screw themselves out of business is by being too passive during the sales process. Once you've got a prospect that likes your case studies and who has identified projects for you to work on you need to move the sale along and the best way to do that is to always secure a Best Next Action Step. make certain that every meeting and phone call ends with setting up another meeting or phone call.
By consistently working with prospects that will meet or speak with you again you invest your time with people who may actually be interested in working with you.
The typical salesperson leaves a meeting and their strategy is to go back to the office and think about what happened on the sales call then try to get in touch with the prospect again at an "appropriate" time. (When the proposal is ready, when they think the prospect might want to hear from them again, etc.) By securing another appointment while you're in front of the prospect you find out whether they have any interest or not. People who are potentially interested in doing business with you will meet with you again. People who aren't interested, but don't want to hurt your feelings by telling you "No" will tell you to "Give me a cal in a few weeks." (Next month, next quarter, when hell freezes over, etc.)
Always get a Best Next Action Step.
=============
Your product is strategic in nature and hence you need to chalk out with your client, how is going to improve their business. Conversely what will happen if they do not embrace {Pain & Nightmare Scenario}- This should be established from the client's perspective than coming from your product features.
You are bringing in a change of behaviour/culture to the organisation and your contact may not be in a position to make that change . Hence it is important that you must ideally involve & validate your ideas with the CEO/VPs(in the Indian context) . Therefore , Understanding and engaging Decision Makers & Influencers are must. You must also have a Champion (within the organisation or outside, say a consultant or a mutual friend), Who will help you with the organisation buying process. My guess is that their traditional buying process, may not allow them to decide on such a product and this might be one of the reason they are turning cold.
I always would suggest that you must have a "Check and Pre-Close" after the initial interest is established - You must meet the decision maker(along with the champion) in person and establish the need, the budget, time frame and the buying process. In fact if this positive outcome of this phase is you are able to get the concurrence on the time, need and budgets and the evaluation process Since you are in a niche area, it creates a discomfort for them to compare them with a competitor - You must ask a question that is going thru the decision maker's mind -" this is a new area; how can I trust Raj from quiz work on a new product -?" Hence the support of Champion really helps.
You must bail out of the account if the "Check and Pre-close " turns negative.
I have encountered a lot of Idiosyncrasies in the Indian context, especially in Service Design Proposal like you.
1) The indian prospects are not explicit about their buying power/authority. They will always give an impression that they are the one who will decide. They will not be open with you that they do not have decision making/influencing authority. You need to sense these cases during initial stage and bail out
2)I have always found that the interest rate is very high till you give them a proposal, after which, most of you will become cold
My suggestions
A) Sharpen the "Check and Pre-Close " stage - You should be ruthless to bails out of negative outcomes, that prospects turning cold later.
B) I would recommend that initial stages you personally should be involved in this stage. You get a sense of the prospect by eye contact and body language.
C) You must get a concurrence on the time ( leading question, would you like to inaugurate this when?), their budget (Is it there, should it be hijacked or created, who will do it from their organisation, and the evaluation process)
D) You must keep two kinds of prospects. High interest and wants to be educated and. High convergence, who will close. The former, put them as a part of your campaign and keep the relationship.
5) You must ensure that your sales really should justify a tech demo and the proposal. Ask them the outcome. why should you waste time and resources on this proposal?
6) I always give the proposal after getting an informal agreement with the client that the next stage is the negotiation. That way you can improve the conversion.
with Best wishes
BALA
==================
Raj, you’ve received truly tremendous comments so far.
The core issue is that you are proposing FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE; there are too many stakeholders in the old way of doing things. You’ll get head nods all day but no action until you create urgency.
Convincing the CEO isn’t sufficient. You may get the sale but your product will never work. You’ve got to get the folks who are going to implement your solution excited. You’ve got to identify opportunities with them to safely solve visible problems that have been vexing the organization for some time (i.e. teaching new-hires to make the better decisions faster).
To make that decision safe, you’ve got to create small, measurable and complete solutions where you control the variables (don’t rely on their departments to provide data, inputs, support, etc.). Then get buy-in that if this small project is successful that they are committed to the next step.
As has been mentioned, you need to develop internal champions or things will go nowhere. Businesses don’t buy stuff that’s unproven because it can be career suicide. So your job is to remove that career risk and turn it into career opportunity.
The good news is if you accomplish this you have developed a very reliable stream of revenue for a long time to come.
