Securing Your Win, After You’ve Won the Business
Winning the business is only part of the victory... SECURING that win is what seals the deal!
At Slattery Sales Group, we’ve worked with sales teams at 2,400 different companies. We’ve seen a lot, including some late-stage surprises that derailed an otherwise excellently-executed win. (In some cases, it was our client who was the more-nimble competitor!)
Here’s a short excerpt from our book “Wimp Junction” (our comprehensive guide to avoid the prospect’s buying process and win more business at high value):
We once helped a client – let’s call them UpStart, Inc. – win a piece of business with a large prospect for the first time. UpStart, Inc. was relatively small, and they had been competing against a large, established enterprise for the business. It was a difficult and competitive sale. UpStart, Inc. moved with agility and leveraged their DV throughout the sale very effectively, especially in the last few days of the prospect’s decision-making process.
Unbeknownst to us, their competitor was so convinced this deal was secure that they had already booked a private room at a local restaurant to celebrate their win. (They hadn’t learned about fiction-free forecasting yet!) When the phone call announcing their loss to UpStart, Inc. came in, the celebration had already started, and the drinks were freely flowing. The party quickly turned into a wake.
Don’t underestimate the speed, agility, or skills of your competitors; make sure you’re leveraging your DV all the way through the close of the sale, and work with your prospect to secure your win even once they’ve made their decision in your favor.
To help our clients avoid being unseated by agile competitors after they’ve won the business, we offer some wisdom from our book “Wimp Junction” to ensure that their win remains a win:
You won! Congratulations… but you’re not out of the woods yet. This is the place where many salespeople get blindsided by sudden unexpected changes in heart and mind. You must prepare for inevitable competitive reactions, both internal and external, to avoid any nasty surprises here.
Every sale is competitive – that is, there are always competitors in the race with you, ready to take the business away from you. Even if your only competitor is the status quo favored by the Logical Customer, it’s still a competitor. Your questions throughout your selling conversations – especially around their process to evaluate and decide on a solution – helped you get a strategic view of the competitive landscape, and you probably have a pretty good idea of who your primary competitor is in this sale.
When you are advised you have won, you must reconfirm it. Don’t throw your victory party yet. The winner always gets notified first; it’s the more pleasant phone call, and human nature tends to prioritize the pleasant. The losers will be notified next – and you need to count on a loser appealing for another look. They may announce some hot new technology or a last-minute breakthrough that will allow them to reprice their original offer.
To strengthen your win with some victory insurance, address the possibility of competitive reactions with your prospect. Do this when they’re notifying you that you won the business:
Anticipate how your prospect will react to a last-minute pitch from your competition.
Discuss with your prospect how they will handle that pitch; you can even practice what the conversation will sound like together.
Reestablish their commitment to you.
Here’s what it might sound like:
“What do you think Brand X will do when they find out you’ve decided to make a change?”
“How do you plan to react or deal with that?”
“What is your view of the final outcome of those discussions?”
The competitive reactions could come from outsiders who were also competing for the business or from within the prospect organization (for example, the Logical Customer who’s disgruntled because they’ve been overridden, or the guy on the Board who’d promised his buddy the business but got outvoted).
Either way, if you anticipate and prepare for the backlash with these simple questions, you’re more likely to thwart their efforts and keep your win secure.
These excerpts from our book “Wimp Junction” can be found in Chapter 9 (“Secure”, the last stage in our sale), where we walk through various strategies to win the business and secure this valuable new revenue stream for a long time.
Winning the business is only part of the victory... SECURING that win seals the deal!
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At Slattery Sales Group, we empower great companies and sellers to win more business in less time.
Our clients tell us we help them raise revenues, bolster margins, shorten sales cycles, and compete more effectively in the marketplace. We'd love to help you do that, too.
To expedite your progress:
🔷 Grab our book HERE to get that important sale moving again.
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If you want to learn more about how we've helped over 2,400 enterprises enhance their sales processes, contact us through phone: 952-832-5436, or email: info@slatterysales.com. We'd love to connect.