Hello my friend đ
I have been working on the background on how to create a better newsletter for you.
My goal is to publish a weekly newsletter that will help you win more B2B clients by providing resources, actionable tips and strategies that you can immediately apply to your career and business.
You will see some great changes in the next couple of editions as I get into a rabbit hole! âșïž
Okay, let's start digging!
This week, I want to talk about a question my student asked me during our cohort training.
"Ren, I got ghosted. I submitted a proposal and never heard back. "
Sounds familiar? How many times have we heard this or experienced it?
It turns out, it was not clear with my student what the budget was and how the client makes decisions.
If you remember, last week's newsletter was about the 5 False Beliefs in B2B Sales.
Let's dive deep into False Belief#3.
Most people think successful salespeople need to be ABC.
(Always Be Closing).
Ironically the opposite is true.
The most successful salespeople do 10% closing, and, 90% listening, qualifying, giving value, and understanding client challenges and aspirations.
Facts:
One research firm confirms that 65% of salespeople are pursuing worthless deals.
And 80% of deals are lost because of a lack of sales strategy and inefficient sales process.
The objective of a proposal is to enable prospects to make a decision.
So NEVER EVER send a proposal when you don't have the complete information, strategy, and trusted relationships.
There are 3 Key things you need to qualify and understand in B2B deals.
Opportunity
Resources (Time, Financial and People)
Decision Process
Let's focus on Qualifying Opportunities for this week.
Here are Five Steps to Qualifying high-value B2B Opportunities so you can Stop Wasting Time and Resources and Win more Sales.
Step 1: Don't jump into pitching
Value and trust need to be established before a flow of meaningful information can happen.
Before talking about our product and services, understand what problems and results our clients want to achieve. Actively Listen and ask effective questions. Build the relationship by truly being interested with your client.
Example Questions:
What business results do you hope we can help you achieve?
What top business priorities do you have to accomplish next year with this project?
Let's say we can solve the problem. What would allow you to do as a business that you can't do today?
Step 2: Dig out all the pain
Encourage the client to talk all about their issues and concerns
Acknowledge and show empathy
Summarize
Validate and confirm
Step 3: Prioritize the issues
Once you have a list of issues, ask your clients to prioritize.
You can say, "I am sure all these issues are important and interrelated. Is there one that you feel has the most impact? Once the client picks one, go in-depth and dig deep.
Step 4: Gather Evidence and Impact
How do you know it is a problem? How can you monetize the client issues? Monetizing client issues is a great way to provide the value of your product or solution.
Use the 5 Golden Questions Framework
How do you measure it?
What is it now?
What would you like it to be?
What is the value of the difference?
What is the value over time?
Step 5: Explore Context and Constraints
When the impact of the solution is significant, we need to understand why our client has not been able to resolve the issue on their own.
It could be that they don't have the resources or expertise. Understanding the context and constraints allows us to understand the opportunity on a deeper level and provides us with more ways to add value to our clients.
Example questions:
What is the big picture or vision?
How would you measure success?
What is the impact on the business?
What is the payoff if success is achieved?
What is letting you know that it is a problem?
What has stopped the organization from solving it in the past?
âAfter your meeting, ask your client, "Did I get it right? Did I leave anything out?
That's it for this week!
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