Join us for a brief discussion about the three challenges we're seeing sales leaders face as they approach end of month, end of quarter, and end of year.
The challenges, as mentioned, tend to come at the end of the month, or at the end of the year, or at the end of the quarter -- when prospects know that sales teams are under pressure to make their numbers.
What we're seeing most commonly from prospects at those vulnerable times are these three pressures:
They're asking for ridiculous payment terms.
They're asking for price concessions.
They're asking to re-open a deal that you already had underway with them, and of course, open up the price discussion so they can get lower prices.
Unfortunately, this means that the prospect has lost their focus, and now they're focusing on price instead of on the true total cost, which is the strongest place from which to run a complex sale.
So you want to ask yourself this question to re-set the landscape for your sale: What's going to happen to whom if they don't buy from us, or if this thing gets delayed for another quarter or two?
Because -- and this requires ruthless honesty!-- you want to remember that if delay is free, you don't have a prospect.
Seek to understand: Who is going to feel the consequences of delay, or even of losing your Differentiating Value (DV) by buying from somebody who doesn't have it? In other words, who's going to feel those consequences the most? And then, invoke the agenda of that person in your conversations -- even if you can't talk to them.
(Of course, if you can talk to them, that's great! You can ask the same question, modified just bit. But for now, we'll assume that you're being harassed by someone in procurement, vendor management, purchasing, supply chain, or even I.T. And they're holding up your deal so they can get some concessions out of you.)
What you want to ask this price-conscious gatekeeper might sound like this (keeping in mind that you've thought about what will be the most severe consequences whoever's going to feel them is going to suffer):
"I realize you're under a lot of pressure to try to get some concessions and perhaps a better price. And it's unfortunate if the focus has shifted off of true total cost of a solution over time, which is what we've been talking about with the rest of the organization. And so, if you'll recall, this was an initiative to increase revenue that we were working on. And now it sounds like you're willing to delay realization of that revenue for at least one or two quarters while we continue to have these discussions about getting a better price. So I'm curious: when you explained to the vice president of sales that she was going to have to be waiting to realize the revenue that was going to be created by the new initiative that we proposed, and when you explained to her that she was going to have to wait, maybe one, two, or more quarters to harvest that revenue, what was her reaction?"
Remember: always take the conversation to the consequences! In this case, the consequences are unrealized or delayed revenue.
Those consequences will ALWAYS trump the size of any little price concession they're trying to take out of you.
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