Wouldn't you like to know what your CIO, CEO or CFO Client Really Thinks. Gleaned from years of research, here is the unvarnished truth.
Sales Cycles in ICT are getting longer for some companies that can be a real killer to profitability and success. It doesn't have to be that hard. Here are my Top 5 Ways to Reduce ICT Sales Cycles
John Cleese’s genius in the classic Fawlty Towers is amplified by these extraordinary facts about work ethic: • Each 25-30 minute episode took 6 weeks for Cleese and his then wife, Connie Booth (Polly) to write. • There was a full hour of post production editing for every minute of each episode. One Ep. =25 hours. • The best episodes of all e.g. ‘The Germans’ had two or three plot threads that came together at the end, leaving the audience with resolution, satisfaction and admiration.
In selling technology solutions, often we see and think things that simply aren’t there. They are figments of our imagination, based on fear of losing, low confidence or false perception – sales ghost stories! Here are my top three ghost stories rolling around in the castle of our sales heads that can wipe out our chances of winning.
So you need a new sales person.You have 15 CVs in front of you and your short list is uncertain. Now what?
Pre-sales, gurus, solution architects, subject matter experts, wizards or whatever you call them in your organization, they are critical to winning complex deals. Many a holiday house has been purchased by a sales person off the back of a guru who wowed the client with their consummate mind-boggling expertise. If you have one, anoint their feet with ylang ylang oil and buy them the complete series of ‘Breaking Bad’ just to show you care. However, there are other pre-sales experts who, despite best intentions cause more pain for clients and in fact actually lead the client to say ‘ Nope…too hard, I’m going with someone else’. Here are my top ten things pre-sales and experts do that can kill the deal.
Recently, two very interesting things happened. I posted a short LinkedIn question ‘If you were selling your house on Sunday, you wouldn’t just drop the price 20% because the buyer asked you to. So, why would you do it at work on Monday?'
Do you remember how exciting it was to move up a grade in basketball, cricket, netball, football, karate or whatever your favourite sport was? Do you also remember coming home after realising that your famed lay up, defence, pace, inswinger, cut shot or height wasn’t anywhere near as effective and that the other teams had you worked out pretty quickly?
Most professional sales directors and sales people spend time assessing their competitors in the market. They duly check websites to see what they say about themselves, assess their products/services and review their pricing. Many of you will have had a friendly client who slipped you a discreet copy of a competitor’s proposal over a beer or three.
I’ve seen some amazing negotiators who have personally bought houses, Ferraris, a garage full of home appliances, even school fees with great results.
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