I’m very excited and somewhat stunned that my book, “Must-Win Deals (How to Close Them and Why We Lose Them)”, made the Best Seller list on Amazon for the category of “Business Education”!  In addition, it has hit Amazon’s Hot New Release for the categories of “Business Negotiating”, “Business Leadership” and “Knowledge Capital”!

I can’t thank all of you enough for making this happen as I am truly humbled and appreciative. Your supportive posts, emails and texts have made this a week to remember.  I’m trying very hard to keep up with and answer every one.

In the previous blog, we continued our discussion of the critical questions sales management should ask when it comes to closing must-win deals and explored “What Is Causing Uncertainty?”, which is present in every complex B2B sale. In this blog, we’ll show how we can manage that uncertainty as well as address the question “Can We Make It Easier for the Customer to Buy?”

As we learned, we will almost never have perfect information – and, in truth, we can’t have perfect information. This would require all of the customer buying influencers to be perfectly aligned on the outcomes they want to achieve and to basically be experts in what they are buying – meaning they can easily “connect the dots” between those desired outcomes and the right solution to deliver them. That’s just too much to expect!

In the previous blog, we continued our discussion of the critical questions sales management should ask when it comes to closing must-win deals and presented “The Irresistible Value Proposition”, which is the definitive output of selling. In this blog, we’ll explore a topic that does not get nearly enough attention (perhaps we don’t want to know the answer!) and that is “What Is Causing Uncertainty?”

In complex B2B deals, we will almost never have perfect information – and I submit we can’t have perfect information. The reason is that the source for much of our information for winning a deal is to get it directly from the customer. Is it reasonable to assume that the increased number of buying influencers are any more aligned internally that we are? Is it reasonable to assume they know exactly what outcomes they want to achieve (we should be the experts on the outcomes our solutions produce)? In short, the increased number of buying influencers and buying centers on the customer side have added another level of complexity and thus risk.

In the previous blog, we continued our discussion of the critical questions sales management should ask when it comes to closing must-win deals and explored “Why Will The Customer Want To Choose Us Right Now?”  We discussed perhaps one of the most misunderstood concepts in business and was value. In this blog, we’ll provide a capstone to the first four sales management questions by exploring what I consider the definitive output of any selling process and that is the Value Proposition.

Our goal should always be to present an Irresistible Value Proposition – one that will cause the customer to sit up, take notice, want what we’re selling and want it right now! However, we should first make a distinction between a “marketing value proposition” and a “sales value proposition” as I find many salespeople tend to equate the two, when they are really different things.

In the previous blog, we continued our discussion of the critical questions sales management should ask when it comes to closing must-win deals and explored “Can we win?” In this blog, we’ll explore why the customer would want to choose us – and do so with a sense of urgency. The answer to this question all boils down to perhaps the most misunderstood concept in sales and that is “Value.”

We lose deals because customers do not see the value of our offer. We win deals because they do. The more value a customer perceives, typically the deals become larger and the customer desires to close them quickly. It’s really no more complicated than that. So, what is value in B2B sales?