Must-Win Deals: How to Close Them
Book one in the Must Win Deals series, “Must-Win Deals (How to Close Them and Why We Lose Them)” is available on Amazon. In the past 20 plus years of working key B2B Deals from both the selling and buying side, I’ve distilled my experience to four critical things that we, as sellers, routinely do that make it challenging for customers to award us the business.
These conclusions have resulted from many discussions with buying executives about why they chose, or did not choose a particular supplier as well as won-lost analysis on the selling side. My observations were that these four issues kept coming up consistently in the case of lost deals. Several years ago, I started focusing on these four areas in my practice and saw firsthand, if we can avoid these common mistakes, our odds of winning (and winning big) will go up dramatically.
Good Selling!
Steve
The Irresistible Value Proposition
Book two in the Must-Win Deals series, “The Irresistible Value Proposition (Make the Customer Want What You’re Selling and Want It Now!” is available on Amazon. I would argue that your Value proposition is the definitive output of any selling motion, and yet value is perhaps the most misunderstood concept in business.
The purpose of the Value Proposition is to differentiate you from the customer’s most likely alternative (MLA) – and in the process, get then excited about the prospect of doing business with you now! To be truly irresistible, it should 1) clearly link to the key buying influencers top priorities; 2) highlight the incremental value to the alternative; and 3) use the customer’s metrics for success.
Good Selling!
Steve
The Compelling Proposal
Book three in the Must-Win Deals series, “The Compelling Proposal (Make It Easy for the Customer to Buy From You” is available on Amazon. Instead of a “check box” exercise, your proposal can be a strategic tool to bridge your selling activities and the negotiation.
To be truly compelling, your proposal should achieve the following objectives: 1) reinforce trust; 2) set up the right negotiation; 3) establish credibility; 4) manage uncertainty; and 5) allow the customer to buy and make it easy to sell internally. All of this can be achieved with just seven simple slides.
Good Selling!
Steve
CLICK HERE for the review from Kirkus.
The Painless Negotiation
Book four in the Must-Win Deals series is here! The Painless Negotiation Anchor Your Way To A Great Deal For Everyone is now available on Amazon. Where is it written that B2B negotiations must be contentious, painful and drawn out? Perhaps there’s a better way.
There are two basic reasons that B2B negotiations are painful for both parties: 1) You’re having the “wrong negotiation”; and 2) you’re negotiating the “wrong way”! You will learn how to use the critical concept of anchoring to shape or frame the right negotiation – and how to ensure the customer doesn’t anchor you on the wrong negotiation. You will then learn four simple rules for ensuring that you negotiate the right way and are not swayed by typical procurement tactics.
Good Selling!
Steve
Can't Lose Accounts
Book five in the Must-Win Deals series is finally here! Can’t-Lose Accounts: Deliver Value and Make It Simple to Renew and Buy More is now available on Amazon. While this book constitutes approximately 20% of the content of the series, from the Customer’s perspective, it should be more than 80%. After all, delivering the promised Value is what they’ve been anxiously waiting for.
This book is about getting credit for the Value delivered and making it the cornerstone of an ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship. Our goal is not to simply win a Deal, but to win a long-term Customer, one that will renew readily and proactively bring new opportunities for you to grow the relationship.
Cross-selling and upselling are arguably the “Holy Grail” of a recurring revenue model (along with retention). When you deliver Value to the people that matter, you make it very hard for a competitor to steal your business. We should always remember how difficult it is for the Customer to buy – and then demonstrate internally they made a good buying decision. Simply put, Past Value Delivered drives Customer retention and growth.
