In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been coaching and mentoring several sales teams on how to navigate to power and involve true decision makers in their conversations – so that they’ll win significantly more business.

If you’re finding that your deals drag on for months or that your salespeople’s proposals are ending in “no decision” or “closed lost,” there is a high probability that they are sending their quotes and proposals to ‘influencers’ who have asked for these quotes or proposals.

What’s wrong with that you may be asking? Isn’t that what I want, proposals out the door?

Yes…and no.

Those of you that follow my posts will know that I advocate for having business conversations with decision makers – because that is where your salespeople have a high probability of getting a decision; winning the deal or getting out of a low probability opportunity fast. It’s where you can improve your win rates by as much as 30%+ (effectiveness) and become much more efficient as a sales organization.

The reasons most salespeople are sending out quotes and proposals to influencers, where the probability of getting a win is drastically reduced, are because:

The customer asked for one - so they responded happily. Serving the customer, right? (unthinking stimulus and response)
They’ve not been taught to only propose when they have spoken with ALL key stakeholders (a paradigm or mindset)
They don’t know “how” to ask influencers for access to other stakeholders without offending the influencer (conversation and influence skill)
They don’t know how to have a business discovery conversation – they only know how to run a sales discovery conversation (a confidence and skills training issue)
Their leadership hasn’t made these distinctions either and can’t model the behavior they want their troops to execute (leadership blind spot)

Here’s why.

Research shows that the probability of winning deals climbs dramatically from high teens to around 65% when all stakeholders, including the ultimate decision maker, have been involved in your conversations with the customer.

And because they’ve been involved in the conversations, they become ‘emotionally’ engaged in the process (hopefully!). That’s because they’ve had a chance to talk/meet with your salesperson and get to know them (rapport, trust, likeability) vs. just seeing a salesperson’s name on a document. There has been a human to human emotional connection made and they will see and hear their words reflected back at them in the proposal and feel that their fingerprints are on the proposal. It is harder to say “no” to someone when you know them.

Without your salesperson making this connection with other stakeholders, I will argue that they’re not serving themselves (or your company) or the influencer’s best interest because not doing this will sabotage the chances of getting a sale approved. They risk getting a “not invented here” reaction when a key stakeholder sees the proposal without having spoken with your salesperson.

So, here’s an action for you.

Before your salespeople quote/propose, insist that they speak with all stakeholders, including the ultimate decision maker. Your new results will delight you.

If your sales team is struggling with high proposal but low win rates and has done so for more than 30 days, it’s time to get outside help. I’ll share some ideas on “how” to increase both the confidence and capability of your salespeople to ask for and get introduced to all stakeholders including the ultimate decision maker in a way that makes your influencer comfortable and happy. It could be just what your sales team needs to get results like this.

“Using the techniques you shared for successful executive connection, my team drove 120% sales plan attainment in 2019. I have 3 reps on pace for a President’s Club spot – TBA at our upcoming sales forum. Your approach is fun, easy to use, and it works!” - Regional Sales Manager, $2B services company

Give me a call.