Hunting for Big Sales with Tom Searcy | From “Yes” to Money

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From “Yes” to Money

March 16, 2009 By: Tom Searcy

Chevy Chase was famous for saying that working with Christie Brinkley in National Lampoon’s Vacation was like holding an ice cream cone all day that you were not allowed to lick.

Lots of my clients have been stuck at “yes” in their sales processes lately. They get the deal, or so it would seem. They have a signed agreement and approval….yet they are not able to turn that into money. Sometimes, they can get the first dollars of the deal and then get stuck at a fraction of what they anticipated. Others get a big piece of the business, but full revenue realization bogs down. We have broken it down in this way…

Phase 1 – Interest to first dollar. Often the hardest dollar to get is the first one. You have to overcome all of the inertia of your prospect – the sheer weight of change- to even get to the first small invoice.

Phase 2 – First dollar to 30% – 50% of opportunity. Once you have broken through the proof of concept phase of the sale, this is the period when you are pushing for significance. Without significance – purchases greater than a few percentage points of the entire buy in this area within your client- the incumbent provider will always have the control of time and attention within the key buyers in the account.

Phase 3 – Getting to 100%. The final portion of the sale. There is an old expression that says “Never corner a snake…unless you intend to kill it.” Once you have 30-50% of the business, your competitor is going to feel deeply threatened and will try every trick in the book to keep the business. Discounts, promises, tears…whatever it takes to get the business back- which makes this the most dangerous phase of all three. In Phase 1 you have nothing to lose; in Phase 3, your competitor has everything to lose.

The big problem that we often see is that the companies doing the hunting often keep doing the same thing with the same people and yet expecting different results…(see definition of insanity). They send their sales person in to the client and ask a version of, “So, when are we going to move forward with this program?” These companies lack a very critical understanding:

The people and business issues that got you in the door are not the same ones that will allow the business to grow.

The Buyer’s Table changes from Phase 1 to Phase 2 and from Phase 2 to Phase 3. As do the driving advantages that the company is seeking as do the fears that keep them from moving forward. These changes are sometimes subtle, but they are significant enough to determine whether or not your company is going to be growing the account or not. A simple breakdown looks like this:

	Buyer’s Table	Advantages	Fears
Phase 1	Director-level buyer responsible for this area of performance Director’s peers Director’s immediate subordinates Procurement	Time Money Risk	Mistakes More Work Resistance Internally
Phase 2	Managers and Supervisors in area of performance Managers’ peers	Low errors Ease to implement Incremental performance	Admission that prior supplier was a big mistake Lose diversity in suppliers Relationship loss with supplier friends
Phase 3	Frontline people at the end-user position Compliance/governance and procurement	Just like other supplier, but better Low train No workflow interruption	Mess up day-to-day operations Bad feelings with daily contacts at current supplier

This illustration fits for a manufacturer, a logistics firm and a distributor, however, the core concept of analysis is accurate regardless of the industry- The bottom-line is that moving from yes to money bogs down because the people, advantages and fears are different at each phase, so the approach has to change as well.

Some recommendations:

1. Break up your sales process to include the steps from a sales perspective for after you receive your “yes.” Include the people and mechanisms that you will be using to add new people and address the fears.

2. Secure at least one declared “executive sponsor” from your client that was identified in Phase 1 to stay engaged all the way through the process of full revenue realization. Many of the clients believe that their role is fulfilled once they have said “yes.” That is why you have the responsibility to explain to them the need for executive sponsorship and tell them what it means.

3. Define the timeline for implementation and include “revenue realized” as one of the measures of success that you review with the client. Seriously. I know that sounds aggressive to some people, but remember- you sold them on a great set of advantages that would be most fully realized if they purchased at the maximum level. One of the ways that they can know that they are not receiving the maximum benefit is that they have not purchased the complete amount that they should be.

Getting the client to say “yes” is only a step in the process. The remainder of the process has to be as clearly articulated and executed if you are going to get all of the revenue realized that you expected.

What other ideas on “revenue realization” can you share for readers who are getting stuck after “yes”?