Qualify again once the deal is lost

When opportunities are qualified well you will rise through all the steps of the sales cycle until you get to the top and win.

If opportunities are not qualified well, you don't stay at the bottom step - NO, you do all the hard work climbing the sales cycle steps to get to the top, only to then fall all the way back to the bottom - ouch!

The worst part is that most people in sales believe deals are lost to the competitor, and move on as the deal is lost forever.

BIG MISTAKE!

It may sound like a waste of time, but if you lose a deal, go back and qualify why you lost the deal and ideally with the prospect or customer. Why?

Many B2B opportunities never result in a purchase

Across industries tracked by Miller Heiman, Gartner, SBI, and large CRM data sets, the numbers are surprisingly high:

• Enterprise complex-sales “no decision” rates = 40%–60% of qualified opportunities result in no purchase.

• High-risk or transformational purchase (e.g., ERP replacement, digital transformation, manufacturing automation) “no decision” rates = 60%–70% are common.

• RFPs, even when an RFP goes out, the “no decision” rates = 20%–35% as they are cancelled or deferred.

There are hundreds of reasons why buyers do not buy in the end, including: changing internal priorities, loss of budget, risk aversion, stakeholder misalignment, failure to develop a clear business case or a preference to stick with the status quo.

What if by qualifying why you lost you can find a way to solve the customer's issue? Just a thought!

Salespuzzle.co.uk