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Sales Training London: How to Spoil the Pitch for Your Competition

Guest post by: Marcus Cauchi

Article Overview: What do you do today that brings you on to the same side as your buyer that might prevent him from talking to your rivals? How do you lock them out?

Sales Training London: How to Spoil the Pitch for Your Competition

I don't suppose you ever wondered how to get your prospect "off the street" so he won't invest time talking to your competition while he's making a decision whether or not to buy what you have to offer?

You do that already, I know .... so there's no value in taking this further?









..... OK, if you're not, have you ever considered the "Monkey's Paw" approach. Sell them a little in the form of an evaluation, a site study, an assessment or a pilot so they have a financial stake in the ground and offset that against the final fee if they buy the big ticket item.

I know I often used to lose sight of the opportunity by being blinded by the big picture, (by my greed or ambition), by wanting the big deal so badly, that I forgot about the steps along the way. I remember pitching Origin in Holland for 120 consultants when I was in recruitment. I worked on that deal for 4 months. We visited HQ 4 times (several flights, hotel bills, time away from home, opportunity costs, expenses), I involved the MD, the Chairman of the company, used up resources in research and free consulting ..... and never saw a penny back.

We got letters of intent and they paid lip service to the buying process .... and did it using their current provider on the back of my hard work and my small company's scant resources.

I failed to qualify properly. I was needy and they could smell it! So they played me like a fiddle and I played the game in my company gathering resources together to build the pitch. Silly me. The game was skewed so much in their favour because I'd unwittingly started working for them instead of protecting our interests. There were 2 people on their team and none on mine! They were kicking the ball against an open goal.

I failed to test their commitment by not selling them a pilot or a study, or 1, 2 or 10 positions first. I'd have made some money along the way, they'd have been committed and we would have (at least partially) blocked out our rivals.

By defining the initial sale as part of the larger sale and agreeing the initial success criteria (and of course meeting them), you can offset the intial investment against the big investment, and lock down the bigger budget. Closing the big budget up front by closing the smaller piece of work first helps reduce the pressure on your buyer too.

This couldn't also have an impact by shortening your sales cycles, could it?

I don't know if this will work in your business. I don't even know if your company can offer these smaller options to customers. You decide if this might work in your business.

Please feel free to share your experiences of this approach with me on EVANCARMICHAEL@SALTeurope.com and similar ones you've tried to help others find ways to eliminate losses, do away with free consulting and block out competitors.

It's often simple stuff that works best.

(C)Copyright Sandler Systems Inc, 2006

Regards



Marcus

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