How to stop losing deals

JIM PRESTON explains how salespeople can stop losing deals to large buying committees

No salesperson enjoys losing a deal, but the reality is that rejection is part of being a sales professional. After all, even the best, most experienced salespeople don’t win every deal. Of course, sales professionals can lose a deal to a competitor. Perhaps a rival organisation recently released an enticing feature that sealed the deal. Or maybe the competitor offered a price that was significantly lower than yours. However, in some cases, a salesperson can better the competition but still go on to lose a deal.

Why does it happen? Because the prospect simply decides not to move forward – they choose not to make a decision. This is especially common when selling to large organisations, which are becoming increasingly complex.

Obviously, this is highly frustrating for the salesperson, who has spent a significant amount of time and effort understanding and addressing the prospect’s needs – perhaps even more frustrating than losing to a competitor. But let’s take a closer look at the reason behind a prospect’s indecision and what sellers can do to overcome these challenges and be successful.

MORE STAKEHOLDERS INCREASE THE COMPLEXITY OF THE PURCHASE JOURNEY There are a number of reasons why an organisation might decide not to move forward with a purchase decision. Perhaps their financial

circumstances have changed, or maybe, for your organisation, either financially or otherwise. whatever reason, they’ve opted to continue using For example, perhaps the deal is large, with the solution they currently have in place. significant opportunities for upselling and

In many cases, however, no decision is made cross-selling in the future. Or maybe adding a because of the large particular client is part number of people “With each additional stakeholder of a larger strategy to involved in the purchase comes an extra layer of scrutiny. start selling to a decision. Our research has found a quarter of B2B buyers indicating This can slow down a purchase – or stop it in its tracks” different sector. Assessing what the deal is really worth to you that there were five or will make it easier to more people involved in their last B2B purchase. determine how far you’re willing to go for this

We also found that as the size of the deal customer, in terms of financial concessions, increases so does the number of people involved. support, and other factors. What we’ve heard anecdotally supports this finding. A contact recently told us that, 15 years 2. Understand the client’s processes ago, any purchase at their firm above £50,000 Spend time with your main point of contact to required review and approval from a buying understand what the organisation looks like and committee that included technology teams, how it makes decisions. Be sure to understand finance specialists, and a member of the who the stakeholders are on the purchasing management team. Today, deals as low as committee and what’s important to each of £20,000 frequently require the review of such a them. Ask what projects they’ve signed off on buying committee. and what metrics matter to them.

With each additional stakeholder comes an extra layer of scrutiny. This can very often slow 3. Bring in reinforcements down a purchase significantly – or even Leverage experts throughout your company to completely stop it in its tracks. address the needs and questions of each HOW BUSINESS TO BUSINESS senior team to talk to the prospect’s CEO. Or ask DECISION-MAKING HAS CHANGED a member of your technology team to get on a At the same time, buyers today have more call with a member of the prospect’s technology information at their fingertips than ever before. team to answer any questions that may be In many cases, they spend a significant amount blocking their decision. of time doing their own research during the purchase journey. As the size of the deal 4. Enlist the help of your marketing team increases, so too does the amount of time a Collaborate with your marketing team to prospect devotes to research. develop an “account-based marketing” initiative.

Our research has found that about a quarter Or, ask to add your prospect to an existing of B2B buyers making purchases over £75,000 programme. will spend more than 40 hours doing their research. While conducting such extensive due 5. Ensure sales content can be easily diligence, stakeholders will certainly uncover shared by prospects reasons why they should make a purchase – but Make sure the content you provide throughout they’re also likely to find reasons not to. the sales cycle is easy for your prospect to share TIPS TO AVOID LOSING OUT TO unknown. A great way to do that is to share all A LARGE BUYING COMMITTEE content via a microsite. That way, all the This data may paint a bleak picture for today’s stakeholders involved have access to the sellers, especially when the reasons a prospect information they need – and you have data on decides not to make a purchase decision seem how the prospect is consuming your content. out of the seller’s control. But the good news stakeholder. For example, ask a member of your with all stakeholders – both known and is that there are practical steps salespeople can OVERCOME ONE OF YOUR BIGGEST take to overcome the challenges of selling to OBSTACLES: THE BUYING COMMITTEE large buying committees and emerge successful: To sum up, sellers are often not losing deals to a competitor, but because of the scrutiny of a 1. Determine what the deal is really worth large buying committee. Through these tips, A sale should be mutually beneficial to both the you can overcome the challenges involved in buying and selling organisations. Start by selling to multiple stakeholders and emerge determining whether the sale is significant to successful.

JIM PRESTON is VP EMEA sales for Showpad, the sales enablement platform, where he is responsible for leading the team and growing the business across EMEA. He has over 15 years’ experience of business development with leading global SaaS companies, including Salesforce, Pitney Bowes and Neopost. He is also on the BESMA judges panel – see page 25. Visit showpad.com