Strategic Sales Plan: Why Sales Fail and How Wins are Won

STRATEGIC SALES PLAN

WHY SALES FAIL AND HOW WINS ARE WON

Copyright: © 2018, Robert P. DeGroot, MEd, DCH

All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or stored by any means without the written approval of the author (except brief excerpts used in published reviews).

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ISBN: 978-0-9864058-7-7 (Paperback)

ISBN: 978-0-9864058-6-0 (e-book: .ePub)

Edition 4 Date: 071418

Table of Contents

Introduction

Milestones to Sales Success

Instructions for Using this Book

Profile and Qualify the Sales Prospect

1. Compare the prospect with the profile of your most desirable customers.

2. Identify decision-makers.

3. Identify the initial people to contact.

4. Select and sequence methods of contact.

5. Set call objectives.

6. Make contact.

7. Establish trust and rapport.

8. Qualify the prospect for the current sales opportunity.

Research the Prospect’s Needs

9. Research prospect's products, services, and company.

10. Research the prospect's critical processes.

11. Research prospect's business plan.

12. Identify the potential for your other products and services.

Conduct the Competitor Analyses

13. Identify your external and internal competitors.

14. Conduct the competitor analyses.

15. Update your list of Unique Selling Points.

16. Identify potential objections.

Establish the Value of What You Sell

17. Prevent, preempt, and respond to potential objections.

18. Focus the topics of conversation on your Unique Selling Points (USPs).

19. Identify the signs caused by your USPs’ missing Advantages and Benefits.

20. Confirm the problems caused by the missing USPs.

21. Quantify their costs of not having your USPs to establish the value of the solution.

22. Set your USPs as specifications that must be met to solve the problems.

23. Competitor Proof with Benefits Questions.

24. Complete the interviews with key decision makers.

25. Validate any cost-benefit data that used industry standards.

Complete the Logistics Steps

26. Advise and get agreement on the next steps to advance the sale.

27. Outline feedback loops, milestones, measurements, and follow-up process.

28. Develop product/service delivery phase-in plans.

29. Determine product/service availability.

30. Complete required pre-purchase approvals.

31. Exchange any additional data, specifications, or financial information.

32. Identify and prepare your Recommenders to be your Champions.

Propose, Present, and Negotiate

33. Prepare and submit the Customer Value Proposition (CVP).

34. Conduct sales presentation using the CVP format.

35. Prospect affirms your ability to meet the criteria.

36. Conclude final negotiations.

37. Final budget approval received.

38. Contract signed, or letter of engagement received.

39. Customer notifies current supplier(s).

Deliver Your Products & Services

40. Identify and arrange to meet the critical support people.

41. Identify specific End Users involved in the project.

42. Conduct quality checks of the product and service delivery.

Manage Your Account

43. Implement sales activities to competitor proof and grow the account.

44. Recognize the signs your account may be in trouble before it’s too late.

Resources

Glossary of Terms

Differentiating Factors

Strategic Sales Plan

About the Author

Other books by Robert DeGroot

Introduction

The Strategic Sales Plan is designed to help you identify the steps in your sales process that must be done to win business to business sales.

Beginning in 1988 and up to the present time, we analyzed thousands of sales, across industries, to discover why sales failed and how they were won.

This research led to a comprehensive diagnostic sales process consisting of 44 essential steps in the consultative value selling process used by Sales Professionals who sell solutions to meet their customers’ functional, business, and human needs.

The objective is to find your patterns of steps, which when missed, cause sales to fail and to find the pattern of steps that when done, cause sales to be won. Get started by validating each step for what you sell and then review your sales to find your patterns for both losses and wins.At the end of this process, you’ll have a validated checklist of sales process steps for what you sell that you can use to guide you to win more sales. Now that’s a great sales tool.

Dr. Robert DeGroot

Milestones to Sales Success

The sales process steps are assigned to milestones.

The percentages represent the probability that the sale will be won when that milestone is achieved.

The percentages and milestones below are based on the logic of this Strategic Sales Plan. Once you complete your validation of the steps, you can then establish what’s within each milestone for what you sell.

The goal is to have some mutually agreed upon percentages for each milestone based on the steps completed in your sales process. Now when you say you’ve got a 50% chance of winning the sale, you will know that steps 1-25 are complete.

Percent / Milestone / Steps Completed

10% Profile and Qualify the Sales Prospect (Steps 1-8)

20% Research the Prospect’s Needs (Steps 9-12)

30% Conduct the Competitor Analysis (Steps 13-16)

50% Establish the Value of What You Sell (Steps 17-25)

70% Complete the Logistics Steps (Steps 26-32)

80% Propose, Present, and Negotiate (Steps 33-39)

90% Deliver Your Products & Services (Steps 40-42)

100% Manage Your Account (Steps 43-44)

Instructions for Using this Book

1. Validate the steps you need to do for what you sell by identifying the consequences of not doing each of them. Cross off, add, or modify steps.

2. Analyze a dozen losses, and a dozen wins to find the patterns of steps missed that caused your sales to fail and the patterns of steps that were done that caused your sales to be won.

3. Learn the skills you need so you can readily complete steps that are difficult for you.

Profile and Qualify the Sales Prospect

1. Compare the prospect with the profile