3 Ways To Avoid Your Sales Proposal Getting Stuck In Contract Limbo
Posted by
Chris Lang on Fri, Aug 05, 2023 @ 01:12 PM
As a sales rep, there is nothing worse than having worked through all the details of a deal only to have it sit on someone’s desk, unsigned for what seems to you to be no apparent reason. You’ve given the pitch, had the demo, run through the integration, put out the proposal (which they said looked great) and now you wait….and wait….and wait. For those of you not in sales, it is important to understand that we are emotionally fragile creatures during this time. When we reply to “hey you wanna go grab a coffee?” with “You know what, I hate you right now!” It is because we’re waiting to find out if we’re going to hit our number, get paid and for some, keep our jobs. The following steps below should help sales reps avoid some of the awful waiting periods and keep a few grey hairs from popping up.
- Do not give out the proposal too early. Some sales people are proposal floozies. They give up the proposal way too easily. The theory behind this is that the more proposals they have out, the more chances someone will sign one of them. I think it just leads to a sales person freaking out over a lot of weak proposals instead of a couple of strong ones. The deal should pretty much be done deal before you give a proposal. I generally send out about half the number of proposals as my counter parts, but I close at a pretty high rate. Every question should be answered, every decision maker and influencer should have been talked to and there should be nothing left to question. The proposal should be a formality that you give out so that legal teams can justify their existence. (take that general counsel!)
- Make sure you have talked to everyone that will review the contract. Proposals are scrutinized by a lot more people than before. A couple of years ago if I won over the VP Marketing I was golden. Now that spends are analyzed quite a bit more, I have to worry about the opinions of the CFO, CEO, the board, the janitor and the 18 year old intern that was up doing jager bombs all night (“dude I puked in my sink last night”). Don’t rely on one contact to sell your proposal to everyone else in the company. Rather than depend on a champion, be your own champion and talk through the deal with everyone that will put eyes on the deal. It is hard enough for a sales rep to sell their solution, never mind having to rely on someone else to do it for you.
- Tell them that it is important to you that the process be completed by a certain date. The people you are selling to don’t have a buying quota that they have to hit, they don’t get an escalator in their pay if they purchase your product/service by the end of the month and they probably aren’t going to make president’s club if the deal gets in before the quarter. What that means is that they are going to get the deal done on their time. While you are freaking out because you have a number to hit, their probably at Starbucks wondering if they should get the skinny version or go all out and get whipped cream on their iced, chocolate, soy, frappe, macchiato (clearly I don’t go to Starbucks much, but I always figure that’s something you could order there). Make your prospect aware that you want to have a final resolution, be it a yes or no, by a certain date. You don’t have to tell them that your number depends on it, but they can know that it is very important to you to report your final numbers by a certain date.
No matter what you do, there will always be tire kickers and prospects that clearly have no concern for your mental well being. Hopefully these steps will help you cut down on those situations and drop the dose of Xanax that you need come end of the quarter. Best of luck!