When you can't afford to lose a sale

When you can't afford to lose a sale, take the time to understand the politics in the customer's organisation. Blaming a lost sale on the politics is no compensation for the unrecoverable investment of time and money. Identify all of the people who will care about the outcome before the sale is concluded. This will include those who join from outside to fill vacant or new positions, those from inside who are promoted or reassigned, and those working for outside organisations who's opinion is valued. Next, find out what they think. Then decide if you need to do anything about it.

If you would like to know how these things are achieved, this is an open invitation to arrange a conversation or meeting to discuss how to win more high value sales opportunities. For general information about relevant sales training courses, please follow either of these links: Enterprise Selling or Advanced Account Management. Look below for more pointers on this topic.

Developing a deeper customer and sales opportunity understanding

1. Create an accurate organisation chart.

2. For the amount of money concerned, learn the sign off procedure; who is involved in each step and how they decide whether or not to agree if the money should be spent.

3. Find out who each interested person prefers to win.