Get ready to propose
Once, only sales people knew the importance of their 'closing rate'. One of the ways Image 7 Group works with their clients is through an analysis of how they can improve their close rate ...
Actually, let me stop for a moment to ask, "Do you know your close rate?" If your answer is no, don't feel bad ... neither do most of your competitors. But it's probably the most telling metric to help you be more precise in forecasting your sales performance.
So, if you don't already know your closing rate, it's time to do some homework. Pick any period - last month, last quarter, it doesn't matter as long as you can get the data together - and count how many proposals, quotes, or tenders you submitted in that period. Divide your total by the number you've won and you have your 'closing rate'. For example, a financial services firm that made 300 presentations in the last quarter and signed up 150 has a closing rate of two. The lower the number the better.
Now that you have your closing rate, assess it to determine if it is where you need it to be.
Now - back to analysing your closing rate and how to improve it. Interestingly, we've found at Image 7 Group over the years that just being aware of and monitoring your closing rate is often enough to generate an increase. However a critical, and often overlooked, factor contributing to unacceptable closing rates is your actual readiness for the proposal stage itself. Rushing through the sales process to a quote* or proposal too quickly, without properly engaging, qualifying, and assessing the opportunity before you is a sure way to lose more business than you should.
Getting ready to present your proposal?
Ask tough questions: Take the time to truly assess where you are in the sales process and if you really do know all the information needed to present a strong proposal. Too often we skirt around important questions - like budgets, evaluation criteria and deadlines, either because we fear losing the opportunity to present a proposal, or we don't want to be perceived as too pushy. When asked in the wrong way, some of the tough questions could be perceived as too aggressive ... but they don't have to. If you have properly assessed your prospect as ready to purchase your product or service, then you should have no problem uncovering the information you need to prepare a strong proposal.
Validate what you think you know: Check, check again, and then check that your first two checks were correct for each piece of information as you progress through the sales process. Often we think we have the right answer to a key piece of information - like who the decision maker is - only to discover later we were wrong or, in long selling cycles, that the landscape has changed.
Use a checklist: Asking questions and validating information is the easy part. Following through on every detail for every opportunity takes real discipline ... or a checklist. Develop a checklist to help assess, measure and validate your proposal readiness for every opportunity. Rank the thoroughness of the assessment (have you answered all the important qualifying/assessment questions), the strength of the assessment (how strongly are those answers pointing to you as THE choice), and which areas pose the most risk for a loss. After these three areas are considered and measured, you will have the best data to determine if you are ready to create a proposal, need to work on the assessment phase more, or need to disqualify the opportunity all together.
* Image 7 Group encourages you to abolish the "quote" word from your vocabulary. Every time you say "quote" it's inviting people to get competing "quotes" based on price alone.
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