Sales Enablement

It’s Time to Put on Your War Face

There’s a difference between a sales person and a closer. I believe I’m a great salesman, but a terrible closer. I know I’ve sold many large engagements, but I was never the guy that pushed for ink (the contract signing). I don’t enjoy pushing back on contract size or applying the pressure for a prospect to sign earlier. Thankfully, I’m surrounded by talent at my work who relish those opportunities.

Our closers are able to quickly recognize the opportunities with a client, the benefits of our application, and apply the necessary pressure to complete the sale. That may sound like manipulation – I’d agree if I didn’t think we were truly changing our clients’ success.

We’ve identified that the larger the engagement and the sooner we start, the faster the return on investment for our client – so we’re both happy in the long term. We’ve also identified the opposite – our smaller customers require both the most attention and results don’t come as soon. A large client can see the value in weeks, the small client may take months.

With the weight of a recession fully upon us, we’re challenged with companies who have dollars to close out the year, but really have to be compelled to trust us with their investment. Companies would rather not spend at all and risk no growth than spend money with the possibility of losing it.

This is when you need a closer. A closer doesn’t chop prices to get the sale, they put on their war face and challenge the prospect to close the sale.

This week I saw it in action. We’ve been working with a prospect who would absolutely benefit from our blogging platform, but they’ve been dragging their feet at signing. The contract size is a fraction of their overall budget so it’s a no-brainer. The return on investment will be many times more than their other efforts.

Our closer put on his war face and went to battle. He researched their current strategy and reminded the prospect that they had already invested a lot of time and energy into a strategy that has brought them no results… nada… and that we were the difference. The closer left the conversation with the right question, “Do you wish to continue your failed strategy, or invest in a winning strategy with us?”. Close!

Sounds harsh, but these are tough times. Companies are draining their 2008 budgets right now so you may be placated that sales are coming your way and the recession is no big deal.

In 2009, you better put your war face on because you’re going to have to fight for budget dollars that may not even exist! Make sure you hire closers – not salespeople – and you may come out unscathed. The talent of our sales staff is a large part of what’s pushing our record growth right now and will provide us with continued growth in 2009.

Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is CMO of OpenINSIGHTS and the founder of the Martech Zone. Douglas has helped dozens of successful MarTech startups, has assisted in the due diligence of over $5 bil in Martech acquisitions and investments, and continues to assist companies in implementing and automating their sales and marketing strategies. Douglas is an internationally recognized digital transformation and MarTech expert and speaker. Douglas is also a published author of a Dummie's guide and a business leadership book.

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