More than ever I see the need for sales teams and their entire client facing teammates to go all in when responding or targeting new business. The opposite is doing just the minimum to respond to numerous opportunities, only to be knee-deep and look like everyone else and close a low percentage. Where are you in this? Some sales organizations look like trained killers and appear to be there for the kill. They have a “qualify easy and close hard” approach.
The Sandler approach is the opposite – qualify hard and close easy. One of our clients switched to early qualification and all in or nothing and has increased their hit rate on bids by 14%. Average bid $420k.
All In Thinking requires:
- Abundance thinking - "I need 16 projects this year to blow out my #. I'll find 16-they exist-I can't afford to suck time on the other 932 that aren't right for me."
- No Happy Ears! Early objectivity - First meetings and contact requires direct questioning that truly pre-qualifies (not the same as full-qualified) or disqualifies an opportunity. You cannot go all in on every opportunity!
- If it does pre-qualify, you must sell internally the belief that it is possible with an All In full attack. If everyone isn't All In, don't move forward.
- Constant prospecting - Else every opportunity will appear a soft shelled egg delicately handled versus assertively qualified.
- Courage - that the strategy will work! And to take the emotional hit if it doesn't.
- Competent leadership - That is not creating panic urgency response to close anything by the end of the quarter. It is looking out two quarters.
All In approach signifies to the client or prospect an energy that is very visible, which gives them comfort (conscious or unconscious). And, people buy emotionally, not intellectually. If you're going only knee-deep, you'll compete on price more likely.
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