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How to Sell Cloud – 3 Critical Requirements
As more and more organizations decide they want to pro-actively position their solutions for consumption in the cloud, I thought I’d take some time to pass on a few of the main messages I’ve been hearing from businesses that buy cloud solutions. To follow are three critical requirements from a customer perspective that must be met in order for them to make a buying decision in favor of a cloud solution.
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Ahhhh….Wait. There’s a delay.
How good is your sales leadership?
Would you like to reduce your cost of sale? Or maybe improve close percentages?
Have you ever had a rep come to you at the 11th hour telling you that a ‘for sure deal’ is delayed because there is another stakeholder on the Buying Side that needs to be convinced?
Why does it happen?
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If anybody is thinking that asking ‘effective questions’ is the same as asking ‘open ended questions’, then you are about 20% correct.
But really…..asking open ended questions is like table stakes in a poker game; it’s the price of admission and everybody does it.
Using questions effectively is one of the most important skills a sales professional, or a sales leader, can have. It’s also one of the most poorly executed.
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Marketing and sales still can’t agree on the definition of a “qualified lead”? End the tension, bickering and unproductive arguments through establishing an objective lead scoring system.
Read MoreLead scoring is the answer to multiplying your resources and scaling your capacity while shorting your sales cycle through mining the critical information about each suspect or prospect using demographic and behavioral scoring. …
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There are a number of external forces driving the Partner sales community to condense and accelerate its current selling cycles. Decreasing ASP (average selling price) coupled with fewer new opportunities means sales professionals have to close a greater number of transactions in a fiercely competitive market simply to maintain their current income level.
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So what’s the difference?
For our purposes, ‘strategy’ means that there’s a plan. ‘Tactics’ means that you’re thinking on your feet.
A sales cycle that includes both is much more likely to succeed than a cycle that relies on only one of them.
Tactics make sales fun. Strategy makes sales more predictable.
Here’s the executive summary – do both; and do them both in every sales cycle. Trust me on this; the sales cycle where you (or your rep) believe that the deal is a ‘slam dunk’ and you don’t need to plan it out…you know the one….at some point you’ll all be “standing around the fax” (or the phone, or your computer….or the mail box) waiting to get the good word, but it doesn’t come and you’ll be wondering, ‘what the heck went wrong?’ If you have a plan / strategy, chances are better that you won’t have to answer that question.
Tactics (especially when not accompanied by sound strategy) can get risky.
So the rest of this blog is dedicated to a true and pretty funny story involving sales tactics.
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Check out our redesigned, revamped SALESWORKS Website (www.salesworks.com). We have expanded our service offerings and our website, while making the website easier to navigate, based on need, category or Microsoft Program.
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