THE BEST SALES PLAN BEGINS WITH THE BEST QUESTIONS

The best sales plan is not about the right answers: The best sales plan is about the right questions!  Far too many major opportunities have been lost because of a sales plan that was not focused on the right questions at the beginning of a major campaign.  Let’s explore that premise.

My book, Closing the Whales, is about a comprehensive sales plan, a sales plan that envisions the entire sales campaign from inception to implementation.  The sales plan details thirty events that will likely need executing in one form or another over the course of many months.  The major opportunities always involve very long sales cycles, and this book details how an insightful sales plan must be developed.

Finishing a close second in a major opportunity after months of serious investment is the cardinal sin of sales campaign management.  In creating a winning sales plan for a major opportunity, asking the right questions at the outset, as a precaution, is worth far more than a pound of cure!  A sales plan that ignores key beginning questions is like an airline pilot who ignores conducting the standard preflight mechanical checklist!

In the seminars and workshops I conduct based on the concepts in this book, I walk salespeople through the ideal sales plan, a sales campaign planner.  It begins with the right questions and those questions are all about resources needed for success.  A bare knuckles way to express this idea is:  Should we be in this game or not?

In a smart sales plan, here are the right opening questions:

1. Do we have a truly competitive product? 

2. Can our product perform in a tough test?

3. Will our walk-away price be competitive?

4. Will there be “A Team” personnel support for the duration of the campaign!

5. Does the potential client have any “chipped in stone” predisposition to our competition?

6. Can we establish attractive differentiation in our value proposition?

7. Can we prevent the prospect’s procurement team from defining our product as a commodity?

8. If we execute our sales plan effectively, are we certain an acquisition will occur?

9. What is the schedule of acquisition?  Budget release?  Implementation?

In this book, you will learn when to walk away from dry wells!  Good sense and a good sales plan begin with the right qualifying questions.  A sales plan that fails to force the right questions early is not really a sales plan: It is more akin to a “hope chest” on paper!

Want to learn more about developing an effective sales plan? Get your copy of Closing the Whales today!