7 Steps to Getting That $100,000 Deal

Over the last few years I’ve tried to help you increase your revenue by teaching you how to sell. I’ve broken down the system I use for closing big deals and I’ve even talked about the strategies I’ve learned over the years.

But what works for me probably won’t work for you. Why? It’s because I’ve spent the last 10 years building my brand by speaking at conferences, blogging, and going to hundreds of networking events. All of those efforts have resulted in 1,200 businesses hitting me up each and every month.

When you are starting out, no one is going to come knocking at your door. So the big question is… how are you going to close $100,000 deals when people don’t know about you?

Well, my VP of sales, Ben Sardella, created a 7 step process you can use to generate millions of dollars in revenue each year. He used the same strategy at TRUSTe and he took them from being a non-profit to generating $16,000,000 in annual sales. He also was the first sales rep at NetSuite where he grew them from being a startup with no revenue to being worth 6 billion dollars… all with the same 7 step process.

So what’s this 7 step process? Here are the steps:

1. Finding your prospect


2. Contact your prospect


3. Make it about them


4. Help them


5. Create a proposal


6. Create a mutual action plan


7. Always follow up

Now lets dive in to each step and break down how you can use them:

Step #1: Find your prospect

Who is your ideal prospect? Is it a small business, a large one… and what type of company? Which department are you selling to within a company?

At KISSmetrics our ideal customer is a software as a service or ecommerce company that generates at least a million dollars a year in revenue. And within those two company types, we ideally want to sell to the VP of marketing, director of marketing, or marketing manager, as they are the decision makers.

This method of identifying your ideal customer is called the Zebra Method. In which you identify your ideal customer type and you only sell to them and no one else. By focusing your efforts you will be able to improve your closing ratios.

Once you know your ideal customer, you can then find them using Data.com which mainly focuses on the Fortune 5000 or you can use LinkedIn. LinkedIn works well for companies of all sizes.

Through those two services you will not only be able to find companies, but you will be able to get the email address and potentially phone number of the exact person you want to contact within a company.

If you are selling a web-based technology, you can also use Datanyze to get contact records of the top million sites on the web.

Step #2: Contact your prospect

By now you should have a list of potential customers along with their contact information. Before you contact any of them you should do a bit of research on their company and on them.

Try to find any quotes about them from press pieces or even blog posts. Look to see if they have a website, Facebook page, Twitter profile or anything else you can think of. You can also use Rapportive to help you with this.

Once you’ve learned a bit more about them, you want to send them an email quoting something about them as this will increase the odds of them responding. Ideally that quote should be related to a pain they maybe having and one that your product and service can solve.

Here is an example of an email our KISSmetrics VP of sales would send to me…

Subject: are you really making data based decisions?

Hi Neil,

I noticed you mentioned on Quick Sprout that you should base your business decisions off of data. I wanted to introduce you to KISSmetrics because we can provide you with data on your customers that will help you boost your lifetime value and reduce your churn.

If you are wondering how effective our solution is, companies like Microsoft, Hulu, and Amazon use it on a daily basis to make better business decisions.

Let me know when you are free to chat.

Ben Sardella

But before you send off your email, make sure you use Yesware to track if they receive your email and even opened it. Once you email them you will want to call them and leave a message letting them know your name, the company you are with, and that you sent them an email. And the reason I said leave a message is because it is very unlikely that you will be able to get a hold of them through the phone.

If by a slim chance you are able to get a hold of them on the phone, ask them if it is a good time to chat. If it is, proceed to step 3. If it isn’t, ask them what day and time would be good for a 15 minute call to learn about their business.

If they don’t have time to chat with you now or in the future, ask them if they can give you permission to talk to someone on their team. If they say yes, ask for an email introduction as this creates a “referral”, which should help that new person trust you a bit more.

Step #3: Make it about them

During your call you should rarely talk about yourself. The call isn’t about you or your company, it should be about them.

Within your conversation you should be able to find the problems they are facing, diagnose them, and get to the root of the problem. This will help you determine how you are your company can potentially help them.

Sometimes you may realize that your company can’t solve their problems and if that is the case, be upfront with them. Don’t try to sell them a promise you can’t deliver on.

Lastly you need to ask them who else within the company is experiencing the same pain. And if there is anyone else, you should ask for an introduction. The reason this is important is because it tells you if there are any other people that can influence the decision.

If there are other people in the organization who are facing the same problem, go back to step number 2.

Step #4: Help them

The way you can help a potential customer is by explaining how you can solve their problems. In essence you are doing this through a pitch.

Don’t make the pitch about your features or how great your product or service is. Instead it should be about how you can solve their problems. You should be giving them examples of how you have helped similar companies solve the same problem.

In addition to that the pitch should also talk about how much money you can save them or how much money you can make them. This is what decision makers want to hear.

Step #5: Create a proposal

Your proposal should include logos of companies you worked with, testimonials, and what the company is going to get by working with you.

You’re also going to have to put a price within the proposal. If you are unsure of what to charge, price based on what you think it is worth to the company. If you ask them what their budget is or what they are willing to pay they will typically lie and give you a lower number.

Within the proposal you should also include how much money your product or service is going to save them or make them potentially. This creates a sense of urgency because the longer they wait to sign it, the more money they will lose.

Step #6: Create a mutual action plan

One of the biggest reasons deals don’t close is because companies aren’t 100% sure on what they will be getting. The best way to solve this is to create a mutual action plan.

The plan should first start with the day the company will be a successful customer, in which they are happy with your product or service. And then you need to work backwards to the date in which they sign the agreement. In between those 2 dates will be a list of everything both of you will be doing to ensure the success of this project.

This helps ensure that you will be helping the company be successful as well it helps encourage them to sign the contract sooner than later.

Step #7: Always follow up

Although this is the last step it should be used within each step. I would actually say it is the most important step because if you skip it you won’t be able to close any deals.

You should never miss an email, or phone call. Follow up each step of the way and be clear with your communication. Also respond within a timely fashion… ideally within an hour or two and never later than 24 hours.

Conclusion

If you follow the 7 steps above you should be able to lock in big deals on a regular basis. This process doesn’t just work for Ben, our VP of sales, it also works for any new sales people we hire. And it has also worked for thousands of other companies.

When leveraging this process, make sure you don’t skip any steps, you have to put in the time and effort to make this work. If you do it right, you can easily close 6 figure deals.

What other tactics can you use to close big deals?

via Quick Sprout Read More Here..

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