"Who is the competition?", "What are they offering?", "Did you ask to see a copy of the competing proposals?". These are all questions that I'll ask a new rep if I hear that they are having problems with securing the order. Believe it or not here are the answers that I received.
- I don't know
- I don't know
- No, I didn't think of the that
Many might say, well just focus on your companies strengths and everything else will fall in line. I say, that's hogwash! Most reps don't dig deep enough into the clients "needs" well. Thus, what ends up happening is that most will quote an equal feature for feature replacement or a copier that may be a little bit faster. Most don't have a clue what their copier can do and what their competitors can't.
For those of us that have REAL quota's that are based on REVENUE & gross profit. We need to sell. We need to figure out the price buyer and the value buyer. If you can't do that you won't last long in this industry.
Make a decision, do you want the price buyer because you need the revenue? That's a call only the salesperson can make. Keep in mind that you/we can't sell everyone and every so often you do need to walk away. You can spend the same amount of time selling one copier or 5 copiers. Which one would you choose?
However when you don't have squat in the opportunity column you're pretty much screwed and you need to take the price buyers. That's why it's so important to keep a pipeline that is three to four time your monthly quota. That's deals that you think or will close in that 30 day cycle. Forgot about the 60 and 90 cause those are going to happen unless you get very lucky in the 30 day cycle.
For those of us that have revenue quotas, and most of us do, there's a certain amount of pride that you feel when you're reached your quota. Turn it around and when we don't hit the revenue quota, we can feel like we didn't give it our best effort, or have the feeling of underperforming. Those are the highs and lows of selling with a revenue quota.
Personally I've had a revenue quota for the last nine years. Then another 29 years of gross profit revenue. At times I wish I could go back to a gross profit quota just to slow down a bit. On the other hand having a revenue quota always keeps me on my toes for continued prospecting. Yes, I'm the type of person that would rest on my laurels if I had a big gross profit order, and yes I would suffer the next month because I didn't prospect. Been there, done that, I'd rather have a steady stream of orders because I need that dopamine rush every week or a few times a week!
-=Good Selling=-
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