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The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Scary Good Advice to Avoid Being Ghosted by Prospects

Scary Good Advice to Avoid Being Ghosted by Prospects

By now, you’ve realized that regurgitated sales techniques and tactics aren’t working – including the approach you take with your sales proposal.

You need something more. What you need is a well-crafted document that hits the right tone and authentically convinces your great lead to close the deal. But sometimes, even with a data-focused, detail-driven proposal, that great lead disappears in the abyss, and before you know it, you realize you’ve been ghosted.

Fear not; we’ve brewed up three tactics that will help your sales proposals convert more prospects at a high rate!

Topics: Proposal sales process sales accelerator

3 Reasons You Can’t Close Business

reasons seller can't close businessOnce you present a solution to a prospective buyer or client, two things happen.

It becomes either Close Won or Close Lost. Close Won is obviously the ideal or desired scenario, but what happens when your pending deal is Close Lost? Is ALL lost? Maybe not. 

Ask yourself these three questions to determine if you can change a Close Lost scenario into a Close Won.

Topics: Proposal sales strategy sales process

Slow Down the Sales Process So You Can Speed Up the Sale

Slow Down the Sales Process So You Can Speed Up the Sale

Everybody wants to sell faster! No matter your industry or product, every organization is in a hurry to close more business. And on the surface, that sounds like a good idea but it's not.

Too often, we're in such a hurry to close the sale that we rush and make mistakes in the sales process that actually slows down the act of closing.

In our haste, we tend to overlook certain obstacles in our path in an effort to sell quickly. These obstacles often come up as a surprise to the client, which can derail the conversation and cause us to back-track and overcome the objection, which takes more time than if we had discussed it from the beginning.

Topics: Proposal sales process

How to Craft a Proposal that Won’t Get Rejected

How to Craft a Proposal that Won’t Get Rejected

"The end depends on the beginning (and everything in between)."

Yes, we have heard this a thousand times, but no truer words have been said when it comes to developing proposals.

I had an epiphany pretty early in my sales career. I had been on a sales call to a restaurant, and they asked for a proposal. I rushed back to my desk so excited with the opportunity to get to present, only to stare at my computer for what seemed like an eternity. Crafting that proposal took a lot longer than it should have.

Later, when looking back, I realized it was because I didn’t have enough information. I had missed the mark on a number of things. Here's a little advice on how not to make the same mistake.

Topics: Proposal Sales sales process

5 Tips on How to Close a Sale Faster Than Ever Before

close sale faster
Everyone knows that sales is a numbers game. The more you have out there, the better off you are, which is why we all typically agree that sales is a numbers game,right?

What are the numbers everyone is talking about? As sales managers, are you looking at the wrong numbers?

How many times have you heard or said, "Don't worry! I've got a lot out there pending!”  That's great! But, does anyone actually get paid on pending? That’s the catch, and that's also why you need to be aware of the numbers you're actually looking at.

Topics: Proposal sales strategy

Why 75% of Proposals Will Never Close, and 10 Ways to Improve

Why 75% of Proposals Will Never Close and 10 Ways to Improve

The market's uncertainty has left many companies with an uncomfortable and frustrating bloated feeling in their sales pipeline.

Even before the pandemic, you could have easily convinced me that compensation plans changed radically and that people in sales were getting paid based on pending business. Every time I asked a salesperson how they were doing, I received the same response: "I’ve got a lot pending!”

Pre-pandemic, I reviewed over 500 proposals from various B2B sales organizations over the course of six months. These were all legitimate proposals, actually presented to a prospect or client. Based on those proposals, and the bloated pipeline many of you are experiencing today,  here's some valuable insight on how to close more business.

Topics: Proposal Sales sales process

Coaching the Sales Process: Overlooked Points in the CLOSE Step

Coaching the Sales Process Overlooked Points in the CLOSE Step

Having a strategic sales process goes far beyond knowing how to close a deal. If your goal is to drive sales performance and increase revenue, stay true to a repeatable sales process that leads to predictable sales.

The six steps of the Sales Accelerator lead salespeople from identifying a good prospect to developing a business relationship that results from the sale of your solution. Making it to step five—Close—means the finish line is in sight. But we’ve all heard the phrase, “the end depends on the beginning, and everything in between.”

Topics: Proposal sales process sales accelerator

Coaching the Sales Process: Overlooked Points in the ADVISE Step

Coaching the Sales Process Overlooked Points in the ADVISE Step

Based on HubSpot research, only 3% of buyers trust sales representatives. If your sales process follows the cookie-cutter pattern of simply selling a product or service, the chances of you reversing that statistic are slim to none.

If you follow the formulated Sales Accelerator process, you know how important it is to execute the steps in correct order. During Discover, sellers uncovered prospect’s desired business results. The next step is to Advise the prospect on the best solution path, and that starts by determining which solution path is right for the situation.

This is the step where sellers learn how to differentiate themselves and prove to potential clients how they can make their life easier. From determining a solution path to removing surprises and handling objections, there are several points you don’t want your salespeople to overlook.

Topics: Proposal sales process sales accelerator

Our Experts Share Their Top Tips to Perfecting the Sales Proposal

tips to perfect the sales proposal - no surprise proposalProspecting was spot on. The needs analysis meetings uncovered a clear desired business result for the prospect. And now it's time to shine—sales proposal time! 

Ask any sales rep what the hardest part of their job is, and we'll bet they’ll say “closing.” Don't be scared. Ensure your hard work (or your team's hard work) doesn't go wasted by following these tips gathered from our sales experts when creating and presenting your sales proposal.  

Topics: Proposal sales performance sales process

What You Can Learn From Losing The Sale

what you can learn from losing the saleOver the last couple of months, I have had a number of clients share with me that they lost out on a couple of large deals that they had felt pretty strongly about. In each of those scenarios, my first question was, "Do you know why?" More often than not, the answer to my question was, “I’m not sure.”

Anyone who has ever been in a sales position has received a “no” in their career – most likely more than they would like – it comes with the job. But, it is what you do with the “no” that separates the best from the rest. Diagnosing where you may have gone wrong in the sales process can help to minimize making the same mistake in the future.

Topics: Proposal sales process