Ideas You Can Bank On

by Cindi Campana

You can’t afford to work your pipeline only when it’s convenient. In fact, you need speed to performance in your pipeline management. One of the key, yet often overlooked, questions used to better pipeline results is, “Am I speaking to the right people—particularly the Decision Makers?”

Research reveals that a major reason sales people lose control during the sales cycle is because they have not adequately or appropriately identified the Decision Maker during their pre-call planning process. It is critical to get to the person who will have the final say in the decision.

In order to readily identify the Decision Maker or to confirm that you have already identified the Decision Maker (rather than an Influencer or a User), incorporate the following questions early in the questioning process and in your pre-call plans:

• What is the next stage in the evaluation process?
• How are decisions made in your organization?
• Who else needs to be involved in reaching a decision at this time?
• How do you suggest we get the necessary people involved at this stage of the evaluation process?

Now more than ever, pre-call planning and reaching the Decision Maker is important in order to shorten the sales cycle and increase the speed to revenue generation. The bottom line is this: if you are selling to someone who can not buy, you are wasting a great deal of time, money, and effort.

http://www.omega-performance.com/solutions/sales-service.asp