Own it together
Success comes from you and your prospect working together to conclude business.
Earlier in the sales cycle, we looked at owning together in the context of your contact champion. By now you have extended contact to others from your organization and others from the prospect organization such as the decision-maker and the signer.
The question now is the still that level of commitment and ownership? Has the engagement faltered, or deepened as you got further into the selling cycle.
Owning it together shows the strength of the commitment to conclude a commercial deal. Analysis by several companies has shown that interactions increase as the deal cycle progresses, and consequently, you can expect this commitment to owning a together to get better with more interactions across the team.
Amplifying Factors: Mutual Close Plan Champion Decision Maker
RED – Disinterested in our success. This implies a one-sided commitment where you are more committed than they are. Check that your commitment is well-placed and also re-examine your proposition to see if you can improve the commitment from their side. |
AMBER – Facilitating us, but neutral. Sometimes this reflects reality whereby they are favoring an alternative solution including do nothing, or it’s simply a negotiation style. Adjust your proposition and put in place a mutual close plans et cetera to extend ownership to the prospect. |
Green – Aligned and working with us Back this up by ensuring a strong close plan and making sure that all elements are aligned to conclude the business. |
Mitigations – What to Do?
Own it together is as much a frame of mind as anything else. Partnering is a useful concept to understand how owning a together should work, so make sure you are approaching the prospect with the right frame of mind to partner with them.
If there’s a major difference in the size of your company and there is one major difference in company maturity. Owning it together may not appear as obvious as it should. It’s a little bit like a parent-child as opposed to a husband-and-wife type situation. Take that into account in how you position your own it together ideas with the prospect.
Mutual close plan is a great framework to use to structure own a together and consequently conclude business in a structured way.
Date of last contact is a strong indicator in this area. Watch out for long gaps in contact as it can suggest an unwillingness to work with you. Likewise, if you repeatedly tried to phone them, send follow-up emails, and no response that’s a very major red flag. So watch carefully for such moments to indicate that they are drifting away in terms of their willingness to work with you.
Consider having another person or your manager or co-founder or a board member et cetera reach out if you feel the willingness to work with you was waning.