Why Now ?
Few deadlines can’t be moved.
Our quest always is to not just secure business but to secure it efficiently and velocity is our friend in this regard.
An important test of any deal in terms of its strength is asking the question “why now?” In sales, we frequently talk about a compelling event and if we have a compelling event is usually the answer to the question “why now?”
Compelling events exist in 3 different forms:
- External – for example, a change in legislation or the environment in which the Prospect is working.
- Internal – such as their hiring new people or coming up to a fiscal year-end or the start of the financial year or some such.
- The third is one in which you create. This usually is some form of discount or favorable commercial arrangements to incentivize the customer to close within a given timeframe.
The strength of the “why now” and the strength of the compelling event will tell us how likely a deal is to close at a particular point in time.
Amplifying Factors: Mutual Close Plan Champion Decision Maker
Further reading :
RED – No reason to close now This is a concern as it may not be a priority for the customer to conclude the business at this point. Consequently, you may not secure the business at this time.
|
AMBER – Good reason to close now The reason may be weak or, in particular, if it’s purely based on a discount or offer the customer may hesitate to close the business. Consequently, the deal may slip. |
Green – Compelling reason to do it now Provided this indeed is before the end of the month this is good, if not, you need to check your calendar and try to position it with runway left for any problems that may arise at the last minute. |
Mitigations – What to Do?
The most important mitigation is to hold yourself to account to answer the question “why now?”. If you are unable to answer that question the deal is at risk of slipping. Remember we don’t like deal slip age because it makes our revenue unpredictable and slipped deals can fall foul of competitive pressures including do nothing and so unless we can answer the why now question the deal will be at risk.
Ask the prospect. As part of the mutual close plan and earlier based on the discovery. We should have some insights as to why the prospect is going to conclude business now. Depending on the extent of change involved and other parameters, such as how active the decision-makers are involved, the priority et cetera when push comes to shove, the Prospect may be reluctant to commit.
Be prepared to make it easy for the prospect by ensuring all of their queries are answered to lower the risk threshold for choosing your solution. I would normally ask prospect around now “What’s stopping you from ordering today?” even when I know it’s way too early I do get for them what they need to make sure that they can safely make a decision.
Created compelling events that you will have will be things like discounting, favorable commercial terms, working a trial process that has a firm end date, running POC that has a firm end date so that they need to make a decision at that point ( hopefully it’s in your favor but having it off the table is also important).
Sometimes it is worth considering the other dimension to that question “why now?”, but what if they don’t sign (“why not now?”) – what impact will that have? Unfortunately, losing money is seldom a motivator as they’ve survived so far without your solution. What’s another month or two! It’s no harm to look at the implication of not taking onboard your solution at a specific point.