Empower your Procurement process with tech sales closing for procurement

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hey everybody thank you for downloading the closing kit master class tactics proven to close the goal of this masterclass is to give you the skills to win every possible deal by mastering the buying cycle there's one key reason why deals die or slip and we'll get into that shortly this course is designed to arm you with the skills to handle any buying cycle any objection and make sure that you can close on time and consistently now there's only one thing missing from today's session and that's going to be pricing and negotiation as you can imagine a lot goes into that it's gonna take much more than that the time we have for today so keep an eye out for the next master class which is all we're gonna focus on is how to win the negotiation all right before we dive into it thought I'd tell you a little bit about me my name is Devon Reed I am the content strategy manager here at Gong Bao a little bit on my background I've spent six years and SAS sales about two years ago I was hired here at Gong as the second sales higher and then eventually helped build and scale the mid market playbook about a year later and then now I currently manage gongs sales content assets just like today's masterclass and brand awareness case you've seen me around LinkedIn or industry events now into what we're gonna cover today it is threefold the first one is why it's critical to avoid the pricing conversation via email next is how to overcome deal killers in the buying process and lastly control your deal with a mutual action plan or a map alright let's just dive right into it here now when to use the closing kit is pretty important it will vary a little bit depending on your who you sell to how you sell your sales process but essentially you should be thinking about this once the prospect has communicated that they're going to make a purchase of some sort maybe they tell you they're buying yours specifically maybe just said hey we're definitely buying something like you're offering but we're you know competitors still in play this is a great time to make sure that you have these assets on hand and as we go through them you'll see a couple of them actually start before the closing motion but they become very important once you're really in that buying cycle and so the first one is it's okay to share pricing via email it is not smart to negotiate pricing over email anyone that's been in the sales game knows that you know almost every single sales leader will beat you over the head and say never negotiate over email we're gonna get into why here now if you're negotiating over email you have a few disadvantages and you're pretty much just shooting yourself right in the foot then we're gonna cover what those look like the key is that you want to get the conversation to the phone or voice because that's where you have the upper hand that's where the playing fields more even and that's where you can win and so when you negotiate price over email you introduce the risk of miscommunication a really big one is that it's much tougher to understand someone's tone via text you know written out versus if you can hear me like you can right now you can hear my inflection you can hear my tone you know how the words are coming across versus when they're written down you can lose a lot of that maybe you come across as too aggressive or maybe too soft and you're asked and so they take advantage of that the next one is that they have infinite time to respond to you if we're in a live conversation you have what half a second two five seconds on the long pause to get back to me but if I send you an offer and it takes you you know two days to read that email then once they read that email they decide hey maybe this isn't important or they just want to take the time to craft the perfect response and rebuttal to you that's gonna lead to number three which drags out the sales cycle so you've lost some of your upper hand there and then it's also gonna take a lot longer you can knock out most pricing and negotiations in you know a single ten to thirty minute call sometimes it takes like you know follow-up meeting but if you're doing it over email it can take hours or days or more scenarios even weeks and so that's how you're losing power behind the screen you're losing tone you're losing time you're giving up your leverage and you're missing a lot of information outside of the words that are being said when you're just relying on the text and then lastly you know it's much easier for someone to say no to you over email right you kind of think back to like cold calling which is you know you reach out via email they can say no really easily ignore you delete you if you catch them on the phone you at least have a shot if they say no to rebuttal right so kind of keep that mind frame in terms of why it's so much more impactful to do it over the phone and so what we're gonna cover is you know I know we're gonna cover negotiation and what that conversation looks like on the next master class but in the meantime I wanted to save you from falling into that trap and so the first tip here is to just keep it very simple and assume the conversation will occur over the phone so again I'm okay with you know removing the friction in the buying cycle and experience and if my prospect says hey Devin you know maybe it's after a demo call and they email me and say hey Devin no we forgot to talk about price can you send me over your pricing model I'm 100% okay with that I know sometimes you know people don't even want to do that or you know because on their website maybe pricing isn't explicit they're hiding it you know purposefully so you reach out there's a lot of different reasons why but ultimately I think that it's okay to share your pricing model and if you want to do the math for them and do like a really light quote that's up to you I think that's okay I don't think that's gonna kill the deal by any means but you should be mindful that what that's gonna probably lead to is an ask maybe not immediately maybe later but just know once you've shared the pricing model they might come back and say you know hey them it looks like you know 30 licenses is gonna cost me $40,000 can we do it for $30,000 that is the beginning of the negotiation and that's where you need to stop and implement some of these tips to make sure you migrate that conversation over to phone where you can win and so once they've made that ask any ask of terms or price this is how I would spawn hi Jenna happy to connect and chat through pricing levers with you how's your schedule look for day in time really light either a light mood or you know a neutral tone if anything which is the goal and it's just again I'm assuming we're doing this over phone it's not even a question now if they object what you're gonna want to do is explain why it's in their best interest to discuss over the phone they might say you know hey Devin I just don't have time today I'm slammed but I need to submit pricing or they might just want to play hardball and I know I don't I don't want to meet just just send it over so that's where you flip it a little bit you're gonna add a little more to this and say hi Jenna totally makes sense right we're gonna say whatever that objection is we understand but there are a couple factors in play and I want to ensure the quote addresses everything you're looking for and fits within your budget there's a hint at negotiating plus I want to be available for any follow-up questions you might have I'm sure we cannot get out in a 10 minute call how to state how's Tuesday afternoon look on your end so again we're just assuming that it's gonna happen over phone but you're gonna kind of guide them and say hey it's actually in your best interest I want to make sure that I'm doing right by you okay earlier I teased with the biggest reason why deals die or slip and that's misalignment on the buying process and this can take shape in a couple different ways one which i think is very common is sales reps are going through their sales funnel they go from discovery and then their demo maybe a second demo they talked about price and then they really start to go for the close and their prospect says you know what we're not we're not ready yet we're not ready to negotiate we're not ready to talk implementation and that can leave you scratching your head you've gone through your sales funnel you're not really sure what's going on it causes confusion and that's because you're in two different places in the evaluation process so you want to avoid that and make sure we're in tandem the entire sales process the other one could be that they're new to buying something at their organization or they don't fully understand all of the steps in the buying process for them and that can mislead you and so we're gonna want to uncover all of the unknowns the goal is to understand what those unknowns are those landmines are so you can navigate the deal with an upper hand you don't want to go 50 miles an hour and then see a speed bump five feet and head of you right you want to know everything that's coming your way so you can handle it tackle eight and what this greenlight checklist is that we're going to get into in a second is it has a couple of great benefits so one you're going to uncover all the steps in the buying process identifying necessary stakeholders looping in everyone that has a touch on this decision and you're going to confirm that buying process from beginning to end this will help you increase your close rates because you won't get hit with unknowns you'll shorten your sales cycle because you understand everything that needs to happen you can get it done quickly and then you're gonna be a more consistent sales professional because you're gonna know when deals are coming in so here's what the green light checklist looks like now this is gonna be customized based on your selling motion who you sell to how you sell but this will be a very good starting place for you on the left-hand side I have the four major pillars that need to be handled price budget legal and security review for more complex and enterprise sales contact me after I can give you some tips on a couple more sections to add but I wanted to keep it somewhere in the middle ground where everyone can relate to and this would be helpful at the top you're gonna see four different pillars the prospect point of contact who are we talking to to get this done do we need any resources to you know earn the right to have that meeting or as part of the review process and then two quick checks are we doing this now or is it already done and so I'll jet through a couple of these and the key and why I'm gonna spend a little bit time here's is this is the type of habits that the best salespeople do this isn't just a one-off thing that they do on their biggest deals this is a mindset and a framework that they use to make sure that every single check box is done so again they don't think that they can get away with one of these key boxes and then they go for the close and they realize hey the right person actually hasn't seen this yet right we want to avoid those last-minute stop signs and so on the left what you're gonna see is pricing confirmed and turns confirmed pricing how much are we paying for this who are we talking to do you need anything from our end and are we in progress or is it's done terms is similar but that could be your net 30 net 45 net 60 your payment terms it could be anything extra added like you're gonna be a customer reference for us or we're gonna do Co marketing together right whatever the terms of that contract our budget is different this is making sure that hey if your contract costs $50,000 not only is there $50,000 in budget but it's allocated for this decision this project has money to back it the earlier you do that the better the next one is have we identified who the budget holder is who's releasing the purse strings to give you what you need to get this deal done a lot of times that's the CFO and you might not talk to that individual so later in the sales process if at all ideally you do because then you get to the next box which is you know to me kind of the nail in the coffin if you can get direct contact with that budget holder you're only gonna increase your odds because you're getting in a room air quotes over a room happens over web conference often times but you can understand what are their hold ups you can convey the value firsthand this is a kind of a bonus I highly suggest doing it but if you can get on the phone with the budget holder and walk through any details it can mitigate a lot of objections that come up later the next one is a legal review I'd left a couple empty boxes because there's so many different ways and documents that you know your product can be reviewed but a really common one is your T's and C's your Terms & Conditions do we need to read line anything are we working with the legal counsel or working with your POC your champion to get that done do they need a word doc right we'll get into some examples on the next slide the last one is your security review and I probably should have put this one first because along with legal because these are the things that can take a lot of time depending on the size and the organization you're selling to how quickly they can move and review so I highly highly suggest getting these things started as quickly as possible the last thing you want to do is get a verbal from the decision maker the economic buyer is ready to sign but you have three weeks of security review to go through and so the documents that you share what will vary but oftentimes there's a review checklist right the prospect needs to see something they have you fill out something excuse me in terms of where to start this it will vary but I do suggest right after the discovery call if you have a concrete next step and this is a legitimate op in your pipeline you should have this set up for that account start walking through it the more check boxes you get the better that's how you know once you get this thing filled out again pending on your high you want to customize it that's how you know that hey I've got a deal lock and load and that can really forecast and commit this thing so here's an example of one that I filled out let's say we're working with Jenna from our email example she's our sales director we're working on talking about price as you can see in this in progress but I need to know how many licenses she needs so maybe that's our next step and she's gonna come back to me with that before I can say complete same thing with terms from there we'll get into terms we haven't started that yet we haven't done allocation yet but I've identified the budget holder I know for sure that it is mark our CRO over there Sarah I have not gotten direct contact yet but I'm in progress maybe I've asked Jenna hey can we get that meeting on the book she says yeah let me get back to you so I'm in progress on mindful of it I'm working on it and it looks like I need a business case to present him and that meeting if we go down we can see our point of contact is a legal counsel there she needs our T's and C's in a word doc once I send that over it's in progress right and so you start to get the feel here of understanding who are the stakeholders what do they need to get it you know the review or the conversation started and once you get this completely filled out that's how you know you have a real deal on the line all right the next one is understanding when a deal is going to come in and this is a map or a mutual action plan which is a document that helps the seller and prospect work together to find a mutually beneficial solution what this does and you'll see an example shortly that you can take home is you don't want to be Lewis and Clark which is you know figuring it out for the very first time I know where I'm at I have a general sense of where we're going a signature but if you don't know all the steps in the meantime it can be a very uncertain process right and it makes it a little more challenging for your prospect and your champion to invest more time with you because they don't know exactly how they're going to get to their desired outcome which is you're implemented solution and the results that it brings what you do want to be is a GPS guiding your client through the process with precision I'll dive into that little more your the benefits of a map so for you you're gonna see increased clothes rates because you're going to surface hurdles in the buying process early as you walk through all of the different steps of what's you know necessary for getting this deal done you're gonna start to surface things like oh that's right we need to do this oh that's right we should loop in so-and-so and it's also holding you accountable to make sure you don't miss a step in your selling motion you don't skip anything like the Lewis and Clark slide it's going to improve the buyers experience because you're gonna provide a consultative guided guide through the evaluation process when you have control over your own sales process and it reflects that as a consumer or your buyer it reflects your professionalism and experience in your space and it helps build trust and credibility it's gonna arm them with the confidence to go get things done on your behalf or talk to their leaders and get a budget approved and then lastly it's gonna increase your performance consistency anytime that you're working through a map and you see something is missed or a deadline hasn't been made you're gonna it serves as a forecast alert or a deal alert saying oh there's that speed bump we're about to hit it or we just did I need to focus my attention here and then also as you start to finish out your map you're gonna see which accounts are closest to the finish line and that will help you you know guide your attention in terms of where you should focus all right so here is what a map looks like it's bare-bones by design because you get to fill in it and the next slide will show you an example so the top headers are action item what is going to be accomplished the due date when is it going to be done by the objective why are we doing this and the owner that's gonna be who is responsible for it that could be you that could be your prospect it could be a mixture of both as I said prior you're probably going to want to start using both of these once you're at the you know post discovery you know this is a real deal right you don't want to start filling out Doc's for every single person you talk to you want to make sure that there's no some real a real deal there but once you do you're gonna want to start filling this out with them and here's what an example is when you start to figure it out so let's say you've had your discovery maybe your demo and they're saying hey we want to pilot this thing to me if you have a trial as part of your sales process that's a really you know a true sign that this has a chance of closing and so if we look at our action item first we're going to set up the test account you can see when the due date is the objective is to prep for the pilot launch and the owner is myself and my champion Jenna at ABC Corp after that we needed to define the success criteria again we have our due date and the objective is the defined success and direction for the pilot we need to decide what where we're headed here with our GPS and the owner is gonna be Devin Jenna and Mark CRO from the previous examples also needs to be a part of that right and so what you keep doing is you keep going through this list filling it out and what the best practice is is to keep the next couple of things filled out here because when you present this to them for the first time and as you work on it with them you want to show that hey I know the next couple terms right know when you're in the I don't know a new area for the first time you're on the freeway you're like okay says get off at 2.5 miles but what do I do next I stay in the left lane the middle lane the right lane what am I going from there this gives you some of that confidence and some relief of okay I know where we're headed next the next best practice is going to be sharing this with them you're gonna be able to download this fill it out and you can share this with them I highly advise sharing it and you only vote the reason being is you don't want them to come in here and move a due date without you knowing and if they need to edit something they can require it add request edit access and that gives you a notification that hey something's changed or we're making progress and they just want to add something to it right so this is something you own and you are filling out but it's a mutual action plan they need to have visibility to it and they need to help build it and create it with you all right so to recap what we covered today first avoid the pricing conversation via email it's okay to send your pricing model but don't fall into the trap of negotiating via email to is use the green list check yet the green light checklist excuse me to overcome deal killers in the buying process make sure you understand everything that's necessary who's involved so you have control over your deal and the last one is control the timing of your deal the mutual action plan curb map have a great outline of what needs to happen when hold yourself and your prospect accountable to make sure deals are coming in on time now what do you do take what you just learned go to market and let me know how it goes I would love for you to get back to me on LinkedIn if you have any feedback of how it went suggestions comments always make sure to get back to you would love to hear how this is working out and to get access to the next master class you're gonna want to make sure you're following DOM on LinkedIn go over to our page on LinkedIn hips follow not only will you get an update when the next negotiation master class is ready we also get alerts for when we get your guide into your feed when we release our video content some of its really funny a lot of its informative and we also have posts that come out about every two weeks giving you tips tricks and insights into how you can close more deals so that's all the time we have for today feel free to again follow us on LinkedIn and you can also add me Devin Reed on LinkedIn until next time