Does this situation sound familiar?
If you’ve ever been in sales, this is an all too familiar scenario.
You have a hot prospect, or so you think. You’ve been out to meet the CIO. You had an hour meeting with him, and he answered all of your questions.
He seemed to like what you proposed, and he asked you to send him a proposal. It was a great meeting – so you thought.
You went back to your office and started on the proposal right away. It took a couple of days to write, because you wanted to get it right, and ensure everything was in the proposal that would show him how attentive you were during the meeting.
You showed it to your sales manager, and she thought it was a good proposal and she gave you her seal of approval. So you emailed it off the first thing the next meeting.
You wanted to call right away and discuss it with the CIO, but you knew you had to wait a few days, to give him a chance to read it and digest it, because it was quite a thorough proposal.
So, you waited a week, and gave him a call. He wasn’t there, so you left a message.
He didn’t reply.
You called three days later and left another message. Again, he didn’t call you back.
Now you’re starting to panic a bit. So you call in other three days, leave a message, and then at the end of the day, he calls you back.
You can’t wait to answer the phone, and your heart is pounding anticipating the go-ahead.
Then it happens. The phone finally rings, and it’s him – your prospect.
He liked your proposal, but they are not prepared to move forward at this time.
So, you ask him if he went with a competitor. No is the reply. He cannot see enough reason to move forward at this time with anybody.
You’ve lost to the ubiquitous “Status Quo”!
Your head droops. You hang up. What are you going to tell your manager?
More importantly, you keep asking yourself – “WHAT DID I DO WRONG?”
In B2B sales and marketing, why is the status quo your most challenging competitor?
THE STATUS QUO
The status quo is always your biggest competitor in any B2B selling situation. In fact, CSO Insights, the venerable sales research firm, has consistently found that over 50% of forecasted sales opportunities are not closing at the time, and for the value expected, if at all.
Going further into their research, they have stated that almost all of these losses were because the prospect decided to do nothing. The prospect did not go to a competitor.
These NO DECISIONS are utilizing an enormous amount of sales and marketing time, which is ending up being wasted, and more importantly costing you and your company a lot of money.
WHY COMPANIES REMAIN WITH THE STATUS QUO
For three years in a row, the benchmark and advisory firm Sirius Decisions has reported that the number one revenue inhibitor, in complex B2B sales environments, continues to be the vendor’s inability to communicate value.
One of the reasons, that these vendors haven’t succeeded in conveying their value, is that most of the effort has been spent focusing on the value of their solutions, and not on the cost to the prospect dealing with the problem.
There are a number of reasons companies will stay with the status quo, instead of going with your solution. Let’s have a look at some of them.
1. They don’t see the value of changing – already mentioned.
a. You haven’t made a strong enough value proposition for them to change.
b. You haven’t explained the Cost of Inaction.
2. They feel your solution is too risky.
3. They just implemented another similar solution.
4. There are other projects taking up the resources needed to fully implement your solution.
5. They really don’t have the money.
Does any of this familiar to you and your company?
The real question is;
HOW DO YOU OVERCOME THIS STATUS QUO DILEMMA?
Let me help.
I am offering a free coaching session to show you how you can still reach your forecast revenue goals for this year.
I’d like to invite you to take advantage of a free “Business Breakthrough” coaching session where we’ll work together to allow you to;
• Create a crystal clear vision for your “ultimate business success” and the results you’d like your business to achieve.
• Uncover hidden challenges that may be sabotaging the growth of your business.
• Leave this session renewed, re-energized, and inspired about how you can turn your business into a highly profitable, revenue-generating machine.
I am offering this free session, because as you know I am a business coach that helps companies like yours get a 25% to 100% gain in revenues, over forecast, in just one year.
Please understand that I am not offering a sales pitch in disguise. I promise not to bother you or pester you in any way. In fact, if you feel I have wasted your time with this session, then I will personally donate $100 on your behalf, to your favourite charity.
However, you must also understand that I cannot help everybody. I can only be of benefit to companies that already have a real product or service, are already realizing revenues, and sell to other companies.
If you’d like to take advantage of this very special, very limited, and totally FREE 30 minute “Business Breakthrough” coaching session, here is what to do next.
Click the link and answer these six questions. The survey will take less than two minutes. TAKE THE SURVEY
Once I have your answers, I’ll do some market research, and get back to you to set up a time for the “Business Breakthrough” coaching session.
Thank you, and I look forward to serving you.
Kind regards,
Ian Dainty
Ian Dainty’s Email
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Graphic courtesy of dailypaul.com
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