We tend to think of the final close as being the most difficult to obtain. But this isn’t true. Here is a lis of the commitments you need to gain by degree of difficulty. These three commitments are relatively easy to gain. Even signing the contract is an easy commitment to gain, if you’ve done great work up until that point.
- Review Your Solution: Everyone likes to learn, and everyone likes to see something new. Gaining the commitment to review your solution in your presentation is easy after you’ve had a single conversation about your dream clients needs. This is the easiest of all the commitments you need to gain.
- Collaborate: The commitment to collaborate around a solution is one of the easier commitments to gain. Your dream client has ideas about how they need things to work, and they’re more than happy to share them with you.
- Signing the Contract: For all of the hoopla about closing and getting the final commitment, this isn’t anywhere near the most difficult client commitment to gain. If you’ve done good work up until this point, this is a very easy and natural commitment again.
These commitments are more difficult to gain.
- Resolve Concerns: Your dream client will tell you they need time to make a decision. Without you being there to help provide them with information and insight, they will struggle to resolve their concerns. This commitment is more difficult to gain.
- Decision: The commitment to make a decision to act is one of the more difficult decisions you will have to gain. Even if your dream client knows and understands their need to change.
- Consensus: One of the biggest obstacles to a deal is getting everyone on your team clients team on the same page at the same time. Consensus is difficult. The status quo as many allies.
These are some of the most difficult commitments you will need to gain to create and win an opportunity. None of these is the final “close.”
- Time – First Appointment: Your dream client is extraordinarily busy. They have more work than they have time. They’ve had too many experiences with bad salespeople to risk spending time with another one. They’ve changed providers three times and never gotten a better result. They’re comfortable with the status quo and they trust their problem more than they trust you. This makes time difficult to gain.
- Invest Enough to Succeed: If your customer was capable of getting the result they needed with their current investment they would not be speaking to you. They need help justifying the need to spend more to produce the real outcome they want.
- Execution: There is nothing more difficult for you or your client then executing. This is the most difficult commitment again because it requires that your customer change what they are presently doing.
