Partners in Excellence

MAY 18, 2015

I’ve been reviewing a bunch of deals in a client’s CRM system. Deals we expected to close this month slip into the next month. As I review the deal histories, I see the same pattern, month after month of slippage. I looked at one deal, the target close date had shifted 11 times in the past 6 months!

Price 92

Price CRM Closing Process 92

Partners in Excellence

JULY 23, 2019

By the end of next quarter, improve forecast accuracy, as measured by target close date and deal value, to 70% for the current quarter. Related Posts: Performance Metric Friday -- Deal Slippage Are You Doing The Work? (And we might later set a goal to move it from 60-70%.)

Clients 106

Clients Growth Closing Prospecting 106

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 18, 2021

.” As sales people, there are dozens of acronyms, if any are applied, you have a “qualified deal.” However, these are for sales people to use, hopefully, in finding good deals to chase. The buying imitative may be real but if it’s not in our ICP, it’s someone else’s deal.

Customers 165

Customers Manufacturing B2C Technology 165

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 8, 2018

We’ve all participated in endless deal and pipeline reviews where we see the target close date slip and slip and slip. It was a major deal. ” He started waving his hands and blabbering, he didn’t know, it turned out it was all wishful thinking and eventually the deal was abandoned.

Manufacturing 84

Manufacturing Launch Clients Closing 84

Partners in Excellence

JULY 27, 2021

At the end of the quarter, we found about 50% of the deals they forecast actually came in. 20% of the deals they forecast slipped into a later quarter. Close to 25% of the deals they had forecast winning, they actually lost (Hmmmmmm)! How can we be losing so many of the deals that we had committed we could win?

Cross-sell 68

Cross-sell Quota Closing Gaming 68

Partners in Excellence

JULY 28, 2019

Losing fast, having the courage to walk away from a deal that you are highly unlikely to win is tough for everyone. In the past 4 weeks, I’ve walked away from 2 deals. We realized, the gulf between what the client wanted and what they were willing to pay was insurmountable, and walked away from the deal.

Clients 98

Clients Price Customers Sales 98

Outreach

DECEMBER 2, 2021

Almost a third of B2B sales leaders say they develop forecasts by referencing key deals and adding in qualitative analysis, according to a recent commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Outreach.*. The problem? This unscientific method makes it impossible to accurately manage your business.

Commission 52

Commission Pipeline CRM Consult 52

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 7, 2017

In reviewing deals or pipelines, one of the things I often look at is the history of changes in target close dates. One situation, recently, the deal had been active for 11 months–the target close date had changed 11 times, each time slipping 30 days. Performance Metric Friday — Deal Slippage Are Your Deals Slipping?

Closing 53

Closing Legal Pipeline Launch 53

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 10, 2019

One of the things I pay a lot of attention to, as I review pipelines or deal strategies, is the Target Close Date, and how many times that date has been changed. It was a huge deal, it would make the client’s quarter. Related Posts: Forecast Integrity "Target Close Date" Integrity Are Your Deals Slipping?

Closing 73

Closing Clients Pipeline Launch 73

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 23, 2016

Quarter end is approaching, we need a deal to close to make our numbers. Recently, I was doing a deal review with a sales person needing a specific deal to make her quarter happen. But as we did the deal review, the focus on her needs became really distracting. What about that?

Customers 54

Customers Closing Price Trust 54

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 23, 2018

Related Posts: What’s Project Management Have To Do With… Sales Process, A Special Version Of Project Management Sales As A Special Case Of Project Management Performance Metric Friday — Deal Slippage Starting With The End In Mind.

Sales 95

Sales Launch Meeting Process 95

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 6, 2016

” Every month the answer was the same and every month deals slipped. Another had a huge deal he’d been working on of years. He hadn’t been in contact with the customer for some time, but he insisted the deal would close by the end of the quarter. Starting With The End In Mind Are Your Deals Slipping?

Closing 51

Closing Pipeline Manufacturing Launch 51

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 22, 2019

We want the deals accurately positioned in the pipeline. We want accurate data about each deal. They may be working deals, they just haven’t updated the CRM or pipeline management system. As a result, there are real weaknesses and alignment problems in the way the sales person is managing the deal.

Pipeline 48

Pipeline Represent CRM Closing 48

Partners in Excellence

JUNE 26, 2014

So in deal reviews and pipeline reviews, it’s not unusual for me to interrupt, cutting to the chase, asking “What’s next, when will it happen?” The deal will stall, attention will get diverted, the customer will defer getting the results they expect–losing opportunity.

Pipeline 100

Pipeline Process Meeting Follow-up 100

Partners in Excellence

JULY 12, 2014

The “Target Close Date” is one of the most important aspects of pipeline, forecast, and deal integrity. Anything else in our deal strategy can change, but the Target Close Date must be kept as sacred! Is this deal real? Why is the slippage happening? What percent of your deals come in on time?

Closing 94

Closing Manufacturing Objectives and Key Results Pipeline 94

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 23, 2014

Matt Heinz wrote a provocative post, “ News Flash, Sales Doesn’t Control When The Deal Is Closed.” As Matt points out, this may not be true, the customer may not truly be in control of their buying/decision making process—which is a possible reason so many deals end in no decision made. No related posts.

Trust 88

Trust Process Closing Up-sell 88

Partners in Excellence

MAY 19, 2015

Actually, the title of this post should be: You Can’t Have Pipeline Integrity Without Deal Integrity; You Can’t Have Deal Integrity Without A Sales Process People Use! They tend to take precedence over deal reviews or anything else. This means focusing on deal integrity. But it was too long.

Pipeline 93

Pipeline Gaming Process Closing 93

Partners in Excellence

JULY 14, 2014

We know the number of deals we need to be working, we know the number of prospecting calls we have to make. How many more deals do we need to be working? Things happen, every once in a while a deal we expected to close by a certain date, gets pushed out. A deal we hoped to win, falls through. No related posts.

Closing 91

Closing Quota Pipeline Gaming 91

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 30, 2015

Our thinking and visualizations of our sales processes, deal strategies, funnels, and pipelines often cause us to do the wrong things. It’s because we have a “one way street” mentality as we think of our deal strategies. The other day, I was reviewing a critical deal. They needed to close the deal.

Process 94

Process Pipeline Sales Closing 94

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 15, 2015

Related Posts: Performance Metric Friday — Deal Slippage “Target Close Date” Must Be Kept Sacred! Are you helping your customer develop and execute their project plan? Are you helping them manage the plan with the end in mind? The Illusion Of Control It’s The Customer’s Responsibility To Buy!

Manufacturing 93

Manufacturing Launch Closing Start-ups 93

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 11, 2016

Close a deal by this date). Leverage project planning to increase your own effectiveness in closing deals. Related Posts: The Illusion Of Control Sales Process, A Special Version Of Project Management Starting With The End In Mind Sales As A Special Case Of Project Management Performance Metric Friday — Deal Slippage.

Sell 55

Sell Closing Process Customers 55

SBI

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

Join sales expert Nancy Nardin of Smart Selling Tools and Mike De’Angelo, Sales Director at Qstream, who will discuss the notion of sales proficiency as competitive differentiator and it’s impact on sales goals, from shortening sales cycles, lowering risks such as deal slippage or non-compliance, and to reducing the cost of sales rep turnover.

Non-Profits 26

Non-Profits Sales Price Trust 26

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 28, 2016

Too many sales people were saying this, slipping their forecasts, slipping their target close dates another month (one becomes suspicious when you see 11 sequential monthly slips on a deal–but I’ll leave that for another post). Related Posts: Why’s This Deal Keep Slipping? Deal Slippage.

Customers 57

Customers Manufacturing Healthcare Pitch 57

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 25, 2015

I was doing a deal review with a sales person. It was a big deal, important to the sales person and to my client. But the deal had been stuck for some time. As I reviewed the deal history, there were a bunch of things “wrong” with the deal. At this point, I was asked to do a deal review.

Product 55

Product Closing Meeting Process 55

SalesHandy

APRIL 1, 2020

Sales Pipeline can also be described as a collection of all the deals/prospects in once place, separated by pipeline stages. Let’s explore more benefits of having a defined Sales Cycle that can help your team get better at closing deals. Often, a lot of deals in the pipeline aren’t closing and that doesn’t mean there’s no progress.

Objectives and Key Results 64

Objectives and Key Results Pipeline CRM Sales 64

SBI

APRIL 4, 2018

Our tools help salespeople to objectively assess their position on a deal or account and in the process spot the risks and gaps that could lead to loss. Sales teams are wasting effort chasing down deals that are ‘unwinnable’. From guides for account reviews through to deal strategy. Garry: This depends.

Product 20

Product Pipeline Gaming B2B 20

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Deal Slippage The post Project Management And Sales Methodology first appeared on Partners in EXCELLENCE Blog -- Making A Difference. Related Posts: Project Management And Sales? What's Project Management Have To Do With Buying/Selling? Sales Process, A Special Version Of Project Management What If We Kept "Target Close Date" Sacred?

Manufacturing 162

Manufacturing Launch Sales Process 162

Sales Hacker

APRIL 10, 2019

Imagine knowing the actual close date of a deal months in advance…. Think of the hundreds of hours you’d save chasing bad deals… the good deals you could stop from slipping into next quarter… and the trust you’d build by making your prospects feel they’re in safe hands. That said, there are degrees.

Process 83

Process Contract Sales Up-sell 83

Gong.io

JUNE 5, 2020

You’re already closing way too many deals. If you are ringing the “new deal” bell (gong?) If you are closing so many deals, your customer success team can’t keep up, maybe you don’t need any help (protip: you should also consider hiring more CSMs). . Nobody ever feels like they are closing way too many deals. Okay, okay.

Quota 77

Quota GTM Sports Pipeline 77

SaaStr

MAY 15, 2020

I believe that 100%, that if we’re not treating each other well, and we don’t have a culture that is engaging, and respectful of the individual, it’s going to be very hard for us to extend that to the people who we’re dealing with. So, that’s how we deal with one another internally, as well as externally. .

Trust 80

Trust Start-ups Customers Up-sell 80

Hubspot

FEBRUARY 17, 2014

Taking our Math of the Besieged Buyer one step further, we might get: If you consider the number of “wins” on the bottom line, you get an eye-opening look at the slippage that can occur in any marketing system. Importantly, it’s not the software you may or may not be using that causes the majority of this slippage.

Construction 77

Construction Consult Campaign Growth 77