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When is it Time to Quit?
March 27, 2007
Sometimes, success is knowing when to walk away from a sale
By Rebecca Aronauer
The best way to become a successful salesperson is to copy one. In February, Miller Heiman, a sales consulting and training firm based in Reno, Nevada, released a study on the behavior of successful sales forces. The study described these groups as Winning Sales Organizations (WSOs), defining them as any organization with greater than 20 percent growth in revenue, new customers and average account billing against the previous year. Only 7 percent of about 4,500 participating companies qualified as WSOs, and the other 93 percent have a lot to learn.
The study found that WSOs are more likely to do the things one would expect from a successful sales team, such as create comprehensive prospecting plans and compare their productivity against the competition. But WSOs also are nearly twice as likely as other sales organizations to know when to stop pursuing clients. Twenty-nine percent of WSOs have an established procedure to know when to cut off investment in large prospects, while only 15 percent of other companies do. The message may be antithetical to "never-give-up" sales training, but being realistic instead of optimistic can help the bottom line.
"In sales, losing slowly is really the kiss of death," says Dario Priolo, executive vice president for corporate development for Miller Heiman. "If salespeople are spending their time on deals they have a low probability of winning, they'd be better off spending their time elsewhere." In large business-to-business deals, where the sales cycle is often long and the cost of pursuing the deal is high, sales teams need to objectively measure their chances of closing.
Gauging the interest of the C-level executives and knowing the prospect's budget are good ways to decide if you should continue to pursue the lead. In the long hunt for a close, Priolo recommends companies evaluate each prospect's interest objectively on a monthly basis.
Walking away from a sale doesn't have to mean walking away from a prospect. Priolo suggests salespeople explain to the prospect why they're no longer pursuing the deal—it may actually elicit more information that helps lead to a contract. But ultimately, in a field where every minute counts, pursuing a prospect that will never buy can be a waste of time.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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