If this isn’t done right, it can hurt, hurt badly for a sales leader to miss his or her number, and miss it by a lot. I have a very easy to follow solution for you that will take the stress out of end of month, or end of quarter forecasting, or just forecasting in general. On the flip side, forecast calls can be a LOT OF FUN (you read that right). When you are locked in and have a very high degree of confidence. I experienced both sides of the coin! In my latter years, I was dead-on accurate. Here is the way you do it. There are three parts:
Part one- Get involved in your team’s deals and know them as well as they do! You don’t have to spread yourself thin and try and know every single deal, but do get involved with the ones that you are counting on that can really move the needle. As a sales director, I would have a Top 20 deal list and I would personally know exactly where we stood with each of those deals.
I would know the following: What products is the customer considering and what are the compelling reasons; what have we done so far in the sales engagement; what was the last step we had with the customer; who are we working with and who is the real decision maker(s); what is the approval process for the purchase; what are the client’s pain points (how bad are they bleeding); what would happen if they didn’t buy anything (no decision); what is their timeframe and why- what is driving it and what happens if they don’t buy within that timeframe; who are our competitors; why us; and what are the next steps. These are some of the many questions that I should be able to answer and feel good about if I really knew the deal and if I was really entrenched with the sales representative.
Part two- Okay, so you know many of the answers to the above questions and you have been directly involved in the deal. Fantastic! Since you have been involved with the client, it is your job as the sales leader to be directly asking deal-dynamic selling questions with the client DIRECTLY. Here’s what I mean: let’s say we have shown the customer our products (solutions), they are comfortable with it, like what we have, we have reviewed the proposals together, we are in sum, at a point where there is no reason why we shouldn’t move ahead. You are now literally winding down a call with your sales rep and the client on the line (reviewing the proposal or some follow up items- it doesn’t matter). Before the end of that call, your job is to ask for the order! DON’T LET THE OPPORTUNITY PASS!!
All you have to say is something like this, “Bob, it sounds like we are ready to rock and roll with this, what are your thoughts on moving ahead today?” If Bob is good on his end or says he has to check one more thing or with one more person, fine. Do ask some questions around what else or who else he needs to check with as this will avoid surprises later. But after getting clarity on that, CEMENT THINGS OVER by asking Bob if we can get the signed proposal (or the business) today, or tomorrow, or by Friday, or whatever day/timeframe you want to pick.
You MUST ask this question and ask point-blank. You have worked your tail off on this sale and so hasn’t your rep and you know your product will truly benefit the customer. You should feel great about asking this question! There’s no stress in asking. Ask happily, and get that commitment from the customer saying, “Yes, we can move ahead by Friday.” When a customer gives this kind of verbal commitment, now based on a SPECIFIC date, your probability of closing on that date went up ten-fold.
Often times salespeople won’t be as direct as this and they leave things a little open-ended with the client. This is what will mess up your forecasting! This is exactly where things are left uncertain with the customer and we hope for good news instead. BAD MOVE!!! And if Friday is the last day of the sales month and you were forecasting this deal and things were left open-ended with the client, chances are that the deal will push. This is where the stress comes in at end of month and with forecasting. You can avoid all that.
Part three- When you asked Bob, the customer, if he was ready to “rock and roll” and move ahead (by the way customers always seemed to be put at ease and would laugh when I said “rock and roll”), you want to quickly pivot and play devil’s advocate to ensure his commitment to move ahead by Friday is solid. Here is what I mean… when Bob said, “Yes, we can move ahead by Friday,” it is your job as the sales leader to cement things even further by responding with something like this, “Oh that is fantastic news Bob! You made our day, you really did. Quick question on that, are you signing the paperwork yourself or is someone else signing and are they in the office the next couple of days (leading up to Friday)? Get that info out of Bob and if Bob says he is signing, then acknowledge and once more (and you have to do this like you are just so innocently excited and happy), ask Bob this, “Bob, this is beautiful news. So you are good to go my friend, there is nothing else you need, and you are good with returning the proposal Friday?”
Cementing over Bob’s “yes” to your moving ahead question like this will prevent blindsides and last-minute surprises. I often would just be candid with my client and let them know that in the above situation, that this really means a lot to get the paperwork returned by Friday as that it is our last day of the month and that this will help us hit our goals. There is NOTHING wrong with this, just as long as you earned Bob’s trust and know that he absolutely needs your product.
Remember, you worked your tail off. You earned the right to ask these closing questions. And you can only do this if you were involved in the deal. Coming in at the eleventh hour as the “big guns” sales manager or VP, and hitting Bob with these questions can cause problems. Unless of course Bob is asking for a discount which is fine too, as that is a great way to close (“Okay Bob, I can meet you at that price as long as we can have a signed contract by Friday. Can you do that?”). See how that worked nicely?
Do the above and your forecasting accuracy will be much improved. And get into the habit of asking your reps these deal-dynamic questions to see if they asked them (which they should be). If they did they will give you specific, detailed answers to what the customer said. If they didn’t or left things kind of open-ended, you will pick up on very vague, general responses that will indicate that they really have no accuracy with forecasting the deal.
-Happy Selling!