Sales is Poker. Tip the Odds with Inside Information
by Scott Hornstein, B2P Partners
Hey PMs (and PMMs), what do you think your odds are of sales success? Here’s an eye-opener:
· House odds in Vegas are around 1.5%, So your overall odds of winning over time, if you are the best player who draws great hands, will never rise above 48.5%.
· 42% is about the close ratio of forecasted sales.
There is little we can do about Vegas odds (and live to tell about it), but there’s a lot that can be done for that close rate. It’s not just luck and it’s not “just a numbers game”. The winning or closing percentage can be leveraged, without double-dealing.
Without marking the cards.
Even a slight increase in your close ratio puts money on the table.
Winning big
The way to win big is to answer the question, why do prospects buy (or not)? Stated differently what the heck is my customer or prospect thinking? It’s the crux of win, lose or draw.
Here’s how.
Many PMs have learned that to be successful in marketing and sales, you don’t need to be a specialist in this tactic or that technology. You need to be a specialist in the prospect, how they see value, how they learn, and how they make a decision.
I’d like to introduce you to the Decision Drivers process, which is a result of our experiences, some good, some a lesson. It opens the door to better messaging, better content and greater engagement because, when you open the door, you meet your prospect. You return with the insights that marketing and sales need to drive decisions in your favor.
Driving the decision-making process
The essence of the process is to gain quantitative and quantitative insight into what are components of the decision-making process that matter most. Then, how to leverage success.
Want to know how it works? Here’s a peek behind the curtain.
But does it work?
The Decision Drivers (DD) process delivers competitively differentiating insights. Here’s what just one PM learned from a recent implementation:
· There was a widely-held-belief (WHB) that marketing and sales had to appeal to multiple personas at once. DD revealed that increasing the investment in the internal champion is more effective.
· The worry was that the product was not priced competitively, and the hope was that DD would suggest ways to reposition the price discussion. Instead, and equally important to price, is the evaluation of total cost of ownership (TOC). The product rocked TOC, and there was the story.
Separately and together they made every dollar invested in marketing and sales more profitable.
