Framing 3 mini contracts that help you qualify your prospects
Whether your sales cycle is 2 days or 2 years, rarely do deals close without the seller teasing out small, micro buy-ins throughout the way. The process of ensuring you are on the same page as your prospect at every step ultimately leads the deal to get inked. Forming these mini contracts enables you to spend time with the right prospects who are aligned with your product’s value.
But as sellers, we often miss both the obvious and hidden angles from which we can start to frame these mini contracts. As a result, we end up with large gaps in expectation that can sometimes show up even as the prospect is about to sign. Below are three (out of many) topics you should start forming mini contracts around so that you avoid misalignment and the signature becomes a formality.
Company vision & philosophy
Your company vision and philosophy are the highest level opinions you can share with the prospect. When sharing that vision you immediately form an opportunity to get buy-in over whether or not your prospect agrees with your view of the world. If right out of the gate your prospect disagrees with your high level statements, you either need to cut them loose or convince them of the technology trends you and your company are seeing. Here are some example phrases of how you can form mini contracts around company vision:
“We believe that in 2020, AI and machine learning absolutely have to be a part of your data enrichment story given the breadth of valuable sources that exist on the web today. Do you agree with this view on how data trends are changing?”
“We believe that above all else, end user functionality and adoption is the most important element within a SaaS platform. Is this also a primary driver when evaluating SaaS vendors for you?”
Feature & pricing objections
Feature and pricing objections are as commonplace in a deal as snow is on a mountain top. But what we say to feature and pricing objections is more important than the objection itself. These moments create opportunities for sellers to align on mini contracts around what’s really important when it comes to the deal evaluation criteria. Try these phrases the next time you’re faced with feature or pricing objections:
Unfortunately we do not have that capability today. Is that feature an absolute must for us to work together?
While we do not have the specific feature, here’s how other customers are solving that same use case…Will that work for you or do you need that specific feature for us to move forward?
That price is outside of what’s in the realm of possibility for us. Is pricing the primary driver of your evaluation? If so, we may want to rethink whether or not [insert product] is the right fit for you.
Product roadmap
Given most SaaS products are ever-changing and evolving, it’s just as important to speak about the future of your platform as it is the present state. Where you’re going and the pace at which you are innovating will set important guard rails around what the prospect can expect. It also ensures that your prospects will be happy customers :) Here are some phrases you can use to ensure you are aligning on mini contracts regarding your roadmap:
“We eventually want to head in that direction but that specific capability won’t be available for at least another few quarters. Is that going to be a dealbreaker for you?”
“In the next year we’ll be focusing more on the admin panel and security features. Does that align with where you’d want us to spend our resources if you were to become a customer of ours?”
Now that we’ve laid out some potential ways in which you can start to assess whether or not you and the prospect are on the same page, what happens if your mini contracts don’t align? Just as unhealthy relationships are not worth maintaining, prospects who do not agree with you and your company’s view may need to be de-prioritized. After all, your time is limited and the quality prospects who are working towards that signature deserve the bulk of your time. Enjoy trying these phrases out for healthier prospect relationships and for more tips & tricks on how to frame your deals, listen to my Decoding Sales podcast episode, “Framing Deals”.
