To win deals…. Leverage your Wingman
Attn Software Sales Pros
Sales rarely is “one & done” where you are working with the sole decision maker requiring no other sign-offs. Whether it’s contractual terms, budget approvals or team consensus the purchase decision always involves multiple people.
You’re working with various people that play various roles to influence the sales cycle. Anyone in the process can be a deal killer in the lurking. Likewise on your team you should be leveraging different people into the sales cycle depending on the objective. Sales Engineer, Customer Success Resource, Solutions Architect, CEO/CXO/VP of various departments, Legals, Finance, etc.
Typically you’ll want to bring in “peers” to meetings/calls depending on who will be attending from the prospect’s team. If the COO/CEO is joining, you’ll probably want to at least bring in your VP or if it’s a high enough profile meeting, your CEO.
Timing is Key: Don’t miss the opportunity to begin paving the communication channels immediately
Timing is Key: Immediately after a meeting or call, make sure you connect via Linkedin with each individual present. Additionally have your teammates also connect. If there is a key technical person you’ve identified, then have your Solutions Engineer connect and send them a direct 1:1 email.
If a Senior CXO/VP attended and your CEO/VP attended, absolutely have them send a direct, single email to thank them for their time and open that line of communication.
Now that the various 1:1 lines are open you may need to leverage one of them to get intel or feedback at some point in the sales cycle. When the deal goes silent, your Sales Engineer can reach out to their peer contact and see if there are any ?’s they have and this gives you an opportunity to teach a high value point.
Or if your CEO has opened the line of communication with their SVP, then they can send a short email to check-in and also teach a high value point specific to the SVP. For example,
“Hi Dave, just wanted to shoot you a quick note as a customer sent me this article and it’s very appropriate given the discussion we had a few wks back. Let me know what you think of it. — CEO”
Assuming there is a response, then your CEO can ask, “Oh and by the way, how are things progressing with the internal discussions? Anything i can press my team on?”
Or you can have your Solutions Engineer send the same style of note to the Engineer that was in the meeting.
Or your Customer Success resource can ping the power user.
Etc. etc. etc. The key is that you can only leverage these lines later if they are opened initially.
Attn Sales Exec, you’re the quarterback of your deal and ultimately winning or losing is completely up to you. Don’t expect your Wingpersons to proactively do this work for you. But if you ask them to open the lines of communication and make specific outreach at the appropriate time + context they absolutely will.
Leveraging your Wingmen = more intel = more closes
Timing is key: Knowing when to reach out is also critical. When is the most opportune time to reach out? Ideally when they are engaged with your product AND their behavior indicates the timing is now based on historical behavior data. “Prospect is Ready” Intel is one of the Intel types that we provide via our behavioral platform, Whalr
