Same Old Song and Dance

Complex B2B selling is hard. Multiple decision-makers, weeks or months of conversations, competitive offerings to overcome, several contract terms to negotiate…. So many things can go wrong along the way, even for the most experienced sellers. Keeping it all straight requires designing a sales process with several stages that reflect your internal selling steps and the customer’s buying journey.

But even with a well-laid plan, all of the moving pieces can cause confusion for account execs and sales leaders alike. Which deal stage is correct based on the latest phone exchange, virtual demo, or onsite meeting that the rep did in Houston? When’s the correct time to move something forward in the process, without jumping the gun? How long should a deal stay in the same stage before it’s officially considered stalled (or sings its swan song as closed lost)?

A Change Would Do You Good

Here’s a practical way to confirm an opp’s deal stage:

• So, how will you know when a deal truly belongs in a given deal stage? Don’t just trust your feelings. Create verifiable outcomes for each stage. A verifiable outcome is exactly what it sounds like: a result that can be validated objectively. A basic example is confirming the next meeting on both sides’ calendars as an indicator of interest following the initial discovery call. Think through the key events that need to take place to move your deals forward, and then align them to your deal stages. Don’t move deals forward to the next stage until you complete the verifiable outcome(s) for the current stage. Tip: Try to define one key verifiable outcome for each stage. That will allow you to align each stage with a single event from your selling process, with the added bonus of being able to automate or semi-automate each stage in your CRM.