Sales - Why the Worst Spot to Place in a Race is Second!

Why is the worst place to be in a race second?

That's because the person who placed second put in almost as much energy into the competition as the person who placed first but of course didn't win. All those who ran slower or didn't complete the loop hadn't invested as much effort or emotional capital or energy into the competition. So their lost was less.

This same logic applies to software sales or sales of any kind just as much as it applies to horse races. If you are the runner up, or the last to be qualified out by the client it means you spent the most energy, money and time but for no return. In a world of limited resources it would have been better to spend your time on other deals or sales pursuits. Particularly in the current world we live in with the economy falling down around us we don't have any time to waste.

Coming second in a race all the time is worst than not racing in the first place. Experienced sports star know this. That's why they will often opt out of competitions that they know they are not physically prepared for or can't win to save their energy for the next competition.

So the best thing to do is to qualify out of sales deals early if you can. Rather than fighting that uphill battle only to loose in the end.

There are several deal qualification tools you can use to help you with this but my personal favourite is PPVVC. Probably one of the worst acronyms I've seen. It stands for the following...

Power, Pain, Vision, Value, Control

Basically the methodology says you have to be able to ask and answer in the affirmative the following five questions in order to close any deal...

1) What high priority pain has the prospect admitted to you and what is it costing them today? Have they quantified this?

2) Who do you believe is the Power in the organization is and why? Can we gain access and influence with power in the organization?

3) What Vision did you create for the Prospect? Is vision differentiated toward us?

4) Has the prospect identified enough Value to compel them to move ahead now? Is there a compelling event to make them purchase?

5) Who is Controlling the buying process? Has the prospect agreed to your draft joint Evaluation Plan? If there a clear road map that you can influence?

The basic equation then becomes Sale = Power X Pain X Vision X Value X Control.

If any of the parts of the equation is zero then the answer is zero. In other words no sale. Perhaps it's an over simplification but if you think back to every deal you've lost (and if you are an experienced sales person you've lost a few) it will likely be because you've missed out on one of these five questions.

Obviously there is a lot more detail around this methodology than just five questions. But even thinking about these things as you begin a deal pursuit is a start. So next time you get ready to run a race think PPVVC. It may be time to head back to the stable!