CHAPTER 20


Developing the Response

It’s time for you to actively develop the proposal. Depending on the complexity of the pursuit and the requirements of the target organization, the depth and detail to which proposal processes extend may include areas that drill deeper than those listed below. However, whatever process you choose must at the very least encompass the following elements:

•   Strategy review

•   Completion of business case

•   ROI development

•   Reference validation

•   Completion of cost/pricing

•   Finalizing the solution

•   Developing the draft

•   Draft review

Why is it so important for the sales lead to be engaged in each of these areas and have a deep understanding of what’s going on in all eight? Because in enterprise selling, which can become quite complex, someone on the selling side has to know what the whole response looks like and someone must be accountable. If the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, the odds of failure are high—and failure is expensive.

When proposal responses are led by nonsales resources, the voice of the customer can sometimes be hard to hear since the focus can shift to the technical or operational nature of the solution. There may be an organizational temptation to recycle assets that are not targeted to the needs and pains you have uncovered in this specific pursuit. If you are the sales lead, you must counteract this tendency.

To keep this from happening, some organizations even keep an empty chair representing the client being pursued in every proposal meeting. That chair provides a constant visual reminder that you are doing what you are doing for one reason and one reason only: to satisfy the customer—the most important person in the room.

In order to create a response that vividly incorporates the voice of the customer, you must do the following.

•   Keep the client’s needs and pains at the forefront of your thinking. Your organization’s capabilities and/or past experiences are not the starting point for these discussions. The discussion should begin with the client.

•   Focus on this unique client with whom you are dealing. Although you should take advantage of lessons learned from previous pursuits, you must not reuse archived assets that are not targeted to the relevant needs and pains you have uncovered.

Leading the Response: Eight Tips for a Powerful Client-centric Proposal

The sales lead has the responsibility to ensure that the voice of the customer is always heard loud and clear as the response is developed. If you are the sales lead, you must do the following.

1.   Ensure that client-centric guidance and questions are consistently brought to bear throughout the proposal-development process.

2.   Leave an empty chair at all of your planning meetings. This seat belongs to the customer, who is the most important person in the room.

3.   Double-check that you have assigned the right human resources to the proposal development and the ultimate delivery as opposed to those people who are simply available.

4.   Utilize references and/or case studies that are fresh and pertinent to the specific client situation.

5.   Ensure that the team crafts a truly customized solution as opposed to employing delivery techniques previously used that may not be as relevant as is required.

6.   Use client fingerprinting for confirmation and concurrence at every critical point as opposed to spending lots of time and energy crafting solutions that only you feel will resonate.

7.   Integrate a customized value proposition and value links that directly match the client’s relevant needs and pains.

8.   Identify and embed relevant vertical and client-specific verbiage throughout the response.

The Monkey’s Paw

Have you ever heard of a “monkey’s paw”? In nautical circles, this is a special knot that weights the end of a heaving line—which is the rope you throw across the water to moor your boat at a wharf. One end of the rope is tied securely to the boat. The other end, the end you throw toward the wharf, is meant to bring you safely into shore. The whole purpose of this knot is to catch hold of the metal mooring-point built into the wharf, something that’s virtually impossible to do with a rope that has no knot tied at the unsecured end.

The monkey’s paw is a comparatively small knot with a huge impact. That little knot gets you from the open waters into your chosen landing spot–the most important part of the journey.

The principle of the monkey’s paw is relevant not just to sailors but also to salespeople. In the world of enterprise selling, a monkey’s paw is a little, easy-to-gain agreement that sets up a big partnership with the target organization. It takes you off the open sea, which can be chaotic and unpredictable, and brings you safely into harbor.

Sandler has trained salespeople to use a monkey’s paw process for many years. It’s extremely effective for situations where you want to launch quickly, especially with an organization that hasn’t worked with you before. In the enterprise world, the monkey’s paw plays a particularly crucial role.

Should You Propose a Monkey’s Paw?

With a monkey’s paw approach, you attempt to close on a small piece of business in order to convert a prospect to a client. You choose to work for the larger piece of business later.

Whether and when to propose such an initial engagement are important strategic decisions. These decisions must be based on your understanding of all the relevant factors in this pursuit, which are likely to include:

•   Client culture

•   Competitive strategies

•   Client need for quick results

•   Funding limitations

•   Client need for verification of your approach

Different Kinds of Monkey’s Paws

The monkey’s paw has many variations in the enterprise selling world. Below, you will find a list of some of the most common. Understand that different organizations use different names to describe these variations. Make sure you understand which is which, along with which will resonate best with a particular client.

•   Proof-of-Concept (POC): A small exercise to prove the viability of a solution or to show how a product/service will deliver.

•   Prototype: Expansion on POC with a more complete implementation allowing deeper analysis and verification.

•   Pilot: A small program designed to prove how a large-scale initiative would work in practice.

•   Trial: A temporary offering to allow for use of a product/service prior to a commitment for long-term acquisition.

•   Quick-Start: Speedy kick-off of an initiative with structured milestones and specific results to be achieved in short order.

These initial vehicles can deliver quick verification of your solution and also provide clarity regarding the requirements and the practical application of your approach. Yet, you must proceed with caution. These types of engagement starters prove the validity of the “high risk, high reward” mantra. Successful execution typically means clear sailing to winning the overall bid, while failure usually means that you are done for good. Propose the option that will allow your organization to shine.

Two True Stories

Natalie was a very successful salesperson working for a company we’ll call J-Top Consulting. Over a three-year period, her average sale was well over $2 million. Natalie knew that her product/service was strong, and she was confident in her closing ability. Her pipeline was filled with many larger opportunities, some of which were worth north of $5 million. “Life,” she liked to say, “was good.”

Over the years, though, something had started to slip. Natalie had moved exclusively towards larger sales, leaving the smaller sales behind because they took too much time and energy away from her “elephant hunting.” Over time, though, she found she was losing more and more deals she should have been winning. She was spending months and months chasing opportunities that seemed well qualified, only to lose them at the finish line—not a good pattern in any selling environment, and a deeply troubling one in the enterprise world.

Why was this happening? Her competitors on the deals she was losing were closing smaller arrangements in the $50,000 to $60,000 range, giving the prospects a lower decision point and less financial risk. Not only that, decision makers had an opportunity to try out the solutions before they had to buy a longer-term commitment. That sense of safety was something that appealed to the clients. Natalie lost more and more business because of her “elephant hunting” strategy. Three years went by before she recognized that a foot-in-the-door strategy would serve her and her clients better.

Paige was a salesperson who worked in a different division of J-Top Consulting. For her first few years on the job, she was moderately successful. Her average sale was in the $750,000 range. Her clients were uniformly pleased with the high, measurable ROI that followed Paige’s engagements. Once she had a client, it was usually easy for her to renew that client for future engagements.

But Paige wanted to expand her client base. She knew that prospects with whom she hadn’t yet worked didn’t have the sort of trust in her experience that her current clients did. She needed a strategy that would allow her to “get the customer off the street”—to start the business relationship.

She began offering $50,000 studies as entry-point vehicles. She knew that the people she was calling typically had the authority to approve deals below $100,000. This pricing made the decisions relatively easy. Paige bypassed the committees that were mandatory for the larger decisions—and she was able to shortcut the long sales cycles and in-depth reviews of the bigger projects. The $50,000 studies allowed her to move from vendor to partner quickly and easily. She formed the relationships needed with those who were ultimately going to make a larger relationship possible.

Her sales cycle shortened dramatically. It took her less than half the time to close the $50,000 deal as it did to close the $500,000 engagement. She had an 86 percent extension rate for those who went through the smaller sale. Within a year, Paige was the number one salesperson at J-Top.

Previewing the Solution

By this point, you’ve put a great deal of time and effort into the pursuit. You have a responsibility to get and incorporate the feedback of your coaches in the account.

You’ve already read about the powerful benefits of gaining client fingerprints on whatever you plan. Now you should seek the opportunity to “pre-present” the highlights of your proposal to your best client contacts if it is at all possible to do so. This pre-present session would typically be informal and should be driven and structured by the prospect’s insights and suggestions.

In certain situations, there may be organizational restrictions prohibiting pre-proposals. Such prohibitions, of course, must be respected. Lacking an actual pre-present, generating fingerprinting feedback from clients at this point, even only on minor details, is the next-best option. It may be all you need.

You already know that you must be sensible and sensitive in terms of what you request and do in seeking client feedback. Be smart. Do not take any risks that could potentially sidetrack or sabotage your opportunity.

Listen to the voice of the customer, develop the response, and seek the opportunity to preview your solution.