MonthEndSpecial

Enterprise Account Executive

Valued Contributor

Do you use a go/no go document during your sales process?

I am curious who is using a go/no go document for your complex deals. I have been doing this for a couple of years, and have had a lot of success. I use a spreadsheet, work with the customer on the steps that need to take place, timing, and who is involved.

This has been helpful to keep the customer on track during the buying process. It takes the pressure off of me hounding them all of the time of next steps, and holds them accountable to what they have said. It also shows them how their go-live date will change if they don't keep working through the steps on the dates that they originally told me.

The reason why I am curious as to others using this, is because it is super manual and time consuming. Also it isn't that collaborative for customers. I basically update it as we go and send it to them. I am working with a tech guy to build something that is much more customer facing and dynamic. It is a Saas app makes it really easy for you and the customer.

It isn't available yet, and I am still working as a sales rep. Just curious if people would use it, or if I am wasting my time.

Hope to get some feedback from other pros.

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Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

SOE document for us. I don't use it on every deal, just the most complex and with the most "moving parts" to close. It's collaborative, in that it's an .xls and so can be edited and updated by the customer.

In my past, I've noted that most customers won't update it or return it, so walking through it onscreen with the customer and getting guidance on the dates/personas has been very helpful. You get buy-in up front.

MonthEndSpecial

Valued Contributor

0

Enterprise Account Executive

Thank you for the feedback. I agree. It doesn't make sense to face it to the customer on most deals. It does however give training opportunities internally if it is completed on every deal, or most to make sure you understand the steps.

I agree, it will be challenging to get the customer to buy-in. On what I am building, the customer will be able to change the dates as dates change for them. The biggest benefit is that they can pull up the open availability of the rep, and their sales engineer if it is a demo, etc in one place. They can also click the no go, which requires them to select a follow-up, date if they would like. I think that may be helpful for those that don't want to have to deal with telling you it's a no. They just click and are done.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

So what I've noticed in the past, is that even if a customer agrees that what I call an SOE document will work and they agree to it, they rarely fill it out personally or update it, hence getting on a call and walking through it, at least for round 1, has proven to be the most effective. Then I confirm that dates are being met, etc., along the way thereafter. In my case, my customers don't need another document or expectation from anybody else to manage, so I manage it for them. Basically, keeping it simple and reducing their need to do work.

edit: left out a whole phrase

MonthEndSpecial

Valued Contributor

0

Enterprise Account Executive

Great feedback. Thank you! I mostly agree, or agree that is the case most of the time as well. I think most people look at it this way. Would it be a benefit if those notes/steps that you created were pushed into salesforce, or whatever CRM you have? Automatically send calendar meeting invites and reminders based on what you select?

This does those things as well as connecting to your calendar. The customer only has a link to it, and doesn't have a login or anything else that would make it a hassle for them. They can just go in and change a meeting date, which pulls up all available times for the people available on your end.

Would those items be helpful for you? Helpful for your manager to easily see that you are working through the deal with the customer strategically?

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Our SFDC instance isn't that sophisticated. If they've agreed to a meeting cadence and it's something you can take care of, why not? The goal would be to take as much effort off of them as you can, so it doesn't seem as though you're giving them additional homework.

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

1

sales

Yes, a document of items that need to be completed to close a deal is common. If you built it, keep working on it and when it's finalized, see if it can be used amongst the team. Good work!

MonthEndSpecial

Valued Contributor

1

Enterprise Account Executive

Thanks for the feedback. This isn't for internal use, this is an application that sales companies will use. Hopefully something that customers get used to seeing the same of, so they are comfortable with collaborating, because they know it will help them.

Diablo

Politicker

1

Sr. AE

Great work man, yes I find the document with the entire buying process skeleton very useful for complex and enterprise level deal.

Looking forward to hearing more about the product once done.

MonthEndSpecial

Valued Contributor

0

Enterprise Account Executive

Thank you for the feedback! I will let you know when it's available for trial. The plan is for Jan 1.

Pachacuti

Politicker

1

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

I have always had an informal process of determining if I move forward in a deal/RFx/etc. Usually its a 3 strike rule - budget, champion, and when I got engaged amoung other factors.

If a bid comes out and I haven't been tracking it - that's usually an automatic 3 strike.

Flippinghubs

Opinionated

1

Account Executive

Yesir

signandrecline

Catalyst

1

Enterprise Sales

First time I'm hearing this, and it sounds great. Do you have a frame of reference for sales process that I can look into? A public Google sheet or something similar?

MonthEndSpecial

Valued Contributor

0

Enterprise Account Executive

I am working on an actual application! I can give you a sneak peak in a month or so. Really it's dynamic, so it will be built by you on each op, or by management if you go that route.

Jewcan_Sam81

Politicker

0

Account Executive

I use a JEP presentation, try to get full buy in on timeline schedule, legal info, etc. Not sure if that’s similar but it works really really well

MonthEndSpecial

Valued Contributor

0

Enterprise Account Executive

Yes, that is just like what I am talking about. Thank you for your feedback. I will let you know when I have something to look at.

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