losangelessadness profile picture
losangelessadness profile picture

losangelessadness

Inbound AE / SDR Manager

Opinionated
Contributor
Fire Starter
+2

How to entice closing in Dec when all signs point to Jan?

Tactics to entice someone (who has seen a demo) to close in December instead of January.

Or they haven't seen a technical demo but have done a discovery call and want to push the technical demo to January.


It's very hard to push people into closing before the new year - would it make sense to just report a loss for Q4 and have rapid gains for Q1 2023? Or should we be giving massive discounts?

👑 Sales Strategy
📈 Closing
☁️ Software Tech
13

16 comments

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SaaSsy
Politicker
4
AE
Would be helpful to understand your industry a bit. Is your solution tied to an internal business timeline I.e. clean quarter, etc? You said a demo has been shown, do they have pricing, do you have a verbal commit? These answers will help you understand where you can apply pressure. Just throwing discounts isn’t usually my style, there has to be a reason you’re discounting and what are you getting in return? Referral to someone they know, add’l product to make it stickier are some examples. Last abs most selfishly, will you hit accelerators this year with these deals? Sandbagging is a thing for a reason…
losangelessadness
Opinionated
0
Inbound AE / SDR Manager
The industry is selling software to hardware engineers. We are a start up and our co-founders are very involved but our December is very bad right now so trying to look better to investors. So for me it's not a big deal because they need me so my numbers are not compared to a bunch of others / I don't even have a quota number - its more do what you can pre-series A type situation. They want to look better to investors but its really out of my control because you can't force people to buy early imo.
SaaSsy
Politicker
0
AE
Got it - yea it’s a good lesson for them to learn this time of year is perhaps not he best to just be approaching pricing and contracting. For the account that has seen a demo, do you have established pricing/negotiation meeting set? You can push on levers in that convo like implementation timelines, etc. Let us know, good luck!
Pachacuti
Politicker
3
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
If they havent seen the demo, I would not call that a fully qualified opportunity. Yes, they have need and yes, they have interest, but they aren't buying yet. So unless THEY have a high priority buying reason, it just won't happen.

If they had seen the demo and you were talking contracts and pricing, etc. that would be a different situation.
losangelessadness
Opinionated
0
Inbound AE / SDR Manager
Agreed.
coletrain
Politicker
2
Account Executive
If the prospect hasn't seen a technical demo? Good luck, that's extremely unlikely.

If they have seen a demo, and it's about confirming the fit: possible but still unlikely given the holidays coming up and OOO time.

If you're talking implementation timeline, see what you can do about getting a contract signed before but with the payment on a longer timeframe (maybe net 30 or net 60).

One thing I will say: try to avoid discounts since it does detract from the value of your product, EOY or not.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
I'd consider it unlikely, but I don't know your industry to understand if a quick turnaround is possible.

Usually there's some kind of compelling reason they need to buy - is it budget that needs to be spent in 2022? A compliance issue? Launch of a solution? Contract renewal date for a competitor of yours they want to replace? Without a compelling reason to buy in 22, you're not likely to have that urgency and customer support for the quick turnaround.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
1
🦊
It's more likely if you haven't already had a previous meeting that you won't get anywhere til January.
TennisandSales
Politicker
1
Head Of Sales
1. you need to figure out WHY they dont want to buy now. Is it a budget issue that stops them from buying now? Is it that they are lazy and dont want to take on another project?
DO you have insight here?

2. "Sam I know we have been trying to get a demo scheduled and I wanted to see if you would be open to doing this before the EOY for 2 reasons:
1. if we do a demo now, you will have a clear understanding if this is something we should even talk about more in 2023/
2. Once 2023 starts we all know how busy the team will be so having this on the radar will help.

What are your thoughts on this? "
ZVRK
Politicker
1
Enterprise Account Executive
In my experience, mid to large enterprises (that`s 10,000 employees in my case) will not respond to any kind of CTA, they will just work on their own schedule.

Discounts will not work. I can`t speak for smaller deal sizes, maybe you can lock in a client by dropping the price etc.. but to me it always seems like a better decision to sign them on their own term and with full price.
ChumpChange
Politicker
1
Channel Manager
No one is closing deals this close to the new year without a major internal motivation to do so. Play it slow and take your winnings in the new year.
punishedlad
Tycoon
0
Business Development Team Lead
#1 thing we do is end of year pricing incentives.

If it makes sense, I'll stop by their office with some baked goods as a holiday gift and to hopefully book next steps if there aren't any already.
losangelessadness
Opinionated
1
Inbound AE / SDR Manager
SaaS remote sales - some clients aren't even in North America.
punishedlad
Tycoon
0
Business Development Team Lead
That's why I said "if it makes sense"

Confused why this got a downvote
Diablo
Politicker
0
Sr. AE
Is your tool easy to use without having to see a technical demo? If not why will I buy before I know this is the right fit unless you offer monthly option?

tell me what all strategies have you applied to entice now till now?
Blue_Turtle
Opinionated
0
sdr
If they haven’t had a chance to evaluate yet, do they want to be bogged down trying to find a solution to their problems in January when they could have that taken care of and hit the ground selling?

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