Locking in Opportunities Last Day of the Month

How do ya'll lock in or re-engage prospects that already have a DocuSign (or any other vendor that competes with DocuSign) in their lap without looking too annoying/pushy?

Would love any feedback. Thanks in advance Sales Savages!

👑 Sales Strategy

9 comments

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Accidental_Sales_Guy

Politicker

Account Executive

Make it about the prospect and why signing that contract will benefit them.

I'm in tech sales, so I talk about THEIR implementation, not MY contract. I had success with this email last week from a DocuSign dodger. I still had to call an hour later, but he was expecting my call and we got it done.

Hi FireSale,
Hope your project went well- I know the nights can get long when the deadlines all come at once. (EMPATHY)

For our new partners, it takes a few business days to process the request, provision the tool, and get you in line with an implementation manager. Would it be impossible to execute the DocuSign today? (No-oriented Q with Reason why he should act)

Let me know one way or the other, and if we should delay the service start date. (Consequence for delaying action)

Good luck and happy EOQ!

CorporateStiff

Executive

Account Executive

I like this Accidental - great example! Simply stated, easy to understand, and all about the client's experience.

Cleopatra

Opinionated

Regional Sales Executive

“Just following up” 😂 jk don’t do that.

fuzzy

Notable Contributor

CMO (Chief Meme Officer)

"Let's chat." Hey, it's the last day of the quarter for me, and I like to follow-up with everyone and touch base, and see what I can do to help you on my end. Any loose threads I can tighten up?

FireSale

Opinionated

Account Executive

Thanks for the help everyone! Both deals I had out came in this morning!

RaymondRisotto

Politicker

Account Executive

Was there a reason the March 31 date commitment was important to the prospect(s)? Go back to that – Why was the When important. Could missing the date commitment impact the project roll out? If this is true, I would say the rep will have the right conviction during the conversation. Last thing. If it is in the prospects best interest to sign by quarter end. I might insert something like the following into correspondence “if I don’t receive the signed arrangement by X PM/X AM tomorrow, how do we come together for an update?” I might also suggest it should not be done via email. Either voice to voice or via vidyard. Vidyard. If the rep is unsure about a deal, I would shoot a short video message. The response rate will be higher.

CorporateStiff

Executive

Account Executive

Good call Risotto - Vidyard messages have huge response rates for me.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Just call to follow up. Be transparent.

CorporateStiff

Executive

Account Executive

I pull the DocuSign back because it's usually buried in their inbox. When they see the DocuSign email alert saying the DocuSign was cancelled, they usually call or email right away so I then have them sign while on the phone with me. "let's walk through it together to make sure you don't have any further questions and so I can do my job and file the order to get things rolling, sound fair?" is one of my favorite lines in that scenario.

If they don't call me or email me, I call them about an hour later and if I don't get through or the ghost, I send the breakup email and call again before end of day to make sure they got it and talk through any objections or un answered questions that have been preventing them from signing.

Typically I find that if someone doesn't sign after giving me a verbal commit, there is almost always something I've missed about their decision making process, or they were approached by a competitor and never let me know or something like that...

With clients that I've built good relationships with and who like me, I call them and say, "hey Mrs. Client, I'm super close to hitting my personal goal for this month, is it possible for us to execute the DocuSign right now or is there something we need to address first?" and sometimes those clients will sign it just as a favor to me because they enjoyed our interaction.

Another thing I like to do is use calendar closing techniques for mid-month, end of week, or even mid-week sometimes, depending on the client/deal/time of year. I've found that having an externally set deadline for pricing really helps clients shit or get off the pot so to speak. The only caveat here is that if a client misses a deadline you MUST impose consequences - like a 5% increase in price or deleting the free month of service off the contract, or whatever. I have never lost a deal over holding my clients accountable to our agreed upon deadline, in fact I think I've gained respect instead.

I hope this helps for end of next month!