fidelcashflow profile picture
fidelcashflow profile picture

fidelcashflow

Account Executive

Catalyst
Opinionated
Valued Contributor
+4

"Walk me through a deal that you won..."

I'd love to see some framework around what leaders want to hear when you walk them through a deal. For those complex sells that involve SE's how do you describe the cycle, process, etc. I've been hearing some mixed answers. I think people want to hear more of how the deal was won. 

I think I only found one post on here where someone went through it front to back, thanks legend!

This is tough for me because I have structure for discovery and demo but not exactly for full cycle of the deal. It varies so much. Literally every deal is unique. 

Edit: Added context. 
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13 comments

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Pachacuti
Politicker
6
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
1- how did you initially get involved with the customer?
2- discovery process
3- how did you build consensus around buying your product
4- procurement process
5- how did you close

Keep it interesting, moving quickly, and under 2min (that’s what she said).
sketchysales
Politicker
3
Sales Manager
For me it usually follows this route:

1. Customer identification (marketing lead or self generated)
2. Initial outreach and discovery, I use this stage to find out who I want to speaking too by calling gatekeepers, LinkedIn or anything that will give me the name of who I want to talk to. I have also used drop ins as a tool at this stage
3. Secondary outreach. This stage is to give the prospect a reason to want to talk to me. Mostly this involves me sending some unsolicited mail, box with chocolates, couple samples and some brochures and once delivered I will call my identified prospect. I get a very good response level at this stage and this conversation will set the tone of where the deal goes.
4. Demo/F2F meeting with DM, just that, get them on board.
5. Demo/product intro to the team to get them on board as often this is a barrier to me closing.
6. The close, which moves onto training, stocking programs etc etc.

Stage 2-4 usually takes the longest and getting 4 is much harder than 6 in my company. Once you are past 4 I am usually pretty confident on the close.

Hopefully there's something there you can use.
BTQ
Politicker
1
Account Manager
This is how it works for us in terms of calls/stages of a deal for software sold to marketers.

Disco -> Demo ->pricing -> need analysis-> Proof of value -> criteria for success-> legal sign off -> trial-> close
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
3
☕️
Process and mechanics are one thing, but the anatomy of the deal itself is entirely different.
BTQ
Politicker
0
Account Manager
Can you elaborate? I don’t know as I’m only a fly on the way until demo then I just see the meeting invites.
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
2
☕️
You outlined the process that you push deals through, but the plays that happen at each of those stages matter.

Discovering the champion. Vying for economic support. Building a strong business case. Finding a customer referral or story. Dealing with competitive pressure. Fighting redlines and legal. Gives and gets that will move the deal to the finish line.

These are all details that sales leaders are interested in as it demonstrates what a rep knows they can pull and push on to get something seemingly dead to come back to life.
starson
Good Citizen
1
Senior Sales Manager
To me: I want to hear about your learnings. Good sellers know that success hides failures. If you won something big I want to know what you did, but also what could you have done better. :-)
Diablo
Politicker
1
Sr. AE
What are the specific challenges after discovery and demo? For me the next thing in the process varies from prospects to prospects so a structure might not be helpful but may be I am getting your definition of structure wrong here
Maximas
Tycoon
1
Senior Sales Executive
Being currently on an Inbound Queue, all what I've gotta do is to explain Price, Term and Product a little bit further if asked and finally getting a valid MOP to run the deal!
detectivegibbles
Politicker
1
Sales Director
Not overthinking this...

How'd the lead/prospect/opportunity come about? Outbound, inbound, referral, etc?

Was enough information uncovered on the first (discovery) call?

What did you do well?

What could you have done better?

How much negotiation took place?

How was the deal structured (payments, delivery, etc.)

How much opportunity to do business with this customer again?
Sunbunny31
Politicker
1
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Our team presents selected wins & losses once a month to the company at large. We have a template we follow in order to make sure we discuss the details - it's not just a breakdown of the structure of the process. We add information about things that went right (built up a champion who helped along the way, had a partner who let us know where our message was missing or hitting the target, etc). We discuss why the process worked or didn't work, what we learned about the competition, and what it took to win the deal, and in some sad cases, why we lost.

And yes, every deal is unique, but there are some commonalities that we leverage to either indicate it's a good deal we are chasing, or if it's at risk.
Justatitle
Big Shot
1
Account Executive
- How did the lead get sourced, if you sourced it highlight that
- What process you utilized, IE. MEDDIC
- Sales process and steps with client
- How did you quell competition and win the client over
- What questions did you ask to build trust
- Was IT involved in tech validation
- Was legal involved and how did you get ahead of legal
- Did you have to go after the C-Suite and who from c-suite
- Total timeline from sourced to close won.

Think thats everything. It kinda reads like a cookie cutter sales manager but thats what the bozos usually want to hear
CuriousFox
WR Officer
1
🦊
This is an excellent list boo ❤🦊

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