How to Fix Your Sales Pipeline Now - Step #5 How to Uncover Time Frames

Hi, I'm Kevin McCann with the Executive Strategy group. And in this video we're going to discuss how to uncover the time frames and time bombs of your prospect's project. This is the fifth video in the sales Window of Opportunity video series. So in previous videos we discussed the industry pains, events, issues and consequences if the customer didn't solve those issues. And then upsides if they do budget allocation, how they allocate that budget, Is it opex, capex, expense decision makers, decision making process, how to flush that out? And then competition, who are we competing with? How do they stack rank? The importance of criteria, what is that criteria? And now we get to this one where you can see the frame around all four of those quadrants is called time frame because each one of these quadrants may have its own individual time frame. So for instance, budget. Maybe the project's urgent, but each. But the budget's not available until next quarter. So that's going to dictate the accuracy of your pipeline if you're forecasting a deal for this quarter versus next quarter. So with the time frames, we're going to use this as a leverage point to really start to get accurate on when this deal has to happen and why it needs to happen at a particular time point. So we've broken it into two sections here, time frames and, and time bombs. So the first question I would ask around timeframe is how soon do you need to have this issue or this project completely resolved or completed? And why? So when they tell you that, well, it would be nice to versus it's urgent that it is completed by then you start to know that there may not be the same sense of urgency you need in order to be accurate when you're forecasting these particular deals. So the more specific you can be like, does it have to be March 17th or is March 31st okay? And I would throw out dates and actually recommend throwing out dates just to put a stake in the ground to see what they say. Because in a lot of cases, sales reps in my experience will forecast a deal to close on the last day of the month. So for instance, if we're looking at pipelines both from our executives that we deal with or from sales reps that we deal with, you tend to see a very heavy weighting of proposals and deals closing towards the end of the month. We call that the hockey stick, right? Starts out slow and then it spikes at the end of the month. Well, I know that's not reality because customers can push things to the end of the month because they're trying to negotiate with you, trying to work you over, make you sweat it out. But there may be certain things going on in their business that could have a deal close on the 7th of the month instead of the 27th of the month. So we need to be clear on what that is, what those things are that would dictate that time frame, that time issue. So second question you can ask is when do you plan on making the final decision on the vendor or on the solution? Because when we talked earlier with what's the decision making process and decision making criteria, we want to see how long it's going to take them to do that evaluation. So typically they're going to look at creating a short list of vendors, vendors, for instance, a short list of manufacturers or solution providers. And then they have to evaluate each one of those vendors, which ones are a good fit, which ones might not be a great fit. But that takes time. So if I can understand when they want to have that final decision made, if they say, well, it's going to be, we'll make our short list on the 30th of the month, well, I'll then ask them, well, how long do you think it's going to take to evaluate the four vendors that you're currently evaluating? And, and once they start speaking through it, they may say, gee, you know what, that's not enough time. Maybe we should only do three vendors or maybe we need to push this to April. So I'll help them really pinpoint their process as well to make sure that whatever I'm going to roll up to management is accurate. So those are things you want to think about. Next question is based on the budget process, money allocation, delivery time of our product service, would it be possible to get the paperwork completed to set us up as a vendor this week and so that when you're ready to place an order, all the legwork, all the paperwork is completed. So this I like to use and coach our clients to use as a trial close. So if they've already more or less mentally made the decision that you know what, we're going to go with you, it's just a matter of when and how. And if you haven't done business with them in the past, then let's throw it out there. Say, you know, what is the process to get the paperwork established W9 signed vendor sheets. Maybe it's non disclosure agreements, due diligence, whatever paperwork they require in order to have you become a vendor. Let's get that process rolling this week. Could we get that started. And if they say no, hold on, slow down there, cowboy, then you know that you still have some objections to overcome. So these time frame questions can also be utilized to flesh out are we where I think we are in the sales process and sales cycle? And again, these questions are relevant for sales reps talking to customers and for sales management, sales leadership talking to your sales reps. Because if you're asking these questions to your sales team and they don't know the answers, these are great questions for them to go out and find the answers to in the next day, couple days, week or so. So now we come to time bombs. So we want to talk about the difference between time frames and time bombs. So time bombs is what's going to badly if a decision isn't made or this deadline is missed. Right. So first thing I would ask is if they've shared with me a deadline or what I'll consider to be a time bomb here. I'm going to ask them, how was that established? So how was Friday 13th January established as a deadline for this project? Well, it was made by the board of directors, it was made by the CEO. It's an arbitrary date. We just thought that date would be ideal. I want to be clear on who selected that date, why that date's important. What's the impact if that date is missed? And that's the next question is. So, okay, now We've established that January 13th or March 17th is the deadline. What happens if you miss a deadline? Is it no big deal? Is someone going to lose their job? Is someone sticking their neck out? What happens if this deadline is missed? Because it could be a big launch, it could be something to do with a big press release that if this press release goes out the door and the infrastructure or the product or your service behind it isn't ready to go, all of your customers are going to be completely frustrated or upset that they were let down. So that could have a huge impact to the company. So I want to be very clear on what that is because we can then use this information in our sales process to make sure they stay on track with the project. That, because again, one of the big challenges sales execs face is that after they've sent the proposal out the door, sometimes customers go cold. They just basically fall off the face of the earth and you're left with, well, gee, I can't just keep calling and asking, so when are you going to send me the order? When are you going to send me the order? It would be much more Meaningful to have dates, times, reasons why these dates are important to feedback to them. Say, saying, I'm leaving you a voicemail because I'm trying to keep us on track for the project because as you told me two weeks ago, that if we miss our deadline, 500 people are going to be completely frustrated or out of work or whatever the big issue is. So these things become your ammunition on future engagement with a customer, just in case you need them. You may not always need them, but it's great to have. It's kind of like that quote, I'd rather have a gun and never have to use it than to not have a gun and need it. That's what this is all about, giving you the ammunition that eventually, if you need it, you have it, but you may still leave it in the bag and never have to pull it out. Next question is, are there any other projects that are hinging on this one being completed? So this could be a leverage point for you. If this project doesn't get completed, then this house of cards falls apart over here. So we want to make sure we understand what's the relation of this project and other things happening. Maybe making the CEO look good, the VP look good. If this thing doesn't happen, then all these other things are going to be either delayed, maybe they'll be missed altogether, whatever that is. So understand how those things and those other time bombs can come into play to help you get your deal expedited. And then the last one is who will be exposed if this project is not delivered or completed on time. So beyond why is this an issue if we miss a deadline, who is responsible for it and who's going to be impacted by it. So the decision maker could be impacted, but maybe his or her impact is nowhere near as substantial as the people that are going to be impacted because this service didn't roll out. So for instance, if that office can't open on March 17, then 50 people will have nowhere to go on on the 18th to show up for work. And we're going to lose productivity and all the investments we're going to be making is going to be bleeding money out of our back door. Whatever it is, we want to understand who's going to be impacted, who's next on the line. I'll be frank about that. And what's that impact going to ultimately mean to them if this deadline is missed? So there's some differences on timeframes and time bombs and questions that you can ask to really start to nail specifically when your deal is going to close to keep an accurate sales pipeline. Thanks again for watching these videos. Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions. Hope you enjoyed the videos. Have a great day.