12/10/2024-Saving cancellations…SO easy

Develop champions. Develop at least one on every account. You’ll need them to help get the order across the line and to help save a piece of business when it’s about to be canceled.

The first trick to saving canceled business – and business heading south – is to believe you can turn the customer around.

If, for one second, you decide that the contract can’t be saved, you have talked yourself out of making an effort.

Anyone can complete an RFP and get in line at the money buffet, but not everyone can change minds and decisions using guile, strategy, and persistence.

Don’t be so quick to call it a day on accounts that appear to be tanking, instead, dig in! Get your hands dirty. What’s the worst that could happen? Ya can’t fall off the floor, right?

There’s a big difference between sellers and account executives.

Sellers influence decisions, match solutions to needs, proactively address objections, and make stuff happen. Ultimately, sellers turn "no’s" into "yes’s." (Take THAT, AI.)

On the other hand, account executives say, "Do you have any questions?" instead of probing and qualifying. Worse, AEs stop at the first no.

Today, create your blueprint for how you’ll save a canceled order when it happens. Your chance is coming…and it will require some preparation.

If the first key to saving business is to believe you can turn the customer around, what do you think the second key step is?

Cool, you’ve been paying attention. You’re right: pushing like crazy to find someone to talk to and tell you how you missed out.

Intro stage left: your champion. Your champion is the person on the account who will feed you the insights if the account is dead, and help you save the business if possible.

You’ll respond, "But if I had a champion, I wouldn’t need to use her/him to save the business. The biz would already be won."

Maybe. But as you travel right back to "GO" and collect your $200, understand that it doesn’t always work like that.

Develop champions.

Develop at least one on every account. You’ll need them to help get the order across the line and to help save a piece of business when it’s about to be canceled. You can only do so much from the outside looking in; you need an advocate inside the org who can do some heavy lifting for ya.

Push yourself further…fight for every ounce, and make yourself proud to be called a sales professional.

In this YT short, Frank Underwood reminds the House of Cards viewer about power: "…it’s a lot like real estate," Frank says, "…it’s all about location, location, location."

The same applies in sales; you won’t be successful unless you’re located next to the seat of power on the buy side.

You work hard to create champions so you can leverage them. Trying to save a piece of business without the help of a champion is next to impossible.