5/14/2024-“I saved the business!”

What separates the high performers from the TOP 10% is the ability to recognize when deals have lost momentum and then mount a charge to save them.

Remember that time you found out the truth about why you lost a sale…and you were flummoxed, bewildered, confounded, and miffed. ("The buyer bought WHAT? …for THAT reason?")

Let it motivate you.

There are two kinds of saves:
1. Instances when you know the opp is slipping away, but the decision isn’t final.

2. When you get the email from the buyer (spineless bah’stad) after the decision went down…and you’re out.

Either way, trying to snatch biz from the jaws of defeat will take your skills to another level.

Today, mentally chart your save strategy…you’ll need it eventually.

When you lose a piece of biz, don’t settle and say, "Well, it’s lost, so I’m gonna pursue another account." You get to move on ONLY after you fight.

The prep you do now will help you anticipate what you might hear when you finally get that buyer to talk to you. It doesn’t matter if that point in time is weeks down the road—do not let the primary contact escape without telling you why you lost.

"The WHY" is gold. It unlocks chances at future success.

You can work a piece of business in your sleep: …establish the need…work through objections and obstacles…negotiate…close, etc., etc., rinse/repeat.

And if you can do that repeatedly, you’ll be happy come commission time.

But what separates strong performers from the TOP 10% is the ability to turn around deals when they’re going south or before you proclaim them "closed-lost."

Only when you turn something completely around will you feel the ultimate rush in sales.

And you do it with a combination of dogged determination plus information. The interesting paradox of the save game is that you can prevent a lot of challenging, back-against-the-wall situations if you proactively dig for key info early in the sales cycle. Here are three key issues to focus on as soon as an opp starts heating up:

1. What do each of the key buyers on the account feel about your offering as a fit? (Constantly qualify and probe against this.)

2. What are the objections and obstacles that exist? (Same…constantly qualify that one.)

3. What are the competitors offering that is better in the eyes of the buyer?

If you don’t feel like saving a piece of business, then don’t let it get to that point. If you are in a save situation, fight like hell.

As Key & Peele prove in this Short, saving children is much easier than saving business.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gofkxvxsXXg