Understanding which sales opportunities to pursue, and which to drop, is a key skill for everyone in business-to-business selling, but particularly for managers who want to make sure their teams’ efforts are focused and effective.
In a recent roundtable session chaired by Bob Apollo, founder of Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners, we were pleased to hear from senior sales experts who discussed the need to encourage laser-sharp analysis when qualifying sales opportunities.
Our panel of experts agreed that a better evaluation of potential opportunities meant a smaller pipeline but an increase in win rates and stronger business results.
They concluded that:
Sales managers need to encourage critical thinking to ensure they are assessing opportunities thoroughly.
More thorough scrutiny is likely to result in a smaller pipeline, but the win rates will be better and overall business results will improve.
Sales managers who challenge why opportunities are in the pipeline will help their salespeople to sell more.
Commenting in a discussion on LinkedIn after the meeting, Bob Apollo said: “Sales managers have a critical role as ‘devil’s advocates’. They must force salespeople to justify why they should be pursuing every opportunity. Disqualifying weak opportunities early frees up time to find and win more of the right sort of opportunities.”
Chris Capon from Westfield Health who took part in the roundtable also commented: “A good discussion around a topic that can be a big divide between ICs [individual salespeople] and managers. If I could imprint ‘qualify out’ into the psyche of every IC, we would all be in a better place.”
And Mark Eskine, director of Seller Performance, said: “Salespeople by their typical behavioural profile are optimistic, glass half-full people and they naturally believe they can win any deal – even when the data doesn’t support that feeling. Qualifying out, and expending more energy on the deals they can really win, will pay huge dividends – but they need to learn to fight their natural instincts.”
Many thanks to Bob Apollo and the roundtable panel for their time and expertise. You can see who took part and read more details here: Round Table