Read Time: 2 Minutes

In last week’s newsletter, I shared – The Top 10 Steps in a Complex Sales Campaign.

The first step is getting the deal approved internally, which I’ll get to in just a second. 

Now here’s the Problem 

• Some reps wait until they get way down the road in their sales campaign before they try to get their deal approved.

  They just assume you won’t push back if they’ve already put pricing in front of the customer.

  The idea being it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. 

• Other reps don’t want the visibility or relentless inspection that comes from putting a big deal into their CRM system… so they also wait. 

Any of this sounds familiar…  Frustrating Right? 

Here’s the FASTEST way to get the information you need to determine if the rep has thought through their pricing strategy… before you approve the deal!

Be prepared to ask this one question…

• What’s your Get-Well Plan for this customer so we don’t have to sell at these high discounts or low gross margins forever?

Your goal is to understand how the deal has been structured… which I call the “Art of the Deal.”   

If it’s a large deal or a smaller one in a strategic target account, getting aggressive to win is okay if you plan to improve your position over time.

Customers, especially procurement departments, remember the discounts you showed them last time, so you need a plan to ensure the deal is structured with discounts/pricing you can live with in the future.

If you’re selling hardware, one way to do this is to show smaller equipment discounts but add a big one-time trade-in credit for their old gear. 

Or if you’re selling software, again, lower discounts but big one-time software coupons.

If you’re selling a recurring revenue deal, you’ll need to pay particular attention because you’re locking in the pricing typically for 12 or 36 months.

In recurring revenue deals, unlike fine wine, your pricing won’t improve over time.

The Deal Structure

Structuring the deal so the initial discount is reasonable and then adding lots of extra one-time value will help you aggressively price your overall deal without setting a new baseline discount or gross margin levels you can’t live with in the future.

Now, even if the deal desk doesn’t ask, the Get-Well question always helps ensure your rep has thought through their deal structure, so it’s better for you and your customer in the long term. 

You never know when a deal might get on the radar screen of a senior exec who wants to poke you about the details.

So, ask your rep for their Get-Well Plan and see how they respond… before you approve their deal! 

• See you next week when I ask: How can you keep track of all the key players in the Power Base you need to meet and influence?

  ... think Relationship Map, not org chart. 

See you next Saturday.

Great Selling – Jeff@SalesLeadersOnly.com