February 3

Close More Deals with These Top Strategies – in Just 7 Minutes with Alice Heiman

SBS Podcast

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What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

  • Tips on how to close deals with new and existing customers
  • Find out if your sales organization can get to that next level of growth
  • Using the map: 'Mutual Action Plan'


More...

Related Links and Resources:

On my blog, there is an article about Mutual Action Plan and a template that you can download so that you build your very own Mutual Action Plan. Once you've done that customer's list that I've just told you to do, you are going to need Mutual Action Plans to figure out the best way to move forward with any sales opportunity you have. So, it's www.aliceheiman.com/blog and then type in the search 'Mutual Action Plan.

Summary:

Alice Heiman is the Founder of Alice Heiman, LLC. Alice is recognized by Forbes.com, as being among the world’s leading experts on the complex sale. and originally, from the widely known Miller Heiman Group, she works with owner-led companies with a B2B complex sale to build their sales organization.

Here are the highlights of this episode:

1:27 Alice’s ideal Client: An ideal client for me is the CEO of an innovative company with a business-to-business complex sales that has exceptional growth potential-but they're stuck. They might have hit a plateau or they're just aren't sure what's the best path is to get to their next level in profitable sales

2:06 Problem Alice helps solve: I help them improve their sales organizations which encompasses a lot of things but improving that so they can make sales easier and that means they can close more deals. But not just with brand new customers, with their existing customers as well.

2:55 Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Alice: Well, many times a CEO will call me and say "we're not growing our existing accounts; we're retaining most of them, we have a pretty good retention rate but there's so much growth in those existing accounts and we're just not growing them" that's one of the things. Sometimes they say something to me like "I'm not sure if my team can take us to the next level; the investors and I have a vision but where sales is going, I don't know if the team can take us there. Sometimes they say "I'm not quite sure if my sales leaders have the skills, they need in order to get that sales team out there and really get them closing deals." Those are the kind of things I hear when the CEO is wondering, whether the sales organization that's existing can get to that next level.. you know, that double digit, triple digit growth that they really want, that their investor wants. When they're wondering, then that's the symptom - they're WONDERING.

4:29 What are some of the common mistakes that folks make before finding Alice and her solution: You and I both know that these supermen and women wear many hats when they're leading a company. They have a lot of pressure from investors and stakeholders and sometimes their own family if it's a family-owned business. And so, they're trying to do a lot of different things and they're probably aren't focusing on sales; it's one of many things. A big mistake is not placing the proper focus on sales and depending on someone else to be doing that, and they're really not. Another thing is strategy; a big mistake is not having a clear strategy for your company. If you don't have that, you certainly can't have a clear strategy for sales. 'Get more sales' is not a strategy. So, we need a clear strategy that is communicated and I see that often as a mistake. The sales leaders and the sales people aren't quite sure which market they should go after - they should pay attention to existing customers or perhaps to just getting new logos. That unclear strategy is a big mistake.

6:07 Alice’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): This is it, and if you haven't done this yet, then the minute you stop listening, I need you to make a list of your existing customers. I want you to rate them and rank them in some way, it might be the ones who spend the most money, it might be the one's with the potential to spend money but figure out a rating and ranking system. Then look and see who is spending the most money, and who could be spending the most money, and then determine a strategy to get those who are spending the most to become even more loyal than they are and possibly spend more. And those who could be spending more, develop a strategy and approach to understand their needs and help them win in their market place so that you can sell them more.

7:20 Alice’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Well, if you want to close more deals with existing customers and new customers, you need a map - that stands for 'Mutual Action Plan'. And this is truly the way customers want to buy today. They want the buying process to be transparent to them. So, you need a Mutual Action Plan. On my blog, there is an article about Mutual Action Plan and a template that you can download so that you build your very own Mutual Action Plan. Once you've done that customer's list that I've just told you to do, you are going to need Mutual Action Plans to figure out the best way to move forward with any sales opportunity you have. So, it's aliceheiman.com/blog and then type in the search 'Mutual Action Plan. It's a recent one so you can find it really quickly.

8:34 Do you have exceptional growth potential at your company? And if you do, then what are you doing in order to take advantage of that? How are you doing that? The question would be "do you need help?" if so, maybe Alice can help you.

A big mistake is not having a clear strategy for your company. 'Get more sales' is not a strategy" – Alice Heiman

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