Have you transitioned from working on $5,000 deals to $250,000 deals…or some similar dramatic increase? Early in my career, I went thru this transition and got some great advice from a VP Sales I reported to. Here is an outline of what he suggested.
Your approach in front of the customer
In some ways a salesperson needs to be an actor…
- Compartmentalize
- In preparing for your customer meetings on huge deals, keep your concerns driving your anxiety or how pumped you are “boxed off”.
- Calm, confident in front of customer
- Inside you might be shaking, but in front of the customer you want to appear calm and confident. Do not let them see your concerns or over excitement.
Why is this important? Customers get some of their comfort about awarding a large deal to you based on how you handle discussions with them and your body language. You want your customer to feel like you “have been here before”.
Develop a plan
When a customer awards a large deal they want to know what the plan is for ensuring a positive experience. A few ideas on how to proceed…
- Provide a timeline of key activities/steps for the deal and review with the customer
- If other resources from your organization will be involved, introduce at least the most heavily engaged ones to the customer
- Set up “status” calls internally and with the customer to keep on top of progress, open action items
Dealing with anxiety associated with a large opportunity?
In my 9/10/2020 blog post, Lisa Schermerhorn and Kevin Martin from Peak Performance Mindset Coaching worked with me outlining ideas on this topic…take another look, it might provide some good guidance.
Have a great week!
Feel free to contact me directly for ideas and/or help on this or other topics!
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