Today is the first day of the last month of the quarter and probably like most quarters, you are once again prepping your sales forecast to present to the management team. The CEO, CFO, VP of Sales and anyone else involved in sales activities has but one question, “What deals are going to close this month”? Does this sound familiar?
If you are a sales professional, this is your reality. As matter of fact, the books for August are not yet closed, and before you enjoyed the first cup of coffee today, that question had probably been asked at least three times. The truth is you don’t have a crystal ball, and no advanced “big data” or “business intelligence” tool will ever, consistently or accurately answer that question.
A better, more realistic question to ask yourself is, “What deals are ready to close this month”? Now that is a question that has a finite answer. When you review all the deals in your pipeline and verify all the prerequisites in order to be able to close the deal, you can in fact answer that question with absolute precision.
For example, every corporation has requirements, a check list, that must be met in order to book a deal:
· Customer must pass the credit check
· Customer must have sufficient credit limit to make the purchase
· The products or services to fulfill the order are available
· The documentation, MSA, T&Cs and MNDAs, have all been executed
These requirements that have nothing to do with a customer saying “yes”, and everything to do with being ready to book the deal when that happens.
No technology, software or professional experience will ever grant you clairvoyance to answer the question “What deals are going to close this month”? But if you know what requirements you must meet in order to book a deal, you can answer with certainty which deals are ready to close.
If you know what these requirements are (and there are solutions available to help you) then you can consistently and methodically check opportunities for readiness. Making this a part of your routine will put you in a better place because you can answer with certainty what the “best case” sales are for the month, because you will know which opportunities are prepped and ready to close.
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