When It's Time to Move On?

No this isn't an article about divorce or quitting a job. Through a few decades of managing sales professionals, a number of themes stand out. One of them is the tendency to pursue a prospect to the ends of the earth, to no avail. This behaviour stems from a few places, not the least of which is a notion that there is a deal to be had in every opportunity! But is there really? My advice to salespeople on when it's time to move on is straightforward and rooted in situational awareness.

1. Know your target. Successful deal closers increase their chances dramatically during the earliest stages of prospect qualification. The more work a salesperson does prescreening prospects, the better the odds are for conversion. Blindly choosing potential customers results in high wash out rates, lost time and opportunity cost. A salesperson's most scarce and precious commodity is time!

2. Know your sales cycle. Great salespeople know their goals, are aware of their requirements and quotas and manage to horizons. I recommend visualizing prospects into "top of funnel", "middle" and "bottom" based on a few subjective criteria. At the top should be raw targets. What is known about the potential of these prospects' ranges from nothing to little. Prospects in the middle of the funnel should have a potential established and a purchase horizon identified. If these two criteria are not met, prospects stay at the top! Bottom of funnel accounts should be imminent buyers. For businesses managing long sales cycles (1 years+) sales should focus intensely on qualifying raw prospects into middle of the funnel. It stands to reason that a high washout in this area can lead to long-term deal starvation for the salesperson. Conversely, short sales cycle industries (1 day-1 year) are more forgiving for higher deal washout, therefore a more balanced focus on all three funnel areas can be practiced.

3. Know the behaviour. I've often said I'll take a salesperson with a high EQ over one with a high IQ most days of the week. People with high emotional intelligence are believed to be adept at reading and interpreting both overt human behaviours and those that are more subtle. In either case, acute awareness of the prospect's behaviour is critical. The cost of missing signs often results in target opportunities being stuck in limbo for long periods of time. Skill and technique extract the spoken word but not everyone is forthcoming with information. It's important for a salesperson to be able to determine opportunity and interest even with a guarded prospect. Then, through the sales cycle read body language, connect behaviours and movements to the larger environment, parse disengagement from disinterest.

Parting ways with a target is often viewed as failure on the part of the salesperson. This stigma results in salespeople holding on too long. Sales professionals, their managers and the organizations they represent should acknowledge that discarding opportunity is as important as carrying it forward. If a target cannot be qualified within a reasonable amount of time deemed by the business's sales cycle and the behaviour of that target does not continually ascend (even ever so slightly) to a deal juncture, then move on!