What's Driving The Sales Timing?

By Jerry Stapleton, Stapleton Resources

Over the many years that I traveled in the trenches with salespeople I heard a handful of questions that seemed to be part of every salesperson's playbook. "What's your timing on this decision?" was among the more common.

It's obvious why the question was so pervasive: the quicker the decision the quicker the sale. But the question I'd ask you is...is that the right question?

Sam's Disappointment

A few months ago I was strategizing a sales opportunity with a group of client salespeople. We were discussing a deal Sam had been working for a few months.

Sam walked the group through everything he knew about the account, which was a large refrigerated warehouse. His company was proposing mechanical systems that would be part of a major rebuild of the entire warehouse.

Sam had offered this opportunity up for discussion by the group because it had stalled and he was hoping the group analysis might shed light on the situation. "Based on what I know, this thing should have happened by now," Sam lamented to the team.

As the discussion unfolded, it was clear to me that Sam had a good grasp of what was going on at his account: he understood the company's organizational dynamics, its business, who his competition was and how to position his solution against theirs, and he certainly understood how his solution fit from a technical perspective.

It's What's Behind The Timing That Tells The Real Story

I asked Sam what his basis was for saying that the deal should have been done by now. He responded that he had asked the prospect about the timing of the project. "We're shooting for August 1," they told Sam. With that information, Sam backed into when they'd need to make a decision and still have enough time to meet that deadline.

I then asked Sam: "What happens if they miss the deadline?" He hadn't asked. I opened my question up to the group—blank stares. But I pressed on with the question, forcing them to think it through.

There was a painful silence, eyes looking everywhere but at me. Then, like Calaf finally solving Princess Turandot's third riddle, Jeff's face lit up: "Dead fish!" he exclaimed.

His coworkers looked on in puzzled amusement at Jeff (the newest member of the team). But Jeff was right. If Sam had asked his prospect what was driving that date he would have learned if it was driven by some compelling business circumstances—like three truckloads of Alaskan halibut arriving on August 2—or just some relatively arbitrary date set by the team evaluating the merits of the warehouse expansion.

In a subsequent meeting with the prospect, Sam ultimately learned that, unfortunately, there were no truckloads of fish on their way to this cold storage warehouse.

Ask These Two Questions To See How Hot A Deal Really Is

Salespeople, often because of natural optimism, believe that a sales "opportunity" is hotter than it truly is, even to the point of unwittingly pursuing opportunities that aren't real at all.

In other circumstances, customers themselves can create a heightened—and artificial—urgency. A customer contact might have a personal agenda that is served by the salesperson's believing the deal is hot, or the customer contact doesn't want to burst the poor salesperson's bubble.

For these reasons it's critical that salespeople go beyond the “what's your timing?” question in order to determine how real and hot an opportunity is. Here are two questions that will help you (you'll have to ask them with the right words, of course):

1. What business circumstances are driving the customer to need my company's type of solution and what is the timing of those circumstances?

2. What would be the implications to the account's business if they didn't meet the indicated timing?

Add these questions to your arsenal and watch your forecast accuracy and hit rate skyrocket.

Would you like to know more? To hear Jerry Stapleton’s commentary on this column, click here. Jerry's audio appears at the top of the linked page and can be downloaded as an MP3 file.

Jerry Stapleton of Stapleton Resources is author of "From Vendor to Business Resource", a ground-breaking book that encourages salespeople to move away from traditional selling based on product, price and personality. He can be reached at jstapleton@stapletonresources.com, or go to his website, www.stapletonresources.com.

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