For any salesperson, the worst thing that can happen is a potential deal slipping away at the last minute. Deal slippage is a common problem that businesses face, but it can be reduced with the right strategies in place.
Here are the most important ones:
1 – Accurate Forecasting: Sales forecasting is essential to understand the potential demand for a product or service. To manage deal slippage, forecasting needs to be done accurately. Adopting data analytics and AI tools can be the solution to this problem. By using accurate forecasts, businesses can identify potential deal risks early on and take corrective action to avoid slippage. Yes, it is a bit of a chicken and egg situation – slippage is the result of poor forecasting and vice versa. But with the right tools a processes in place you could improve your forecasting accuracy.
2 – Qualifying Leads Thoroughly: The sales team should dedicate resources to high-quality leads that have a higher probability of closing. Properly qualifying leads is necessary to focus on those leads that are most likely to convert into deals. By doing so, the sales team can focus its efforts on those deals that have the best chance of closing. When selling to enterprise, MEDDIC is a winning opportunity qualification methodology. Here’s an in-depth article about that. Beyond that, intent driven sales also improves closing rate and pipeline predictability.
3 – Regular Deal Reviews: It is important to conduct frequent reviews of the sales pipeline to identify any potential issues in deal progression and take steps to address them. This practice helps sales teams to proactively recognize when a deal is at risk of slipping and to take the necessary corrective action to prevent it from slipping. Here’s a good guide for that.
4 – Enhancing Sales Training: Proper sales training is essential to improve sales representatives’ skills in negotiation, objection handling, and understanding customer needs. Knowing how to address objections and handle different types of customers can help sales representatives to keep deals moving forward and ultimately prevent deal slippage.
5 – Improved Customer Engagement: To prevent delays in decision-making, companies should maintain regular communication with prospects and engage with them to understand their challenges. By building a relationship with the buyer, businesses can tailor their sales pitch to meet the buyer’s exact needs, thus reducing the likelihood of deal slippage. Again – a no-brainer that isn’t easy to execute consistently.
6 – Aligning Sales and Marketing: Marketing and sales efforts must be closely aligned to ensure that the messaging is consistent and meets the prospects’ needs at different stages of the buying journey. Having a clear message throughout the buying process creates consistency in the buyer’s mind, which ultimately leads to a higher likelihood of closing the deal. PMG RevenueFlow addresses this challenge as part of its customer engagement methodology.
7 – Utilizing CRM Effectively: Yep, it’s a no-brainer, but many are not doing that. A CRM tool is beneficial in maintaining records and providing useful reminders of follow-ups. Consistently using CRM helps businesses to keep deals moving forward and avoid slippage.
8 – Clear Understanding of Buying Process: Businesses must understand the customer’s internal decision-making process and structure their sales pitch accordingly. Knowing the stages of decision-making can help businesses tailor their messaging to the buyer’s exact needs, thus reducing the likelihood of slippage.
Final Thoughts
Deal slippage is a common problem in sales, but it can be prevented by adopting the right strategies. These strategies require adhering to processes and using off the shelf technology that many of the readers already have.
Accurate forecasting, thorough lead qualification, regular deal reviews, enhanced sales training, improved customer engagement, aligned sales and marketing efforts, effective use of CRM, and a clear understanding of the buyer’s decision-making process are some of the essential strategies that can prevent deal slippage. By following these strategies, businesses can significantly reduce deal slippage and increase their sales revenue.
Reducing Deal Slippage: Strategies That Work
January 23, 2024
Kfir Pravda
For any salesperson, the worst thing that can happen is a potential deal slipping away at the last minute. Deal slippage is a common problem that businesses face, but it can be reduced with the right strategies in place.
Here are the most important ones:
1 – Accurate Forecasting: Sales forecasting is essential to understand the potential demand for a product or service. To manage deal slippage, forecasting needs to be done accurately. Adopting data analytics and AI tools can be the solution to this problem. By using accurate forecasts, businesses can identify potential deal risks early on and take corrective action to avoid slippage. Yes, it is a bit of a chicken and egg situation – slippage is the result of poor forecasting and vice versa. But with the right tools a processes in place you could improve your forecasting accuracy.
2 – Qualifying Leads Thoroughly: The sales team should dedicate resources to high-quality leads that have a higher probability of closing. Properly qualifying leads is necessary to focus on those leads that are most likely to convert into deals. By doing so, the sales team can focus its efforts on those deals that have the best chance of closing. When selling to enterprise, MEDDIC is a winning opportunity qualification methodology. Here’s an in-depth article about that. Beyond that, intent driven sales also improves closing rate and pipeline predictability.
3 – Regular Deal Reviews: It is important to conduct frequent reviews of the sales pipeline to identify any potential issues in deal progression and take steps to address them. This practice helps sales teams to proactively recognize when a deal is at risk of slipping and to take the necessary corrective action to prevent it from slipping. Here’s a good guide for that.
4 – Enhancing Sales Training: Proper sales training is essential to improve sales representatives’ skills in negotiation, objection handling, and understanding customer needs. Knowing how to address objections and handle different types of customers can help sales representatives to keep deals moving forward and ultimately prevent deal slippage.
5 – Improved Customer Engagement: To prevent delays in decision-making, companies should maintain regular communication with prospects and engage with them to understand their challenges. By building a relationship with the buyer, businesses can tailor their sales pitch to meet the buyer’s exact needs, thus reducing the likelihood of deal slippage. Again – a no-brainer that isn’t easy to execute consistently.
6 – Aligning Sales and Marketing: Marketing and sales efforts must be closely aligned to ensure that the messaging is consistent and meets the prospects’ needs at different stages of the buying journey. Having a clear message throughout the buying process creates consistency in the buyer’s mind, which ultimately leads to a higher likelihood of closing the deal. PMG RevenueFlow addresses this challenge as part of its customer engagement methodology.
7 – Utilizing CRM Effectively: Yep, it’s a no-brainer, but many are not doing that. A CRM tool is beneficial in maintaining records and providing useful reminders of follow-ups. Consistently using CRM helps businesses to keep deals moving forward and avoid slippage.
8 – Clear Understanding of Buying Process: Businesses must understand the customer’s internal decision-making process and structure their sales pitch accordingly. Knowing the stages of decision-making can help businesses tailor their messaging to the buyer’s exact needs, thus reducing the likelihood of slippage.
Final Thoughts
Deal slippage is a common problem in sales, but it can be prevented by adopting the right strategies. These strategies require adhering to processes and using off the shelf technology that many of the readers already have.
Accurate forecasting, thorough lead qualification, regular deal reviews, enhanced sales training, improved customer engagement, aligned sales and marketing efforts, effective use of CRM, and a clear understanding of the buyer’s decision-making process are some of the essential strategies that can prevent deal slippage. By following these strategies, businesses can significantly reduce deal slippage and increase their sales revenue.