Five Secrets to Closing Seven Figure Deals

News

Tech Disruptor 50 InsideSales.com is #31 http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/07/insidesalescom-2016-disruptor-50.html
Microsoft Purchase of LinkedIn http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/14/business/dealbook/microsoft-to-buy-linkedin-for-26-2-billion.html

Overview

The latest InsideSales.com research suggests deal sizes have grown more than 5.5 percent, meaning companies are moving upstream and chasing bigger deals. In this new sales environment, applying the same tactics you used before won’t produce success. A different approach, a different process and different systems are all required to hunt whales. After more than 200 sales consultations, Gabe has discovered five secrets to closing bigger deals.

The Business Growth Index

The InsideSales.com Business Growth Index is a comprehensive research report that reveals important indicators of sales confidence, sales priorities and the impact of technology on a company’s sales performance and bottom line.

A key finding from the BGI Study is that companies are going whale hunting (moving up stream)

• Sales cycle 6.4% longer (75 days to 80 days)
• Close rate 2.1% lower
• Deal size 5.5% larger

#1 The Account Based Model

If you're going after seven figure deals you will have to practice an account-based model. As the name implies, account-based sales is a unified strategy to generate revenue by focusing on personalized prospecting initiatives that lead to a value-based sale.

#2 Solidifying your Sales Tech stack

Nearly 1-5 leaders or 18.8% of sales leaders who reported deal size growth in 2015 indicated that predictive tech gave them a boost in driving larger deal sizes. CRM, sales intelligence, sales presentation, data list services top the list as the most widely used sales acceleration technologies.

#3 Managing Pipeline

In order to close deals you must have a structured way of reporting and maintaining these deals. It starts with pipeline management. Here are five ways to optimize your pipeline stages:

• Understand your model – transactional vs relational
• Define stages, milestones, and outcomes
• Ensure stages cover the entire funnel
• Stages should be distinct
• Measure drop-off in conversation rates

#4 Sales Management Cadence

With a pipeline management strategy in place, you next need the ability follow up on important deals through a structured management cadence. This requires annual, semi-annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly activities to occur. As part of a solid management cadence, a forecast cadence should be established to ensure proper forecasting.

#5 Individual and Team Coaching Program

Every great individual contributor has a coach and so should you. Coaching programs should be run weekly to help reps continually hone their skills and approaches. We discuss what an optimal four week coaching cadence consists of.