Everyone wants to find and win bigger deals. It’s the ‘ideal state’ or desired scenario for
most B2B sales organisations and professionals. The terms ‘whale hunting’, ‘mega-deals’,
and ‘super-sized’ are common and they all mean different things in different industries
and organisations.
For many, we could be talking deal values measured in tens of thousands. For others
it may be tens or hundreds of millions in sales cycles lasting multiple years. These are
critically important deals, yet often we see ‘lone ranger’ salespeople trying to pull off the
biggest deals of their lives, with little support, little structure, and little chance of success.
It is the organisations’ deal to win or lose and the deal lead is the conductor.
Let’s look at how deal coaching can change the game so that you win more big deals than
you lose.
Why get a deal coach?
Look at any level of world-class performance. Athletes or teams at the top of their game
wouldn’t stay there without a coach or a team of coaches each with a specialism. Think
about personal fitness. You train better and achieve superior results with a personal trainer
– somebody to hold you accountable and get you out of your comfort zone. Leveraging
an experienced coach will challenge you and the deal team to think and operate at a new,
higher level.
Here are some of the benefits of leveraging an effective deal coach who will:
• Understand, and help you understand areas of focus to improve win probability
• Build awareness of ‘blind-spots’
• Enable every team member to contribute value
• Hold the team accountable
• Push the team to get out of their comfort zone
• Expand the team’s thinking
• Build skills and confidence
• Challenge in a constructive and impartial way
The coach is not there to have the answers. They are there to ask the questions and get
the team to think and perform to the best of their ability.
Winning big is a team sport
We consider pursuing and consistently winning big deals as a team sport. There is
a significant amount of evidence-based research that demonstrates teams working
collaboratively deliver significantly better win rates that ‘lone-rangers’.
Coaching often gets confused with training
Coaching isn’t the same as training. Training is concerned with teaching new skills, tools,
techniques and mindsets to enable individuals and teams to perform better. Training alone
is ineffective, as 80% of what people learn in the classroom is typically forgotten within 30
days unless it is supported.
Deal coaching involves a series of planned sessions to strategise techniques for moving a
specific opportunity forward in the sales cycle. The sessions typically take place with the
entire team or just a few opportunity owners. At a minimum, they should include anyone
who is directly involved with the opportunity and has a stake in its success. The goal of the
Deal Coach is to help opportunity owner(s) answer the question: Based on what we know,
what we should do?
“The deal coaching challenge is often getting the team to lift their head out of the
weeds and transition from knowing what they should do, to doing what they know
they should do, deliberately and consistently.”
Experienced sales coaches will often have a proven, consistent approach to their craft, with
specialist frameworks and tools available to teams such as the globally recognised
G.R.O.W. methodology.
Critical Success Factors
Based on our experience coaching hundreds of large complex deals and dozens of
organisations, we have identified a number of critical success factors when setting
up a programme of deal reviews or coaching sessions.
Right deals
Ensure that the criteria for selecting deals for coaching or regular review is agreed in advance and reviewed periodically. Typically criteria are based on size, strategic importance, complexity and degree of competition.
Right team
Team roles are clear with defined sales and bid leads. Team selection is based on choosing the ‘best athlete’ after careful analysis of both skills and behavioural styles (on our side and the client side).
Right processes
An established bid management process is in place and proactively managed by the bid lead. Internal review and approval processes are clear and scheduled in a timely fashion.
Right coach
The coach has demonstrable skills and experience related to the size and complexity of the opportunity. The coach uses a proven structure, approach and tools.
Right coaching moment
Consideration is given to the optimum ‘moments’ to coach at every stage of the process from early stage strategising and organising, through advancing and qualifying, to proposing, presenting, negotiating and closing the deal.
Right cadence
A suitable cadence is set for a series of coaching sessions based on the deal complexity and length of sales-cycle.
Right accountability
Leaders hold themselves and the team to account. The coach holds the leaders to account.
Our Approach
We have a team of sales coaches with experience across a range of industries and geographies, each having led and won strategically important deals.
Our deal reviews leverage the G.R.O.W. methodology and a range of tools and templates
that can be customised and branded to enable consistent execution of major strategic
sales opportunities, including, and not limited to:
• Revenue Qualification Model
• Win Probability Tool
• Competitor Win Plan
• Relationship Maps
• Power Maps
• Qualification Tools
• Value Analysis Tools
• Differentiation Tools
• Presentation Templates
• Proposal Templates
• Negotiation Plans
If your organisation needs to improve its approach to managing and winning large
complex, competitive deals, let’s have a discussion. We’ll take time to fully understand your
needs and give you a candid view of what will be required over time, so that you can decide
whether or not we might be a good fit.
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