Many traditional sales strategies get it wrong. Lots of effort is wasted in how to best close, through applying all kinds of clever closing techniques.

Nowhere is such an approach more wrong than in large scale complex high-tech sales.

Just before year-end this was made clear to us once more. During a client assignment we were following a potentially very large account for many months. Already in August it appeared that a deal could be done quickly. Needless to say that the sales manager of our client, for whom we were building up this opportunity, got quite nervous and was starting to put lots of pressure on us to CLOSE. He did it in a subtle but still clear way. When we were finally able to get this closed - just before year-end - this golden rule once more proved to be 100% correct:

Never try to push a client to a close. If the time has come and you have done a comprehensive job in selling to all the decision makers, the client will let you know when it can be closed. That's exactly what happened here once again. The client had cleared all internal hurdles and got suddenly eager to get things defined in a contract.

Of course the real challenge for us was more to keep the client, for whom we developed this account, relaxed than with the actual opportunity. Without our tenaciously insisting on our values and beliefs it would probably have not worked out.

The lesson for others is therefore a simple one, but a tough one in day-to-day sales work. Never push your prospects to a sales close. If you have done a great job in developing the account then the client will get eager to do business with you when the time has come and when all obstacles have been cleared.

The other important thing during the final steps of a deal is that you need to be ready to walk if required. Only if you have mentally prepared yourself for this worst-case scenario and are ready to go will you be able to work out a win-win deal.

The Solution Selling summary to reaching final agreements are:

• View closing as a natural evolution of the sell cycle instead of trying to "close early and often"
• Create an atmosphere of "win-win" that fosters success in the current opportunity and future ones
• Prepare in advance for the opportunities in which you want to reach final agreement

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/67665

While the EU seems to be having some hard times with Microsoft at the moment, it saw no problem in following the US ministry of justice in approving Oracle's deal.

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/67679

After the acquisition of Xemics by Semtech first half of 2005, another European fabless wireless short range chipset company with excellent product reputation has got acquired.

It appears that European fabless chipset vendors, with very few exceptions such as e.g. Cambridge Silicon Radio, have a hard time generating enough revenues and profits from their often limited product range. Price pressure is enormous and the big volume customers (such as wireless handset vendors) usually demand very lengthy evalution phases and ultra-low prices. Of course, it is a legitimate exit strategy for their VC investors.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article334686.ece


Well known as the country with probably the highest CCTV camera installation density, Britain has now gone one step further and will - based on license plate recognition - monitor the movement of all cars.

Interesting to note that this seems to go through unopposed in Britain. In other European countries this might trigger lots of privacy protection discussions and most likely would not pass the legislation.

Reminds me of the Italian couples who seem to use their cars not only to drive form A to B but also park them at quiet places... I guess that does not work in the UK, since most of the year its too cold for such activities outside anyway.

Approaching a prospect for the first time with an e-mail to the right person has become a common thing. While it may be viewed by some as spam, and therefore not stimulate any response at all, it is becoming quite common. Particularly if you are approaching prospects internationally, it could be a good way to gauge first level of interest. If there is no response then of course you should not assume that this means there is no interest but use other means to get in touch.

The current Generation X as it is called is certainly more into this than their predecessors the baby boomers, who used to build, and base their business on, contact networks, and who therefore would be more reluctant to such an “Internet-style” approach.
Anyway, we have been testing two kinds of e-mail letters that you can find below, with totally different response rates. Response rate we define as the number of recipients getting back to you via e-mail. The response could either be saying O.K. let’s meet of have a talk or can you send me more info, but could also be a friendly response saying sorry have no need right now because... The latter is also definitely friendly and affirmative of your making contact, leaving you still able to reflect that your e-mail was received as a good first way to introduce your offering.

The first example below seems at first sight perfectly fine, one would think. But it actually misses all the key components of a good e-mail. Our live test revealed a response rate of only 2 %. We sent out 100 e-mails and only got 2 responses. Then we used the exact same recipients some time later and achieved a 15% response rate. We also checked the number of people actually looking at the link to our website and that was 25%. In the first approach we got exactly 0%.

The second letter contained all the elements that are recommend by the Solution Selling® Field book. Those are:

• A benefit statement about your company’s competency
• A statement highlighting your organization’s experience in the targeted industry
• A description of multiple high-probability pain that the prospect might have

What we left out though were customer references. We feel those are not appropriate to mention in such a letter at least not in the European business culture. Also the list of possible pains we reduced since we felt this could be too much as well for the European taste.
While the changes are at first sight minimal the difference in response rate is tenfold!
A quite impressive result we thought.

Letter 1: Response rate 2%. Internet access rate 0%

Dear…,

xyz is a …. for ….

We are located in… and work for… to...

We would like to help you…

If you are interested in a meeting at your place or during the xyz show please let me know via e-mail.

For further details please look at: www… or contact me directly.

I’m looking forward to hearing back from you.


Kind regards

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter 2: Response rate 15%. Internet access rate 20%

Dear…,

xyz is a …. for …. We have had major success in helping our clients with…

One key advantage of our service/product is…

If you are interested in learning how we helped other VP… to …, then I would be very happy to have an initial telecon with you or to meet you on my next trip to...

For further details please look at: www… or contact me directly.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you.


Kind regards