Hi, today let’s talk about your sales close rate. The sales close rate tells us two things; first the percentage of business potentials that turn into customers or how good sales people are at qualifying. Qualifying issues may pop up because sales people may quote to fast. Too fast because the prospect is not ready for a quote. The quote is done because it is easy. And prospects are likely to say sure send a quote out. What is harder is to ask the right questions and to make sure the prospect is ready to buy before any quote is handed over.
I watch sales men work. And I see excitement when quotes are generated. Yet I see that very few quotes turn to dollars, and I figure out that generating a quote cost a company time and money. Far better may be to earn the prospects OK first. Talk about the offering and the terms and together, craft the deal. This is done and agreed to and then if needed a formal quote ties all together. Sales people that do this have very high close rates. The prospect is qualified and is cooperative. And consider all the attributes of a solid prospect; budget, authority, need and timeframe. But most important of all are they cooperative. Does the prospect return calls, share details with the sales person, and is the prospect honest? I put these attributes in the cooperation bucket.
