Rating: +0
We all know that the dreaded "no decision" is the biggest competitor in the market. If you could, what would you ask the prospect that was engaged in your sales process but then eventually just disappeared?
Consider topical areas like: people, process, product and pricing.
Trish,
A totally unexpected "no decision" is usually a sign that the sales process was in the hands of the 'Sales Gods' vs. the organization doing the selling. Many of the questions appear to be questions that should have been known upfront during the qualification process, some very early qualification, before 'pursuit funds' were allocated to the sales pursuit. The idea of a 'post-mortem' after a long sales cycle certainly helps a company to understand what may have been a problem within the product, product direction, etc. and allow them to make some adjustments moving forward. But, very often 'sales' finds themselves talking to low to medium level people within the organization, and their feedback has to really be measured according to the 'source'. One of the worst things that I have seen organizations do is to literally 'turn themselves upside down' because of the feedback of a "jr IT administrator" who gave them an earful during a 'post-mortem'.
This is a sign of a totally different problem, within the selling organization. So feedback is only as useful as the source of the information, this is an important point to remember, also statistically speaking one or even two losses or 'no decisions' does not make a trend, many companies make rush to judgments and revamp their strategies based on very scant information. Again, a sign that the strategy is not etched out properly to begin with....
I agree with one of the other responses, that a 'no decision' is not a sign post to go in and ask 'what happened', but instead a 'sign post' that speaks loudly that your internal selling sponsor needs your help in formulating an internal value and compelling event to push the sale forward.
If a company, large or small, invested some time in evaluating your products then common general business practices has to say that their was 'interest' vs. a 'suspect' who is just kicking tires. If there was interest, then a no decision mostly points to either competing internal priorities, which means your job is to heighten that priority, find the money within the organization, or other.
Either way, a no decision is not a selection of another product. It's just another sales barrier to work with, key thing is to 'always be selling'.
BTW, I have been involved in not just 'no decisions' but actual losses where a full fledged attack has either turned the sale around or turned the selection back into a 'no decision', giving you more time to go back and sell.
Lesson learned is to get vendor contracts warmed up and reviewed as early in the cycle as possible, and not after the selection - that contract review, negotiation phase is the most guns a blazing time for the competitors, remember at that point there is nothing for the other side to lose.
And lastly, its not over until the fat lady has sung, and even then some....
Best,
Peter
November 2007