Sales trainer/coach and speaker Kate Dunn is a spark that ignites change in sales organizations and management teams. She's a highly respected print industry veteran, with experiences at Xerox and KeyPoint Intelligence (formerly known as InfoTrends). Kate now runs Evolve Sales Group and has trained and coached scores of salespeople, teams and business owners.

Kate has an infectious energy, along with a refreshingly straightforward approach and style. She shares a heap of great sales concepts in this "Unvarnished" interview. Kate is also a great follow on LinkedIn, where she recently posted advice on qualifying sales opportunities. Here is a slightly edited version of that post:

Are You Wasting Time Quoting and Hoping?

According to Gartner, the average number of stakeholders in a business-to-business sale today is 11, and that number can flex to 20 or more in larger organizations. If you are selling to smaller companies, the number of stakeholders in your target sale may be lower, but it's still more than one. This matters because the likelihood of closing a sale decreases as the number of decision-makers increases.

As a sales coach, I know it's important to engage all key stakeholders when trying to make a sale, but far too many reps count on one contact to do the selling for them. During coaching sessions, I'll ask: "Who are the key stakeholders?"

Almost 100% of the time (at least initially before we start working on it), the rep has one contact and it's often a lower-level stakeholder like a designer, traffic manager or office manager. Not coincidently, their pipelines are full of stalled opportunities. In fact, 38% of purchase attempts end in a "no decision," according to a 2020 study completed by Challenger, largely because B2B sellers don't do a great job of engaging the right or enough of the stakeholders who will be in involved in the decision. When stakeholders are out of the loop, on different pages, not clear about the business case, and unsure of the reasons to choose a specific provider, decisions stall.

When I think of all the wasted time quoting and hoping that goes on within printing companies today, it boggles my mind. Now we have to add sourcing paper to the mix which I'm told is taking hours, if not days. If you put these two facts together, just think of the time wasted on the 38% of projects that will likely end in a "no decision." It's time to stop the madness.

10 Questions to Consider Before Quoting

Fixing this problem requires both short- and long-term changes. Let's start with the short-term changes.

Improve the qualification criteria before you quote or propose. Here are some questions to ask your rep(s) or yourself before you spend time quoting:

1. Who owns the objective? If the objective is to generate leads, is the rep talking to the person who owns that objective?

2. Does the rep know what drove the customer to have their objective (the problems they are experiencing)?

3. Does the rep know what success looks like for the customer?

4. What results must be possible for them to move forward with the project?

5. What criteria must the supplier demonstrate to be selected?

6. Does the rep know how the customer is going to track whether they successfully accomplished their objective? If not, the project may be a "one-hit wonder" with no opportunity for long-term growth.

7. If it's a new customer, does the rep know what supplier was doing the project before?

8. What is the long-term potential of this account? Has the rep asked the customer if the opportunity exists for your company to become a primary supplier, or will this "new account" go right back to the previous supplier when they have a better offer? (If your rep doesn't know the answer to this question, he or she could be spending a lot of time on an opportunity that can't grow instead of one that could.)

9. Does your rep know all of the stakeholders and are they talking to them? If the rep knows them but isn't talking to them, there is a high probability of a "no" or "lost" decision. In North America, only 9% of sales reps' relationships are matrixed, meaning the rep has formed multiple relationships at different levels of the client's company.

10. Has your rep asked the customer what they would need to see from you to consider you as a long-term partner? If not, this customer could be shopping to keep their current vendor inline or planning to go right back to the existing provider. Getting all stakeholders on board for making a permanent switch will require a plan. If your rep asks the question, both the rep and you will be smarter about where to spend your time and resources.

When I ask a rep who isn't focused on developing relationships with key stakeholders, they will almost 100% of the time try to sell me on the fact that their contact "loves them" and wants to give them the business. That may be true, but it probably isn't enough to win the business.

Corporate Executive Board data found that 51% of customers who might be willing to buy from a supplier aren't willing to advocate for the supplier internally to help get the deal done. They may love the rep, but not enough to fight for that person inside their own company. Opportunities that rely on one contact's ability to sell you internally have a high probability of failure. That means that all the time spent by sales and estimating on these opportunities will likely not bear fruit.

3 Long-Term Strategies to Improve Your Win Rates

1. Define your sales process and force your reps to use it consistently. Moving through a defined process, knowing the answers that you need to qualify opportunities and using that process consistently will deliver 18% higher revenue growth, according to the Sales Management Association.

2. Define your account development process. Know your customer's challenges and how print can help them address those challenges and use a closed-loop sales process to lead from one opportunity to the next. According to the 2022 MarketHire Survey of Marketing Professionals, 75% of marketing professionals believe there is still a wave of resignations to come in marketing departments due to the "Great Resignation." Most marketing departments are experiencing about 30% turnover. Your key stakeholders, who are largely coming from the marketing ranks, are covering open positions and worn out. Things are going to bog down. If you aren't using a strong sales process that leads from one opportunity to the next and is engaging all stakeholders, you are going to leave opportunity on the table. Without a good process, your reps will be waiting by the phone for customers to call and not in control of their incomes or your success.

3. Set goals for your reps and have regular structured conversations about their plans to meet those goals. Help them strategize, ensure they are following the sales process, and help them understand when opportunities aren't qualified and what they have to do to get them qualified. They should be spending their time on opportunities where the possibility exists for a long-term mutually beneficial relationship with a customer.

It's more challenging to sell today than it once was, and a lot of reps claim it isn't fun anymore. But those reps haven't evolved; they haven't continued to improve their skills or sales process. For the reps who have evolved, they are still selling and having fun doing it.

What type of reps do you have?