Smart early sales cycle opportunity decisions are a problem for many sales reps and organizations. They often don t consider 3 important questions:

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3 Introduction Smart early sales cycle opportunity decisions are a problem for many sales reps and organizations. They often don t consider 3 important questions: What opportunity should I work on NEXT? What opportunity should I work on NOW? What opportunity should I STOP pursuing altogether? For most sales reps and managers, the questions are clear but the answers aren t. The #1 cause of low sales production is poor resource investment decisions made during early sales stages. The opportunity cost of unproductive pursuits chokes sales growth. Pursuing poorly aligned opportunities prevents sales from focusing on opportunities where success is more likely, driving a higher ROI from scarce sales resources. While activity based on the highest dollar value is the easiest path of pursuit, it s often not the path that drives the highest return on sales resource investment. The true goal is to work on the highest net effective productivity deals and stop working on deals with low productivity. That s the purpose of the Most Important Formula In Sales (MIFIS). It s designed to give you and your team a simple process to make these decisions. Why? Because it s not OK to make this decision purely on 'feel' or even based on the highest dollar opportunity in their CRM. There s much more to it. The MIFIS process and formula are designed to be used early in the sales opportunity engagement process to put sales teams and sales reps back in control of pursuing opportunities with the highest net productivity. This drives the highest ROI for sales resource investment. What is MIFIS? MIFIS is designed specifically to give sales leaders and sales reps clear and objective information to make critical pursuit decisions early in the sales process, creating a much higher return on effort and resource investments. It makes a comparative evaluation of all opportunities by assessing 3 simple but critical elements of a sales opportunity. They are: REALISTIC Return: What are you measured on or goaled for quota? Use that here. Could be revenue or profit. Whatever it is, this is the key starting point so make sure you get it right.

4 Key: Be honest. Don t kid yourself about the final amount. REALISTIC Alignment: This is NOT your forecasting probability. This is a factor that takes in to account your solution alignment to your prospect s needs, propensity to invest in what you are offering, competitive landscape/incumbency, likelihood to change, relationships, etc. Key: Are you REALLY a good match? Do you REALLY understand the politics of your prospect and their needs? REALISTIC Level of Effort: Usually captured in hours and often completely ignored by reps. This is the biggest Achilles heel for most. They simply aren't thinking about this. How much effort is going to be required to win this deal? Not just YOUR effort but everyone that supports you? Your manager? Contracts? Legal? Marketing? EVERYONE! Key: Can you and your team really afford to invest the time? Time and resources are NOT infinite. How to use it? For each opportunity, collect the values and plug them into the spreadsheet*. See the sample below. Follow the simple formula and the basic math will give you the prioritization that you need. *You received the excel spreadsheet as a separate attachment For each opportunity, run this calculation: REALISTIC Return X REALISTIC Alignment REALISTIC Level of Effort Note the heavy emphasis on the REALISTIC part. Why? Because many teams we work with want to apply a level of hope and optimism that can skew reality. Tell yourself the truth on each of these, because being next to the truth is the safest place to be. Account/Oppty Return ($) Alignment (%) Effort (hrs) MIFIS Result Paradigm $ 195,000 90% BiGradient $ 235,000 70%

5 MMCI $ 175,000 80% NMFM $ 75,000 90% CareFortitude $ 145,000 70% Gongaloff $ 60,000 60% FortNight $ 115,000 60% Parametric $ 125,000 40% Tremsett $ 90,000 50% Excalibur Systems $ 215,000 20% How to implement this process: With the information in the spreadsheet and the calculations made, now sort the spreadsheet by the values in the MIFIS Result column, sorting from largest to smallest. The sheet is sorted in order, top to bottom, for the opportunities that you should pursue. Note how NMFM is several places above Parametric even though Parametric is double the size? However, NMFM is more than 3 times as productive than Parametric. The largest opportunity, Excalibur Systems, is in last place because, out of these 10 opportunities, it is the least efficient. Math doesn t lie.

6 Suggestions for use going forward: Use this 3 step process: 1. For the first 60 days, simply collect this information for all new opportunities and begin to observe if your pursuit plans are aligned with what the table would dictate. Learn. 2. Days , start to adjust your pursuit investment. Begin to over invest in the higher MIFIS Result opportunities and under invest in ones with lower values. Adjust. 3. After 120 days, we encourage client to draw the Red Line of Courage. That is picking a MIFIS Result that, where the opportunity has a Result higher than the Red Line number, you will pursue with full effort. Your A game. Below that, you will either not pursue or purse with your B game. A word of caution: Teams and reps that use this process over time make more money. That is just truth. However, we strongly suggest that you work this process very closely with the sales leader and the sales rep. Every sales rep will have a different Red Line of Courage number.

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