Using customer behavior—not gut feel—is how to best predict enterprise SaaS outcomes with precision.
When a deal slips past the forecasted date, whose fault is it? Is it the salesperson’s fault because he/she failed to qualify the opportunity properly? Is it the sales manager’s fault for failing to see the slippage warning signs? Is it just the overall market’s fault due to challenging economic conditions? Or is there another reason for the forecast date slippage?
Has anyone considered that it could be the customer’s fault? At the core of the MOIC Pipeline Grader business case method is the notion that the sales motion is driven by observing the customer’s actions; for example, does the customer acknowledge our unique features? Will the customer’s executive sponsor meet with us? Will the executive sponsor divulge their compelling event (date by which a decision needs to be made or else there are financial consequences) driving their decision timeframe? Will the customer’s executive sponsor negotiate our business case results with us? Finally, in a demo bake-off, will the customer allow us to demo last?
The customer’s actions (or inactions), indeed, drive our sales cycle, not clever sales techniques or radical discounting of the price. This method holds the customer accountable to perform against each of the aforementioned questions. When the customer resists, the message sent to the salesperson is clear — this is not a forecastable deal, at least in the current timeframe.
In other words, by observing the customer’s actions relative to our engagement markers, objective forecasting becomes easy and obvious. Slipped deals occur largely because the salesperson ignored the customer’s behavior and forecasted the deals anyway.
Alternatively, if the customer works with us to execute our five markers and the deal slips past the customer’s stated compelling event date, then it’s the customer’s fault that the deal slipped.
If your sales team struggles to keep the customer accountable for their actions relative to our stated markers, please go to www.moicpartners.com to learn how Pipeline Grader can help your sales team eliminate slipped deals.
