Are Closed Deals Your Only Measure of Sales-Call Effectiveness?
Are you surveying your prospects after a sales call to find out how you did? If not, you may be missing a valuable opportunity to collect insights into your prospects’ expectations and perceptions of your sales approach.Earlier this week, I was on a sales call with representatives from Qualtrics - an impressive, enterprise-level survey and analysis tool. As the conversation progressed into functional demos, there were several statements made regarding the ease and usefulness of the tool (which, based on what I saw seemed to be accurate).
That got me thinking about how Qualtrics - experts in this tool - uses their own product. As a result, I asked the question, “does Qualtrics, using their own tool, survey prospects after a sales call.” The answer, surprisingly, was ‘no’. I know that the concept of surveying prospects might be foreign and, in fact, there are plenty of rationalizations for not doing so (e.g. don’t want to be intrusive, already in our marketing nurture programs, etc.). I thought, however, that a corporate culture - like Qualtrics - steeped in the art and science of surveying would take every opportunity to gather relevant, actionable data. Now, perhaps, the Qualtrics team was just being kind (as we are a prospect) but they expressed their approval of such a practice. Assuming I wasn’t receiving the-prospect-is-always: (1) right and (2) funny treatment, I’ve outlined my concept for survey prospects.The Post-Sales Meeting/Call SurveySpirit
The survey must be concise, easy to navigate, and assuredly secure. In a sales process, we have to be efficient with prospects’ time and work to make each engagement valuable (possibly necessitating an incentive for completing the survey...Starbucks cards anyone?)Note: this concept would work in any type of relational-sales engagement; B2B or B2C.
That got me thinking about how Qualtrics - experts in this tool - uses their own product. As a result, I asked the question, “does Qualtrics, using their own tool, survey prospects after a sales call.” The answer, surprisingly, was ‘no’. I know that the concept of surveying prospects might be foreign and, in fact, there are plenty of rationalizations for not doing so (e.g. don’t want to be intrusive, already in our marketing nurture programs, etc.). I thought, however, that a corporate culture - like Qualtrics - steeped in the art and science of surveying would take every opportunity to gather relevant, actionable data. Now, perhaps, the Qualtrics team was just being kind (as we are a prospect) but they expressed their approval of such a practice. Assuming I wasn’t receiving the-prospect-is-always: (1) right and (2) funny treatment, I’ve outlined my concept for survey prospects.The Post-Sales Meeting/Call SurveySpirit
The survey must be concise, easy to navigate, and assuredly secure. In a sales process, we have to be efficient with prospects’ time and work to make each engagement valuable (possibly necessitating an incentive for completing the survey...Starbucks cards anyone?)Note: this concept would work in any type of relational-sales engagement; B2B or B2C.
Communication
This may be the most critical component of success; sales representatives should close a call (or perhaps insert it in the beginning) informing their prospect(s) that they will be sending out a survey shortly after the meeting/call. The sales person must also simply state:
As each organization has a unique approach and selling process, a list of specific questions may not be relevant. However, I would focus questions (ideally 5 and no more than 10) on these core areas:
This may be the most critical component of success; sales representatives should close a call (or perhaps insert it in the beginning) informing their prospect(s) that they will be sending out a survey shortly after the meeting/call. The sales person must also simply state:
- Why the company performs this task (e.g. constant-state learning).
- How the company will use the data (e.g. sales optimization).
As each organization has a unique approach and selling process, a list of specific questions may not be relevant. However, I would focus questions (ideally 5 and no more than 10) on these core areas:
- Respect for and effective use of prospects’ time.
- Clearly demonstrated value proposition and competitive differentiation.
- Active listening and relevant responses.
- Focus on prospects’ motivations (versus driving a sales agenda).
