{"id":33494,"date":"2023-10-27T00:06:09","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T00:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/?p=33494"},"modified":"2023-11-08T16:16:30","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T16:16:30","slug":"evitar-resultados-sin-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/avoiding-no-decision-outcomes\/","title":{"rendered":"Evitar la falta de decisi\u00f3n"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Avoiding No Decision Outcomes<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>The Surprisingly Large Opportunity for Improvement<br \/>\n<\/strong>(A Never Stop Learning! Article)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s in this article for you?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A Sadly Surprising Discovery<\/li>\n<li>A Painful Analysis<\/li>\n<li>Surviving BANT<\/li>\n<li>Surviving MEDDIC, MEDDPIC, Etc.<\/li>\n<li>Presales Input<\/li>\n<li>Senior Sales Staff Observations<\/li>\n<li>Three Reasons for No Decision Outcomes<\/li>\n<li>Re-Analysis and Illumination<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>A Sadly Surprising Discovery<\/h3>\n<p>A Head of Sales was reviewing his quarterly forecast and noted that a large number of opportunities had been \u201crolled over\u201d from the previous quarter. Curious, he examined several prior quarters and found a distressing trend: These opportunities had been rolling over from quarter to quarter for several quarters and, in many cases, for years!<\/p>\n<p>He said, \u201cThese will clearly never close\u2026!\u201d and removed them from the current quarter\u2019s forecast.<\/p>\n<p>He thought for a moment and then asked a staff member to perform an analysis of all of the opportunities that had been forecasted to close in previous quarters but had not closed. A short time later, the results were presented.<\/p>\n<p>The analysis showed that nearly 50% of the sales projects that were forecasted to close each quarter did not close, and in most cases, they reappeared as expected to close the following quarter! Very frequently, the predicted close-rate probability was 80% or higher.<\/p>\n<p>Intrigued (and also very concerned\u2026!), he called several of his salespeople to get the stories first-hand.<\/p>\n<p>He asked, \u201cWhy do you think this didn\u2019t close?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, it should have\u2026\u201d was the response. \u201cThe prospect said they were in pain and wanted to find a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He followed up with, \u201cWhat makes you think it will close this quarter?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey still have the same pain\u2026\u201d replied the salesperson.<\/p>\n<p>While there were a few cases that involved acquisitions, changes in senior management, and other factors, most of the explanations lacked any tangible reasons for the delayed orders. None of the examples suffered losses to competition; they just never seemed to close!<\/p>\n<p>He expanded his research, contacting his sales team and reviewing a few dozen opportunities. The results were largely the same: Salespeople didn\u2019t know why the deals didn\u2019t close and assumed they should complete successfully \u201cin a quarter or two.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Head of Sales realized these were all \u201cNo Decision\u201d outcomes \u2013 opportunities that had been forecasted to close (many with surprisingly high probability), but they weren\u2019t won by his team, they weren\u2019t lost to competition, they just never closed. The prospects had apparently chosen to do nothing and take no action.<\/p>\n<p>Was this a case of \u201chappy ears\u201d or other habitual sales optimism, or could a deeper exploration yield some pragmatic guidelines?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>A Painful Analysis<\/h3>\n<p>He realized, with a jolt, that about half of all forecasted sales projects were ending as No Decision outcomes (or, rather, not ending productively)! He thought, \u201cThis is way too high \u2013 we can\u2019t be running a business where half of what we plan on or expect to have happen ends as zeros!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But it was true.<\/p>\n<p>Returning to the analysis results, he did a little quick math. \u201cI\u2019ve got 40 salespeople around the world today. If they are averaging 50% No Decision rates, then it\u2019s like I really only have 20 folks selling effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wonder,\u201d he mused, \u201cWhat are typical No Decision rates for our industry?\u201d A little online research showed two sets of data:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>No Decision rates for B2B SaaS software averaged 45-50% overall.<\/li>\n<li>The range was from 20% No Decision outcomes for the best performers to as high as 80% in some of the worst.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>\u201cOK,\u201d he contemplated, \u201cWe are right in the middle, but I don\u2019t want to be there! It is clear that some organizations have solved this problem (and I wonder how they did?).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He realized that reducing his team\u2019s No Decision rate by just 5% overall would be like gaining 2 \u201cfree\u201d fully productive salespeople. A 10% improvement translated to acquiring 4 full quota-achievers. The average annual quota for the team was $1.5 million dollars, which meant that a 5% improvement was worth $3 million dollars in annual incremental revenue, and a 10% reduction in No Decision outcomes translated to $6 million annually.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an insanely huge sales process \u2018knob\u2019 that we\u2019re never addressed,\u201d he thought. \u201cEven worse, if we continue to follow this trajectory, the problem actually gets worse as we scale the organization!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As he considered this, he realized that other members of the customer-facing team were impacted as well. While the presales organization didn\u2019t report directly to him as the head of sales, he recognized that they were also spending 50% (or more?) of their time working opportunities that led to No Decision results.<\/p>\n<p>This realization was almost more hurtful, as presales was typically the rate-limiting step for sales process-step conversions. The same math applied: Fewer No Decision outcomes yielded greater availability of presales resources to work deals with higher probabilities of success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got to change this!\u201d he announced and gathered his sales and presales managers and senior staff to discuss.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Surviving BANT<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d he asked his front-line managers, after sharing the analysis info. \u201cWhat are we doing poorly or need to do differently, or are not doing at all?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe deals aren\u2019t being sufficiently qualified early in the sales cycle?\u201d suggested one manager.<\/p>\n<p>After some discussion, it was agreed that the use of BANT (\u201cBudget, Authority, Needs, Timeline\u201d) was not to blame. The group did identify two areas that could be improved, however. The first was a realization that leads were churning even before they entered the sales \u201cfunnel\u201d. The second was a moderately surprising realization that even when prospects confirmed they had budget allocated, the same proportion of deals still ended as No Decisions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Surviving MEDDIC, MEDDPIC, Etc.<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cPerhaps we aren\u2019t really getting what we need out of our sales methodology?\u201d offered another manager. They had been trained in MEDDIC (Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Identify Pain, and, Champion)\/MEDDPICC and other systems.<\/p>\n<p>More discussion of the use of MEDDIC found that many reps weren\u2019t using it at all, which clearly contributed to the problem. However, even those who completed the required MEDDIC fields in their CRM system suffered the same ~50% No Decision rate.<\/p>\n<p>It was noted that MEDDIC is a qualification methodology as opposed to a discovery methodology. Some managers wondered if this was a contributing cause. In particular, they observed that many prospects admitted \u201cpain\u201d but were willing to live with it, even with vendor-based value justification numbers. \u201cPain\u201d seemed to be insufficient on its own to drive a decision to purchase.<\/p>\n<p>There was general agreement that while sales methodology(ies) should help address the problem, they appeared to be insufficient on their own.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Presales Input<\/h3>\n<p>Presales management was polled, and a number of No Decision cases were identified where product fit was not particularly terrific. In some instances, the alignment between the proposed solution and the prospect\u2019s needs was only moderately good, with some significant gaps. In a few cases, product fit was described as \u201cpoor,\u201d but it was determined that \u201cour prospect\u2019s key needs were met by our offering\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Product fit was designated as one parameter to track going forward, but it was challenging to determine how to measure it. [See the \u201cFool\u2019s Gold Pursuing Pyrite\u201d portion of this webinar for one successful approach!]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Senior Sales Staff Observations<\/h3>\n<p>Some of the team\u2019s most successful sales performers were interviewed, as well. They identified a few additional parameters that they believed contributed to No Decision outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>In some cases, they reported that buyers lacked sufficient proficiency to navigate their internal buying processes. Similarly, inexperienced champions struggled to motivate and convince their peers to move forward with a purchase.<\/p>\n<p>It was agreed to implement and track several buyer enablement practices, including asking questions in discovery to determine buyer and champion history, strengths, and needs.<\/p>\n<p>One front-line manager mentioned the book The Jolt Effect, by Matthew Dixon and Ted McKenna, which outlines a set of criteria to attempt to identify and head-off No Decision outcomes. These focus on understanding how prospective buyers act and react with respect to doing extensive research, avoiding risk, experiencing hesitancy, and other factors that can contribute to No Decision conclusions.<\/p>\n<p>The manager reported that while the ideas made sense, they were difficult to implement. They required reps to be able to assess prospects\u2019 specific thinking. The manager commented that \u201cIt\u2019s hard enough to get reps to ask the basic discovery questions \u2013 it\u2019s another whole level of difficulty to have reps analyzing prospect behaviors!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Three Reasons for No Decision Outcomes<\/h3>\n<p>Finally, a senior presales staff member spoke up. She said, \u201cYou\u2019d asked me to check out the Great Demo! &amp; Doing Discovery Workshops, as a scout, to see if we might want to train our team on these methodologies. Well, I may have a simple, discovery-based solution for you!<\/p>\n<p>In our training, the facilitator identified three parameters that rather consistently identify an opportunity as a high-probability candidate for a No Decision outcome.\u201d She opened a whiteboard in Zoom and diagrammed:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>No Critical Business Issue<\/li>\n<li>Insufficient Value<\/li>\n<li>No Critical Date<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>She explained, \u201cA Critical Business Issue is an annual, quarterly, or project-based goal or objective that is at risk. \u2018Pain\u2019 is the set of one or more problems or reasons that are causing an inability to achieve the goal or objective. However, \u201cpain\u201d by itself is not enough to drive a purchase.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She chuckled, adding, \u201cIn the Workshop, the facilitator commented that \u2018People will live forever with the hell that they know unless it impacts their ability to achieve their objectives!\u2019 That\u2019s probably why we see many deals go to No Decision even though we\u2019ve identified their pains! In our discovery conversations, we need to determine if our prospects\u2019 pains are impacting their ability to accomplish their objectives \u2013 and, specifically, what those objectives are. Those are the Critical Business Issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several of the meeting participants nodded their heads in agreement. One shared an example where pain had been identified, mutually, by the salesperson and the prospect, but it was clear that a Critical Business Issue was lacking, and noted that the opportunity was, indeed, a No Decision.<\/p>\n<p>Continuing, she directed the group\u2019s attention to number 2, \u201cInsufficient Value is the second element. In our Workshop, we learned that value not only needs to be uncovered, but it has to be tangible! It can\u2019t simply be declared \u2018cheaper, better, or faster\u2019, but it has to be quantified. We need to help the prospect build their business case using their own numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A sales manager added, \u201cOh! And we may need to help guide our buyers and champions, depending on their level of experience.\u201d That caused more head nodding and a few Europeans knocked their knuckles on their tables in agreement as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe third factor,\u201d she continued, \u201cis the lack of a Critical Date. This isn\u2019t our end of quarter, as much as we might want it to be!\u201d This generated some laughter as well as a few sheepish looks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA Critical Date is a date by when the prospect needs a solution in place and operating,\u201d she said as she strongly emphasized the word when. \u201cIt also needs to include the reason for the Critical Date: the driving force. For example, a good Critical Date for a prospect could be the renewal date for a system they want to replace. The date might be March 31st; the driving force is the need to avoid paying for another year\u2019s license.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More heads nodded; more knuckles knocked.<\/p>\n<p>She laughed, \u201cIn the Workshop, the facilitator asked us, \u2018In university, would you have ever completed those papers if you didn\u2019t have a due date?\u2019 I know I wouldn\u2019t have!<\/p>\n<p>We learned that if any one or more of these three parameters are missing or incomplete, it dramatically increases the likelihood of a No Decision. Best of all, these are all elements that we should be able to uncover in our discovery conversations, early in the sales cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A brief discussion ensued, after which it was agreed to re-run the analysis and assess those opportunities already identified as No Decisions to determine if any of the three parameters were lacking. The meeting then adjourned.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Re-Analysis and Illumination<\/h3>\n<p>Well, dear reader, you already know the results of this second analysis. Yes, nearly all of the No Decision deals were missing a meaningful Critical Date, lacked tangible value numbers, and\/or had pain but no Critical Business Issue. To be fair, there were a few opportunities that yielded No Decision outcomes due to acquisition, change of management, or internal politics, but otherwise, the results were fascinatingly compelling.<\/p>\n<p>This is, by the way, a true story (or, more accurately, two true stories combined). That head of sales was me!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2023 The Second Derivative \u2013 All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n<p>To learn the methods introduced above, consider enrolling in a Great Demo! Doing Discovery or Demonstration Skills <a href=\"https:\/\/GreatDemo.com\/training\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Workshop<\/a>. For more demo and discovery tips, best practices, tools, and techniques, explore our blog and articles on the Resources pages of our website at <a href=\"https:\/\/GreatDemo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GreatDemo.com<\/a> and join the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/2430414\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Great Demo! &amp; Doing Discovery LinkedIn Group<\/a> to learn from others and share your experiences<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Evitar resultados sin decisi\u00f3n La sorprendente gran oportunidad de mejora (Un art\u00edculo de \u00a1Nunca dejes de aprender!) \u00bfQu\u00e9 hay en este art\u00edculo para usted? A Tristemente<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,11,20,8,9],"tags":[6,7],"class_list":["post-33494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advanced_topics","category-beyond_demos","category-doing_discovery","category-great-demo-blog","category-growth_development","tag-articles","tag-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33494"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33499,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33494\/revisions\/33499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}