The deal in your pipeline was huge and considerable time and resources were devoted to bring it to close – yet it fizzled out and fell through in the end. To make matters worse, this seems to be a trend, and everyone from the sales rep to the executive suite wants to know why.Large deals create high-impact revenue as well as long-term relationships that can generate additional sales down the road. Understanding how to improve win-rates on large deals is an investment that pays off through more deals closed, additional sales down the road, and fewer wasted resources on deals with low potential.

According to our research, 51 percent of top-performing sales organizations continually utilize a disciplined process to evaluate all large deals, compared to all others at only 39 percent. The difference between the two groups demonstrates the value of taking a structured approach to deal management to impact win-rates.

The Big Picture
When you’re working hard to close a large deal, it’s easy to get bogged down in the details and miss seeing the forest for the trees. The value of applying a disciplined process to deal management is its ability to give you a better, more objective view of the bigger picture.

Through disciplined deal management, you use a consistent process based on specific criteria to gauge when an opportunity is on-track to close, rather than basing your estimation on gut-feel and chance. Using a consistent process also allows you to more easily discuss the necessary activities for closing a sale with team members.

Consistent use of a disciplined process allows you to:

• Evaluate the depth and quality of the information you’ve gathered
• Determine the true position of the opportunity within the sales cycle
• Plan the most effective use of time and resources to ensure closing
• Build a solid case for securing additional resources as needed
• Know if the opportunity is worth a continued investment of time and corporate resources

Knowing when to stop investing in a deal can be difficult without having a pre-determined set of criteria. As each month passes making calls, arranging meetings, and coordinating elements of a solution, calling it quits becomes a more difficult decision to make.

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