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What stage should you measure your win rate from? For some, the win rate has a number of variations.
No doubt the numerator are your Won opportunities.
But it's the denominator that is hotly debated.
Do you include only closed deals? Leaving open deals out?
Do you measure from the very first stage? Or do you have a qualification stage that should weed out any deals that are not deemed qualified?
Or do you measure from the demo stage?
Or do you measure from the stage where the customer puts skin in the game?
And what does that mean exactly to put skin in the game?
Putting skin in the game
Perhaps after you've shown a generic demo you want to have the prospect put their own data into your tool. Or perhaps you want to simulate their industry and problem set as much as possible with a customized demo.
Maybe you have a presales function where AE and Solutions sync together to game plan the art of the possible for the prospect.
At this stage, the customer might…
Sign an NDA
Introduce technical team members on their side
Compile data samples for you
Essentially the prospect has lifted a finger. They have skin in the game.
Whichever stage this is, it's perfectly reasonable to think of this “win rate” as one of the most important.
You're truly identifying who is “in market” and weeding out the “qualified, but curious”.
Pricing
Assuming you've gotten this far with the prospect it's time to start thinking about pricing. In fact, the prospect may have already asked about pricing. I'm a big fan of bringing up list pricing early in the sales process once you've had an opportunity to qualify and a first chance at discovery. If they balk at the pricing, then I bet they're just kicking tires. They're not serious. Yet.
I say yet because they'll likely select another option. One year later they might be sorry with the cheap-and-cheerful path they chose.
Thats what I like to think at least. I'm competitive like that. HOW DARE YOU NOT WORK WITH MY COMPANY!? I digress.
Following the pricing table you have internally is easy enough. But what if you don't have a “pricing sheet”. Your pricing is bespoke. Worst, it's unclear. Revenue Operations, Product, and Finance can task a tiger team to build out a reasonable pricing schema. Once built, it needs to be tested in the wild. Record all calls where pricing is brought up and take note of what is said and especially how the prospect reacts. Adjust the pricing and continue to do so.
If and when the prospect is comfortable, not necessarily that they accept, with the pricing setup you'll see them ask thoughtful questions. They're leaning in because they're doing a quasi-ROI calculation in their heads.
Will working with you pencil?
Is there a rapid time to value?
Will they get fired or look like a hero when they select you?
Just food for thought.
Proposals
Depending on your deal size a custom proposal makes sense. You might need internal subject experts across product, engineering, presales, or another team to chime in. The last thing you want is to send a proposal that over promises and ultimately under delivers. You're winning today but ultimately losing tomorrow when they decide they’ve failed with your solution. They'll walk away and you might have just burned a few bridges.
So what goes into your proposal?
Cover page
Letter to the prospect
About your company
About your products and services
Pricing options (always give them the option to choose; even better send them options but one is highlighted as recommended)
Technical details you've gleamed from the discovery, demo, and solution oriented sales stages
If there are service components I'd recommend a project based plan without specific dates (nail down the dates post signature is preferred but aligns with your company SLAs)
I'm not a big fan of adding in signature blocks unless you expect the customer to accept your boiler plate agreement. The smaller the deal size (i.e. mid market pricing in the $20K to $50K range) you could get away with this. But once you climb into the six figure range (i.e. enterprise selling) then I'd advocate for using the proposal as a way to tee up the real negotiations and redlining that's sure to follow.
RFPs
Every once in awhile you'll be invited to bid. A Request For Proposal (RFP) can be as short as a one pager or as involved as a document requesting dozens of pages of information. Either way, you are one of several companies to bid. Cynics might say that the RFP process is rigged. Prospects already know who is going to win but they have to show good faith in allowing multiple companies to bid. It shows they’re doing their best to drive the best bargain.
As a Revenue Operator I suggest doing the following to get your house in order.
Build an RFP Content Library
Build your winning team from across marketing, solutions, sales, product
Set a cadence where each RFP has a cohesive narrative/strategy behind it
Track your submissions in your CRM
Set an editor to follow the writing according to your accepted guidelines (i.e. reduce fluffy writing; be concise)
How do you think the prospect is thinking of evaluating their proposal?
You got it. They’re likely scoring you too.
Effective RFP scoring begins well in advance of the RFP issuance or the receipt of any proposal. The requirements discovery phase in the RFP process largely shapes the supplier selection process. Their RFP scorecard ideally derives its basis from the established requirements.
Both you and the prospect are scoring each other. They’re likely doing the same thing internally: assembling your key stakeholders, requesting them to outline the most critical requirements. Their stakeholder team encompasses individuals from various business sectors. For instance, it could be beneficial to involve the affected department, finance, legal, operations, and IT.
Key questions they’re asking themselves:
What is our definition of success?
What is our plan to achieve our goals?
What specifications, features or functionality do we require?
How should we group our RFP questions and requirements?
RFP category examples:
Background – Company info and general info
Functionality – Specifications, capabilities and features
Pricing – Structure and options
Implementation – Adoption process and timing
Technical needs – Integrations and data security
Reputation – Customer success and return on investment (ROI) figures
Financial stability – History and future projections
Security – Physical and data
Now it’s your turn to score
Just because you receive an invitation to bid doesn’t mean that you should. Can you even handle the business?
How many times have I seen startups say “revenue is revenue” move upmarket landing enterprise clients AND FAIL TO DELIVER THE GOODS.
How many times have I seen a startup close a large number of deals only to find out they have starved their Customer Experience implementation and CSM teams. Now their new customers have a negative perception of your ability to implement them quickly.
For paid subscribers I share a Go/No-Go template below for you to decide whether or not you should go out for bid.
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