If you have ever committed an opportunity to the organization only to see it slip by days, weeks or even months because it is “stuck in legal” with the customer then I have news for you. It has happened to all of us. But there is a way to help keep that from ever happening again.
Often times your contact has no real idea how the signature process unfolds in their organization. You certainly have no idea. But too often we hear the customer say something like, “Send the contract over and I’ll get it signed.” We naively think that our contact or his boss can sign the agreement and get it back to us the very next day. We tell our boss the good news, diligently update our CRM and send the agreement over. Then . . . crickets. Everything goes dark. Finally your contact wakes up and says something like, “Well, it has been on my boss’s desk for two weeks. I have no idea why he’s not signing it.” Or they may say, “My boss signed it and took it upstairs. I have no idea where it is now.” These can be very frustrating conversations.
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What are you waiting for? Those deals won’t wake up on their own!
Not only is it frustrating from an internal reporting standpoint, but until you have received signed agreements and have delivered your products and/or services, the deal can still be lost to a competitor. In many cases the real selling starts when a rival hears “No.” That can be when you are the most vulnerable. Getting the agreement signed and back is a critical part of locking out the competition. You need to understand the signature process and who the players are all along the way.
You can better understand the contract signing process by engaging in the “Then What Happens?” conversation.
Let’s say that you have been told that you have won the business. Now it’s just a matter of getting the documents signed. Instead of saying “Great, I’ll shoot them right over!”, you say, “Great. Let’s talk about the contracting process.” Here’s how an ideal dialogue could progress from there:
Customer, “Okay, what would you like to know?”
You, “Well, after I send you the agreement, then what happens?”
“I take them to my boss for her signature.”
You, “That’s Janet, right? And she is up to speed on this? Has she agreed to the budget terms? Is she on board with us as the vendor?” (Note that we are validating that we are the selected vendor and that the boss is supportive of the decision.)
“Yep, she is all on board. We had the conversation about all of that just before I called you today.”
You, “Great, and then what happens?”
“Well, Janet gets them signed by our group controller.”
You, “Okay. Who is that?”
“That’s Gene Smith. He’s the one that allocated the budget and has to approve all expenses over $100k.”
You, “Okay, so Gene is on board with this too? The funding is still available?” (Validating that the “Economic Buyer” is still willing to fund the project is absolutely critical at this point.)
“Yes, he was on our last project call and validated all of that.”
You, “Great, and then what happens?”
“Then it goes to legal.”
You, “Okay. Is there a specific person that reviews these kinds of agreements?”
“Yes, Jeff White is our contracting manager.”
You, “Great. So what has your experience been with Jeff? Is he quick to get things turned around? Or does it take him a while?”
“Jeff will usually get things done in about two weeks as long as it’s not the end of the quarter.”
You, “Since that’s not the case here, let’s build in two weeks for Jeff. Would it make sense for you to give Jeff a heads-up that this is on the way?”
“Sure, I can take care of that.”
You, “I forgot to ask, how long for your boss and the group controller to sign?”
“About a week, but my boss leaves on vacation for two weeks on Monday so be sure to get them here before then.” (Now you know that you need to get agreements to them quickly. If it takes too long the deal will slip by two weeks. Pass this important information along to your legal colleagues to make sure that they get their piece done in time.)
You, “No problem on this end. Can you check on your controller’s availability too? I just want to make sure that he won’t be out of the office when we need him to sign.”
“Sure, no problem.”
You, “Okay, so legal signs them. Then what happens?”
“They go to procurement to get your company entered in to our system as an approved vendor.”
You, “How long does that usually take?”
“About a week.”
You, “After procurement does their part, then what happens?”
“That’s it. You get the agreements back and we start working on the project together.”
You, “Okay. So based on what you just told me, the signature process should take about four weeks provided that everyone does their part like they are supposed to.”
Now, imagine if you had told your boss that the deal was done and all that needed to happen was for the agreement to get signed on their end. What kind of expectation could you possibly set? Two weeks might seem reasonable, but would be totally inaccurate. Now you can set proper expectations for your forecasting and resource allocation.
In this case your contact knew about every step, including the names. That’s not always the case. Many times, your contact will know very little about the procurement process beyond their boss’s signature. When that is the case you need to press them to find out. It does them no good to be in the dark with you. They have constituents to report to regarding the progress of their purchase of your product or service. In that case, your contact might respond with something like this,
You, “After I send you the agreement, then what happens?”
“My boss signs it and then it goes upstairs in to a black hole. I have no idea what happens once it leaves her desk.”
Here’s how you should respond, “Let’s take some time to understand the process in more detail so that we can report back to our project teams and set proper expectations. Can you do some investigating on your end to see what happens once it does leave her desk? I’ll be glad to help.” At that point your contact may or may not be willing to do the investigative work, but it can’t hurt to ask. Again, without the proper context around what happens internally you have no idea how to set expectations for your organization. I’ve participated in this kind of dialogue several times and have found it to be very beneficial. My contact has almost always gotten back to me with a detailed sign-off process.
The contract signing phase of the sales cycle can be surprisingly long and challenging. It is incumbent on you, the sales rep, to find out how this process works. It is critically important and can make the difference between hitting your goal for the period and not. And it all starts with a simple question, “Then what happens?”
Last week I exchanged emails with a sales leader, getting caught up after being out of touch for a while. I was thrilled that this was part of his response back to me, “BTW - I used your "Are you?" email this week to try and get a response from a CTO who had gone dark... got a reply within 10 minutes!! Thank you!” Another proof point that the emails my book, Click and Sell! really do work. Thanks Andrew!
