C.A.P.R.A.® = Closing Action Plan – Risk Assessed – Part of the Closing Plan Program

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At the start of every quarter the sales forecast is committed. In the following weeks, what follows is a combination of activity, progress, setbacks (expected and unexpected), reviews and new actions all aimed at keeping each sale on track to close as forecasted. In many years as an account exec., then as sales manager and onto CRO roles I experienced a similar pattern.

Initial confidence in the forecast can quickly evaporate when risks and threats emerge & intensify. Immediate reactions range from denial (think ostrich syndrome) followed by hope, a sense of panic, attempts at recovery and finally a scrabble to replace the lost sale.

Persistence, drive and positivity by the sales team will mitigate some of the risks and threats to the forecasted sale but more is needed. I guess many of you are familiar with the following qualifying questions – from the customer’s perspective:

  1. Why should I* buy anything?
  2. Why should I buy your solution (or more of your solution**)?
  3. Why should I buy it now?

* The use of “I” is very deliberate because it is aimed at each stakeholder and influencer in the prospective customer. Each person will have their own requirements for (or objections to) a new solution which need identifying and addressing to win the sale. Relying on a senior decision maker to over-rule others in the selection process is flawed strategy. Far better to assume the decision will be made by consensus and be pleasantly surprised if there is a “power” sponsor to push it through.

** Important to recognise unique aspects of an “expand” sale vs. a “land” sale 
An important point, whilst we build the closing plan, is always to view this from the customer’s perspective. For absolute clarity: the customer doesn’t care about your quarter end, or even your year-end (unless their year-end is the same, then just maybe). Pressure by the seller on the customer to approve the order will be counterproductive. Instead working to the customer’s timescales and in parallel quantifying the value of your solution (and the cost of doing nothing) with the customer will create the necessary urgency.

CAPRA is the framework:

  1. Closing – the objective is specifically to win the sale – on time
  2. Action – time bound actions are discussed and agreed on, with regular reviews
  3. Plan – Defines the people, the process, the value of the solution and the decision timeframe
  4. Risk Assessed – potential threats to the sale are identified and contingencies are made ready

It is important to note that to be effective a time-bound closing plan must include 5 tracks:

  1. The customer: all stakeholders and functions that affect the sale and the decision process
  2. Your team and your solution + Reseller if you use one
  3. Existing supplier – if their system will be replaced by yours
  4. Competitors & their resellers
  5. 3rd party advisors / recommenders

The CRM is the natural place for the closing plan to reside, being a single point of reference and repository for all data relating to the sale, and that everyone updates. A closing plan could be a report from CRM, however, in the absence of that a closing plan in some form that is shared (as a single source of truth) between the sales team & their manager is essential.

Whatever the format of the closing plan the most important rule is that the opinions & assumptions of the sales team as to status of the sale must be clearly marked as such. Equally information provided by the customer about the sale needs stating in the plan without interpretation, stating who the provider was and when. This means deal reviews can be carried out based on facts, and not assumptions.

If the sale is an existing customer (an expansion sale) an audit report of the achieved benefits to the customer of the installed solution is an important tool to win expand business. The benefits already delivered can be used to forecast additional benefits that will result from the new expansion sale.

Examining each of these points in more detail:

a. The customer:

The sales team should create a Deal Decision Map showing all the people involved in the decision, marking each as + – = or ? about your solution. The decision map is an essential tool to support closing plan review meetings & risk assessment.

Qualify each person: will your solution make work for them (= a risk they are a “do-nothing” voter) or save them time / improve their work (making them a supporter)?

  1. Sponsor – who is the main sponsor of the purchase, and have they been involved in a similar scope, size and cost project before in their current role? What risks have they told us will need handling to win the sale?
  2. Steps – what are the steps required to win the sale, in what sequence, over what elapsed time and who will be involved in each step? Is a reference visit to a customer required? Is a pilot needed? Will your solution need to be integrated to other solutions?
  3. Stakeholders – who run the department/s that will benefit from your solution, and who advises them internally?
  4. Technical decision makers – were they involved in selecting the current solution that will be replaced by the new solution?
  5. End users of the solution – Which end users have a vote in the process?
  6. Financial – Who will approve the expenditure, what are the requirements for a supporting business case (payback: added value, strategic gain, cost reduction/efficiencies, vs. the cost of doing nothing)

Each person should be assessed regularly as to whether they: support your solution being purchased, support retaining the current solution (do nothing) or support a competitive solution.

Does the customer use your system or a competitor’s system in other parts of their organisation, locally or in other countries? How are those systems performing? Have you audited your system & reported on it to quantify the customer’s value derived from it?

b. Your team:

  1. Lead sales person
  2. Lead pre-sales technical person + post sales people
  3. Business Analyst* – prepares the business case
  4. Sales manager
  5. Executive Leader

*The business case needs to be compelling and based on the customer’s expected benefits from deploying a new solution. The higher the value of the solution the more important it is that a specialised business analyst is used to build the business case.

c. The existing supplier (assuming this is a new “land” sale) & system:

  1. How will they react?
  2. Are the sales team who sold the existing system still on the account?
  3. Have the limitations & negative impact of the current system on the customer’s organisation been quantified?
  4. If the existing supplier is offering to upgrade the current system (as a defensive measure), can the cost of that be quantified? It can be the case the “upgrade” is in fact a complete replacement of the existing system with the costs and disruption being the same as changing to your solution.

d. Competitors

  1. What connections do they have in the customer: Who are their supporters and who is against them?
  2. How is the competitor being tracked? What are they doing? Who are they talking to and meeting?
  3. Is the competitor using a reseller or selling directly? If a reseller, where are their connections in the customer?
  4. Has the customer visited or spoken to one of their references?
  5. Have they been able to influence the selection criteria (embed some of their USPs)?
  6. When is their year end?
  7. Have you replaced that competitor in other customers, lost against them?

e. 3rd party advisors / recommenders

  1. Who are they?
  2. Does anyone in your team or organisation have connections to them?
  3. Have they ever recommended your solution before?
  4. Have they recommended competitors solutions before?
  5. Would they get revenue from deploying a new solution?

Assuming the sale is being driven by both a salesperson and a pre-sales technical person, this team must “own” the closing plan and it’s execution, drawing in resource as required.

Risk Assessment & Mitigation Checklist

If risks happen that are listed in the plan or actions by agreed dates do not take place as expected, then the contingent actions must be executed. If the threats are new or unexpected the sales team should alert their manager and in parallel collectively review and decide how to respond to the threat.

Risk Metrics:

  1. Probability – how likely is the risk is to happen?
  2. Severity – how serious is the risk to the sale?
  3. Mitigation – how is the risk to be solved / removed

You can read more about Risk Management & Mitigation in another insight here in the Closing Plan Program including a powerful technique called the “Pre-Mortem “ described in a book by Gary Klein “The Power of Intuition”.

Deal Review Sessions
To be effective all participants must be able to see a shared version of the Deal Decision Map along with the latest actions, the results of those actions and dated feedback from the customer. Today we live in the moment, but if deal review sessions are to have any value the attendees must be able to see a snapshot of what actions were previously decided on & their outcome.

Care must be taken to separate facts from assumptions during the sessions, in this way the attendees can make their own assessment of the facts leading to better decision making.

The session should be run jointly by the salesperson and the assigned pre-sales technical person. They are responsible for making sure all attendees have the latest Deal Decision Map, the action list with follow up results and the Risk Assessment & Mitigation Checklist.

Here are two more modules in the Closing Plan Program: