Deals die. It happens. It’s gut wrenching.
It’s also unavoidable.
But just because you’ve marked it as closed-lost in the CRM, doesn’t mean it can’t be brought back to life… if you have the right tools. Before this post is over, you’ll know exactly how to resurrect your dead deals.
Every great sales team has a playbook: a repeatable process their reps follow to close as many deals as possible. An intricate, well thought out outbound cadence with an email and call sequence that’s proven to get responses and set meetings.
Good reps know the playbook inside-and-out. But any rep that’s been around the block also knows that no two deals close the same. If you stick to an intricately defined process, some good opportunities will fall through the cracks.
We like to picture the sales process like this:
But, a real-world buyer’s journey tends to look more like this:
You’ve gone through all the proper motions:
- qualified the prospect off the bat
- identified all stakeholders in the purchasing process
- determined their pain and surfaced their needs
- responded to questions quickly and thoroughly
- quoted a fair price that works for both parties
But when the you try to move into the proposal phase they’re met with a:
“We will be in touch with our decision soon”
But… soon comes and goes.
Then it’s a while…
… A while turns into a week.
You’ve sent emails, left voicemails, asked to do an in-person. You are getting stonewalled.
A few days go by, and you get an email from the prospect:
“You’ve been great, but we’re not ready. No need to follow up with us, we will let you know when the time is right.”
FUDGE.
Receiving a note like this from a qualified opportunity that boils down to: “Please stop bothering my team. We’re going to take our time. Leave us alone,” is a kick in the teeth.
Good sellers value their time. When they get a “slow your roll” email from a prospect, they either ease up off the reins and set a reminder to check back in a few weeks, or they go in for the kill one last time and try to overcome the current objections.
Both options rarely lead to a signed contract. This is how deals die. This is how quotas are missed.
Your team may be done actively selling, but that doesn’t mean the lead is done researching and buying. They may not be taking your calls or going to your webinars, but that doesn’t mean they’ve lost interest. After business hours, when they can get some peace and quiet, they’re lurking in the shadows, devouring their peers’ advice, looking up reviews online, reading case studies they downloaded months ago. They’re on a search to fill their brains. Behind closed doors and all out of sight — and you have no idea.
When it comes time for them to make a decision, they’ll review the documents you (and everyone you’re selling against) has sent over. If you sent your collateral with DocSend, you’ll receive detailed alert via email when a prospect goes back to an old deck or proposal:
back from the dead, and ready to buy
So when a previously-dead lead starts eyeballing your proposal from last quarter, you’ll be in the know. With individual visitor tracking and page level reporting, you can see what topics matter most to each and every buyer you’ve sent a document to. This data helps sellers overcome objections stakeholders have before they’re ever even mentioned.
When a zombie lead spends 4X the amount of time on a particular page in your deck from last year, you know they are back in buying mode, what they care about most, and what they need to hear to let them know you’re the right choice for them.
Stop sending generic follow-ups like, “hey, just wanted to see where you stand?” With DocSend, know where you stand and capture those zombies in your pipeline with data-driven messaging that tells your prospect just what they need to hear to bring that deal back to life.
Don’t let zombies lurk in your pipeline!
Sign up for DocSend today!
featured image credit: Funky Tee
