Trust Triangle Selling May 2009 Newsletter

MAY 2009

Issue: 28

Win Letter
"How To Win And Keep Winning"

Q. Dan, I recently spent a year trying to persuade my client that our solution was a better choice than my competitor's. Finally, I received the anticipated phone call that I had won the order. Celebrating with my manager, we forecasted my win and looked forward to a good quarter. Now I hear that the competitors are putting on a full court press to convince them to change their minds.

How should I respond to this?

John W. Portland, OR

A. John, I have been in your position, and I empathize. We have all been there, and it is very frustrating. Your situation reminds us that an order is not an order until ALL of the following occur:

You have the verbal commitment,
You have all the paperwork,
You have received credit authorization,
You have delivered and installed your solution,
You have received full payment,
You have a happy customer,
Your customer buys from you over and over again,
Your customer refers others to you, and finally,
You retire!

Bottom line...you can never really relax, your order and your customer's trust in you cannot be taken for granted.

I think it would be helpful to consider four different tools surrounding the closing stages of your transactions: a Win Letter, a Loss Letter, a Close Plan Letter, and a Negotiation Follow Up Letter. Let's look at the easy one first, the Win Letter, and review the others in future newsletters.

Win Letter
"How To Win And Keep Winning"

A win letter has three purposes:

First, it serves to battle cognitive dissonance, or buyer's remorse. After making a major decision it is human nature to doubt the decision. The superstar delivers this letter to stifle any second thoughts that might arise in the mind of the decision maker by reminding him of all the good reasons he made the choice he made.

Second, a win letter helps to defend against the all-out assault sure to come from your competitors once they hear that they will lose this opportunity. During this time the competition will try almost anything to convince the customer to change his mind. Dramatic price drops; flying in the CEO from Europe; free accessories; use it for one year free, and then pay; free installation; a five-year warranty - you name it, I've seen it! Since a final purchase order could take days or months to process, in the mind of your customer the letter provides closure to the process and may help terminate the competitor relationships. Sending the letter solidifies the finality of the customer's choice to buy from you. It is worded in such a way that your customer believes that vendor selection is complete, and there is no reason to continue discussion with other vendors.

Third, the win letter makes it clear you are a superstar. It includes a strong commitment that you will exceed expectations. You will not 'dine and dash' or disengage from the customer now that the sale is made. You are already planning the installation/implementation of your solution with the client.

The timing of the letter is extremely important. When I describe this letter to reps in my workshops and ask them when they believe it should be sent. Many respond that it should be sent after you receive the order. Wrong! You should send it as soon as you receive official word from the decision maker that she has formally decided on your solution. Do not wait for the final purchase order. Often the time between the official verbal and the formal contract (P.O.) can be days, weeks even months. If you wait until the P.O. to send the Win Letter, you may never get the opportunity to send it.

Here is an example of a WIN LETTER:

Lee Gannon
Senior Vice President
ABC Corporation
18 Thorndike Road
Wakefield, MA 01880

Dear Lee:

We have just received the great news that you have committed to investing in Adams & Associates' System. ABC Corporation joins a long list of prestigious, well respected healthcare organizations that have chosen to install this system. Dr. Aidan Farrow of the Mundelein Clinic called the A & A System "the standard all others are trying to achieve."

As you know, we have worked very hard to earn your business over the past eight months. But I firmly believe that the real work begins now. I will be working overtime to ensure that we exceed your expectations and meet all our commitments to you. Step one in reaching that goal is to set up our Exceeding Expectations Meeting, which will kick off the planning for the site preparation, delivery, installation, and applications training.

You will be hearing from me soon regarding possible meeting dates. Once again, thank you very much for your business.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Edwards

I hope this helps for the next one, John.

Next month's newsletter we'll take a look at Loss Letters.

Good luck, and Close 'Em.

Dan Adams, Adams and Associates