The “Target Close Date” is one of the most important aspects of pipeline, forecast, and deal integrity.\u00a0 Anything else in our deal strategy can change, but the Target Close Date must be kept as sacred!<\/p>\r\n
Now before I get everyone piling on, saying I’m totally unrealistic, that I don’t recognize the realities of sales, or that the customer is the key determinant of the close and it’s out of control; give me a chance to explain my position.<\/p>\r\n
There will always be good reason to change the target close date–but, that’s the point–there has to be\u00a0good reason, any changes must be done thoughtfully and purposefully.\u00a0 But too often our problem is:<\/p>\r\n
Let me dive into these a little further:<\/p>\r\n
We don’t set a target close date based on a compelling event:\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span>Most of the time sales people set a target close date based on when they want to close the deal, when they need the PO to make their number.\u00a0 The target close date must be\u00a0established based on when the customer needs to have a solution in place and operational.\u00a0 Now there’s a lot in that sentence, let me break it down further.<\/p>\r\n We must understand what’s driving the customer to make a change and when they need to have a solution in place.\u00a0 Sometimes, it’s pretty easy, they have a looming new product launch, they have a new plant, they have a deadline for their customers–all these drive a sense of urgency and hard deadlines by which a customer must make a decision and have a solution in place.\u00a0 Sometimes there isn’t a hard deadline or an event we can leverage.\u00a0 In that case, we must help the customer establish\u00a0a sense of urgency and a deadline by which they want to start achieving their desired goals.\u00a0 The only reason customers buy is to achieve\u00a0a desired goal.\u00a0 It’s our job to understand this and to help them establish\u00a0a timeline by which they must start achieving it.\u00a0 We can help the customer establish that timeline or sense of urgency by focusing on the consequences of not making a decision or changing.\u00a0 Are they losing sales?\u00a0 Are they losing productivity?\u00a0 Are they losing cost savings?\u00a0 Are they losing customers and share?<\/p>\r\n If the customer has deadline–real or self imposed–to start seeing results, then they have no deadline for making a decision.\u00a0 One might question if in this case the opportunity is really qualified.<\/p>\r\n So it’s critical that we and the customer are aligned around the business reasons and urgency for making a decision and having a solution in place.<\/p>\r\n Once we and the customer agree to the date they expect a solution to be\u00a0in place, with the customer, we have to work backwards from that date:\u00a0 How long will it take to implement\u00a0the solution, how long does it take to ship\/install the solution components, what lead times (for instance if we have to build the product like a machine tool) do we have for being able to provide\u00a0the solution?\u00a0 What is the contracting\/procurement process like when they do agree on our decision, how long does that take?\u00a0 All these help us establish\u00a0a date of when the customer needs to make a decision and provide\u00a0a PO?\u00a0 We arrive at this collaboratively early in the selling\/buying process.\u00a0 These set the cadence\/schedule we and the customer must execute in order to\u00a0meet their goals and objectives.<\/p>\r\n We set unrealistic target close dates:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 Sales people are always optimistic.\u00a0 Or they might be driven by pressure from sales management.\u00a0 So\u00a0 target close dates are set\u00a0unrealistically close.\u00a0 They don’t align with the customer sense of urgency–but are driven by when we wish<\/strong><\/em> we could get the PO.\u00a0 In the process, we find the customer doesn’t have the same sense of urgency.\u00a0 Or we’ve been unrealistic about all the things that need to get done to meet the target close date–both those things we have to do, and those things the customer has to do (keeping in mind, they still have to do their day jobs.).<\/p>\r\n So we almost never meet those dates, and they slip and slip and slip……..<\/p>\r\n As things slip in the selling\/buying process, we have a day for day, week for week slip in target close date:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 We and the customer establish a target close date with the best of intentions.\u00a0 We understand the deadlines, and sense of urgency.\u00a0 But over the course of time, things happen.\u00a0 Attention gets diverted, things take longer than we or the customer had planned.\u00a0 We lose a day here or a week there.\u00a0 Traditionally, we let the target close\/decision date slip.\u00a0 This is particularly prevalent when the customer has no deadline or sense of urgency about having a solution in place.<\/p>\r\n So we slip the date, updating CRM.\u00a0 Then more stuff happens, more delays–all with good reason, and the date slips further.\u00a0 We re-adjust the target close date again.\u00a0 Managers, rightfully are getting upset.\u00a0 Is this deal real?\u00a0 Are we going to close it?\u00a0 Why is the slippage happening?<\/p>\r\n Think about it from the customer point of view.\u00a0 They may miss their deadline.\u00a0 I worked with a client that provided manufacturing equipment to Consumer Package Goods companies.\u00a0 In one situation, the project slipped so long, the customer didn’t have the manufacturing line in place in time, which caused them to miss orders for the Christmas season, which represented 80% of their customers’ expected revenue from that product line!\u00a0 Even absent an event driven deadline, every day or week the decision slips means the deferral or loss of business value.<\/p>\r\n So as activities slip in the selling\/buying process, with the customer, we need to rethink\u00a0the schedule–working backwards from the fixed target close date, adjusting the schedule so we get buying\/selling activities complete in that new schedule.\u00a0 It should be\u00a0an easy process to explain to the customer–it’s simply good project management discipline.\u00a0 Customers should be used to that from their own internal project management processes.<\/p>\r\n What Does This Mean?<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 Well the most important thing about keeping the Target Close Date fixed is the customer starts achieving the outcomes they expect from the new solution when they need or expect them.\u00a0 So we create great value by enabling the customer to achieve their planned goals on schedule.<\/p>\r\n From our point of view, it drives far greater integrity in our pipelines, forecasts, and business results.\u00a0 The rest of the company can more effectively plan their work\/activities to meet the deadlines we need for the customer.\u00a0 Inventory can be\u00a0purchased and manufacturing time scheduled more easily and effectively.\u00a0 If we provide services, the availability of skilled resources is always critical, driving greater schedule integrity in our close dates enables the managers of those teams to plan more effectively.\u00a0 In short, it improves our own company’s ability to plan and execute more effectively and efficiently.<\/p>\r\n Sure things happen, stuff comes up.\u00a0 There are legitimate reasons to slip the Target Close Date.\u00a0 But we are far more impactful, effective, and efficient when we do this purposefully and thoughtfully.\u00a0 We and the customer should have exhausted all alternatives to keep the original date, achieving the goals and outcomes we’ve established.\u00a0 Only then, does it make sense to slip the date.<\/p>\r\n Look at your performance over the past year.\u00a0 What percent of your deals come in on time?\u00a0 What percent slip?\u00a0 What are you doing to drive integrity in this process–both for you and your customer?<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The “Target Close Date” is one of the most important aspects of pipeline, forecast, and deal integrity.\u00a0 Anything else in our deal strategy can change, but the Target Close Date must be kept as sacred! Now before I get everyone piling on, saying I’m totally unrealistic, that I don’t recognize the realities of sales, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6963,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[128,85],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6963"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}