How to Sell Software

Effective Selling Habits, Effective Sales

Sales is a tough, unpredictable business. As proof of effective sales, managers demand constant progress reports from their teams. As sales professionals, we often find ourselves explaining (or excusing) why a pursuit isn't further along, pipelines aren't growing more quickly, or new prospects haven't been approached. It's enough to make even the most confident people downright insecure.

Sometimes there is a need to make a change in order develop effective selling techniques. And if others have noticed that you're in a rut, then you've probably gotten plenty of advice about what to change. But once you've identified an improvement you want to make, how do you go about it? What's the best way to make a change stick?

Sales Metrics for Improving Sales

Most salespeople aren't successful. It's not that they don't generate enough revenue to pull their own weight (most do), but in the eyes of their management the majority aren't making the cut.

Only a handful of "stars" blow away their quotas and win an invitation to the company's sales club vacation year after year. Everyone else slaves away in the trenches unrecognized. Not exactly fair, right?

Maybe sales management draws an arbitrary line in the sand and your performance falls just the other side of it... or maybe it's more scientific than you think.

Software Sales Advantage is in Soft Value

Time and again in software sales campaigns when consulting for a client around defining the value of an enterprise software implementation, I run up against the critique "That's not hard value. We don't count soft dollars."

We've identified an area of the client's business where software could enable savings -- even provide them a competitive advantage -- but the client simply doesn't feel those benefits equate to clear, straightforward savings to operating costs. They can't justify the investment.

What they really want is a hard benefit that they can defend to management without hassle. Common examples of "hard value" savings or benefits include: headcount reductions, facility closings, product line rationalizations, or the elimination of future expenditures.

Maybe you've encountered the same problem in your own software sales pursuits and gotten stuck. You know your solution will deliver real value to the client's business but you've got to get over the hard value hurdle before they'll consider your proposal.