The Deal Plan is the one page overview of what is involved in the deal. It includes details of the deal, the sales objective, the reason why the customer must buy, the reason why they must buy from you, the main contacts, the competitors and their likely strategy, your strategy and tactics, qualification and qualification risk.

This one page overview will be backed up by the full Qualification Analysis and Relationship Analysis/. If required further support will be provided by the Business Imperative Anaysis, Value Analysis, Strategic & Tactical Analysis and the Selection Criteria Analysis

Plan your tactical approach within an account by creating a visual map of the political landscape. Identify the people with influence, draw the lines of power that connect them, and determine your level of influence.

In our qualification methodology we highlight four key roles; Stopper, Leader, Insider and Persuader. The acronym for the four roles is SLIP. Deals that slip to the next period are the scourge of the pipeline and a measure of qualification inefficiency. You'll find the four key roles in your custome's organisation for every deal you work on. If you can't match the roles to individuals, it's a sign that you're not in enough control of the deal

The development of Relationship Map will clearly show the level of influence you have within the account. It will also help determine your sales strategy.

The justification for qualification is to ensure that you're working on the right deals at the right time. Too much effort expended on a deal too early is a waste of effort - effort that should be used elsewhere to close another deal. Qualification, therefore, is about prioritising sales opportunities. Prioritising helps you determine whether the opportunity is real, whether the customer has the means and desire to buy, and whether you want to pursue the deal. Let's face it, you have limited resources at your disposal, so you want to make sure you use those resources for maximum return. You want to hit your target and make money.

What's the difference between why a customer must purchase and why a customer must purchase now? Well, let's imagine we're selling into the IT side of an organization. You answer the 'why?' quickly and easily: they have outdated equipment that is having a detrimental impact on the services they're providing internally. Unfortunately, the head of IT, who clearly supports the need for a purchase, is not in control of the company budget. Spending is controlled by 'the business'. And 'the business' has a number of competing claims for finance.

In a world of unlimited budgets, providing a simple reason for 'why?' would almost certainly be enough to bring your proposal to close. In the real world of closely-monitored spending, however, 'the business' will release funding according to priority. That means that any proposal that you create must convert a need for your solution into a business imperative. Taking our IT division example, 'the business' must be presented with evidence that failing to purchase would cause severe problems or that a purchase would lead to significant gains. When documenting the business imperative, it's important to speak in business terms: the best articulated business reasons have the greatest chance of winning budget.

Value, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder. If what you have is not valued by your customer, then it is of no value to that customer. Therefore, when you seek to provide value, your value has to be determined separately for each different sales opportunity and only your customer can tell you if what you have provides them with value. There are three areas of value to be considered, a return on the investment, uniqueness and personal value. Your value statements are plotted on three individual grids with the relevant ones showing in the top right quadrants.

Having plotted and determined your value, do not give a list of reasons to the customer, they won't remember them all. Instead look at the top right grids and pull out the common statements across the all three grids - you only normally find one or two and these then become your key selling message for the this deal, to this customer, at this time. - You now have a powerful sales message as it delivers all three elements of value.

There is only one goal in selling and that is to win the hearts and minds of the customer. The strategy you develop is to stop the competition winning hearts and minds and position yourself as natural choice to meet your customer's need.

The strategy is based on the sales objective - what you are selling, for how much and by when. A strategy can only be effective if you are in a position to influence - you have to know your customer, your competition and yourself. In our deal methodology we look at the three principle strategies - Charge, Change and Choose. These are countered in our account strategies of Dislodge, Defend and Develop.

The tactics are the deployment of strategy and involve the three principles of Control, Precondition and Influence.

Your customers will have a set of criteria to help them choose which supplier and solution best meets their need. Your ability to meet these criteria will dictate your likely success.

This analysis process helps you view where you stand against the criteria and where your competitors stand. This analysis will help decide you sales strategy.