In today’s blog, we look at how this simple tool will help you qualify and plan your sales strategy on a deal by deal basis. No matter how large or small your deals, keeping a disciplined approach while using SCOTSMAN can significantly improve your closure rate.
SCOTSMAN is a sales process that forces you to ask and answer key questions and focuses your interactions with your prospects to make the most out of your valuable time and energy. And it’s nothing new! We’ve been employing SCOTSMAN for over 30 years to great success.
The key to SCOTSMAN’s success is consistency and simplicity. Use it throughout your sales process, not just as a one-off, and refer to it before every interaction with your prospects. Quick and simple, we’ve used SCOTSMAN in the car before heading into a sales meeting to reaffirm our objectives and goals.
So, what does SCOTSMAN stand for?
S – Solution
- Do you have what the prospect needs?
C – Competition
- Who are they and how do they threaten the success of your deal?
O – Originality
- What makes you stand out from the competition?
- What makes the prospect choose to work with you over anyone else?
T – Time
- What is the timeline for the project?
- What is driving the timeline?
- What are the restraints?
S – Size
- What size is the prospect?
- Are they within your ideal project size?
- Are they too big?
- Do you have the resources to facilitate the project?
- Is it too small and therefore not worth your time and energy?
M – Money
- What is the budget?
- Is the client aware of the budget?
- What is driving/limiting it?
- Who is responsible for it?
A – Authority
- Are you talking to the right person?
- Is there anyone else that needs to be involved in the project?
N – Need
- What are the client’s needs?
- Can they identify their needs themselves?
And that’s it!
This simple set of questions can quickly give you a full overview of your potential project, as well as being the starting point for valuable and insightful conversations with your prospects. These questions can change as well. More can be added in for a deeper insight into your client’s needs, for example.
Jot SCOTSMAN down on your notebook before a phone call or meeting to use as a guide for your conversation and make sure you get all the information you need. Then, use it as the basis for your CRM system to ensure you are capturing the right information in the right place.
So, try SCOTSMAN on your next deal, and see how your results differ.
