With my feet on the sales ground for 25 years in IT, I can recommend that many steps in the sales process need to be discussed and agreed upon internally and with the business customer to arrive at an agreed and signed contract.
Following this sales process through the so-called ‘Sales Closure Plan’, all the necessary milestones that must be agreed from a resource perspective are described, internally from the supplier perspective, as well as from the commercial customer resource perspective. . This Sales Closing Plan will allow you to set the correct expectations in advance during contract negotiation milestones during an enterprise sales process.
Discuss the closing plan with your business client and ask your client to sign or approve the Sales Closing Plan on timelines and milestones. If each milestone is completed, please confirm this in an email to your customer so that all expectations and potential hurdles remain transparent and visible to you as a supplier and business customer.
1. Identify Power Sponsors:
What customer contacts have the power to approve or veto an important contract?
Who are the business owners?
2. Identify the customer acquisition process:
Submit the nondisclosure for approval.
Perform due diligence and customer selection.
Is a vendor employee selection process required?
What are the standard customer terms and conditions?
What are the expected legal challenges? Intellectual property, Warranty …?
what are the payment conditions?
What is the VAT number?
What are the details of the shipping address?
What are the details of the billing address?
Find out the cost and spending limits guidelines.
What is the business identity code?
Will the payment be in dollars / euros …?
What are the finance contact details?
What legal resources are required from the provider, internally, externally?
3. Approval process:
Who needs approval from the IT department?
Who needs to give the approval of the commercial department?
Is there a budget available? If not when?
Is Board approval required to close the deal? I do, when is the next Board meeting?
Who on the Board supports the business case?
Do we need a referral visit and who will attend on behalf of the client?
What reference do we nominate for the site visit or telephone interview?
Agree on travel arrangements for the reference visit.
4. Comments on the first round legal discussions / proposals:
Is it necessary to update the commercials / terms and conditions of the proposal to get a deal?
If yes, what vendor and customer resources are required?
Do we need internal approval from top management for this?
Does the client request any legal adjustments that need additional legal review by the provider?
5. Submit new proposal / T&C contracts:
Agree on the date for the presentation of the final proposal to the client.
Does the client verbally accept a new proposal / terms and conditions?
6. Contracts:
When will the client sign / close the contracts?
When can the contracts signed in the client be charged?
Reconfirm resource allocation.
Start of project or delivery.