Stay Organized in Sales with the DEAL Document

As a sales leader, you’ve likely applied many great sales strategies to grow your company and increase your team’s performance.

But today, I'd like to introduce you to the DEAL document – an email tool that is tactical, specific, and will help you stay organized in sales.

Oh, and it produces positive results.

The DEAL email is designed to be EXTRAORDINARY when compared to most follow-up emails.

Ever so often we may encounter that “messy” meeting that makes us feel like we didn't cover all of the points that we intended to cover.

But, the DEAL email affords the opportunity to re-frame that meeting in a “tidy” way.

So, what does the DEAL email look like? Can it help me stay organized in sales?

Well, the DEAL email has four components that allow you to stay organized in sales:

D – Determine Requirements

E – Engage the Client

A – Assume Responsibility

L – List Desired Outcomes/Criteria for Success

Let's explore each closely:

Determine Requirements

Great salespeople understand the importance of listening for problems and identifying the needs and concerns of their prospects.

This not only involves actually listening to a client, but involves something much deeper: active listening.

The goal of this part of the DEAL document is to distill the prospect’s issues into a series of succinct, well-phrased, numbered bullets.

Examples:

1. We need to reduce manufacture time and associated costs to produce our widgets (product).
2. We need to increase the number of sales of our widgets in the South East territory.
3. Lead times for the delivery of these widgets need to be significantly reduced.

This section should demonstrate that you understand what the prospect needs your help with and what they're looking to accomplish.

Engage the Client

The goal of this section is to tell the prospect exactly what they are expected to provide.

Perhaps they need to give you specific information or make themselves and others available for meetings, phone conversations, and other dialog.

Again, this should be summarized and listed in numbered bullet form.

Examples:

1. Provide feedback on the accuracy of the Requirements.
2. Send productivity and cost reports from your ABC system that produces the widgets.
3. Schedule a follow-up meeting with the VP of widget operations.

It's important that you list any items that they may need from you so that you can help them in return.

Assume Responsibility

Now it’s time to list what you will do in response to the information they have provided.

Numbered bullets are best, allowing everyone to see what the plan of action is and how you will develop your approach.

Feel free to attach dates to the action steps for further clarification.

Examples:

1. Modify the Requirements based on your feedback.
2. Review the cost reports from your ABC system that produces the widgets and
provide a response accordingly.
3. Provide our widget subject-matter expert consultant to meet with ABC Co VP of
widget operations.

All cards are now on the table and there should be no mystery as to what the next steps are.

List Desired Outcomes/Criteria for Success

This section lists the points (of course, numbered) that you believe determine whether a successful deal can move forward.

It might involve providing a proposal, scope of work, product list, time frames, timely feedback, etc.

If this is a selling situation, the outcomes list what needs to occur for the prospective client and the salesperson to determine a fit.

Examples:

1. Budget has been approved for this initiative.
2. All stakeholders at ABC Co have bought into the implementation of this initiative.
3. Our detailed scope of work document has been received by ABC Co.

Much of this section is recreated across many deals that a salesperson transacts. Therefore, much of this section could be boilerplate.

The document should be succinct, informal, and iterative.

Most importantly, it is a time management tool for both the sender and the recipient that will help you stay organized in sales.

If you'd like to read more about the DEAL document, be sure to download my eBook: Discovering High Performance with DEAL