Opportunity Consults

Maintained by:

Overview

Opportunity consults are deal reviews that focus on helping a sales team member maximize the likelihood of winning and securing the customer's business. They are based on a joint inspection of the "health" of the opportunity's Command Plan and a 2-way dialogue to identify and commit to specific actions that aim to increase the likelihood of success.

Opportunity Consult Format

Below is a general recommendation of the format and flow of an opportunity consult.

Step (duration)	Description
Manager Set-Up (5 minutes)	- Set expectations of the call by stating the purpose, process and payoff of the session
Seller-Led Opportunity Overview (10 minutes uninterrupted)	- Job aid: Opportunity Qualifier - Provides brief opportunity background (e.g., relevant account history, recent changes on opportunity) - Describes current deal state (e.g., sales process stage, forecast stage, key business issues, compelling event) - Identifies gaps in Mantra, MEDDPPICC, and additional challenges for discussion
Manager Consult (30 minutes)	- Job aid: Opportunity Coaching Guide - Ask open-ended, two-sided questions around focus areas to inspect (in a good, helpful way) the opportunity - Provide relevant feedback and coaching based on the identified gaps and challenges - Assist the seller in defining an action plan and exactly “how” to execute on the next steps
Manager + Seller Agree to Action Plan (5 minutes)	- Seller recaps opportunity-specific sales strategy - Seller documents next steps/critical actions in CRM or via email to manager

Best Practices

Conduct regular weekly Opportunity Consults with each rep on your team to review Command Plans for strategic opportunities
Focus on continually driving higher fidelity Command Plans through each customer communication/interaction
Coaches/managers should first seek to understand the current level of understanding of those they are coaching before explaining key or misunderstood concepts
Coaches/managers should encourage reps to
- Commit to specific, concrete, actionable next steps (i.e., “I am going to do X, Y, and Z to test my Champion” instead of “I am going to test my Champion”) and
- Document action items in a shared way (i.e. document in Salesforce or send a summary wrap-up communication after the meeting)
Include key account team members (e.g. SAs and TAMs) in Opportunity Consults to facilitate improved transparency and collaboration
Coach sales team members on the best practices related to the Close Plan within a Command Plan
- Close plans should be updated in real time and, at minimum, on a weekly basis
- Time stamp the latest update at the top with the date of the refresh so each line item starts with a specific date
- Liberally use ( ) or ** ** between line items or at the end of line items to denote Close Plan gaps that the sales team member intends to fill during the next communication with the prospect/customer
- Keep documented actions as crisp and succinct as possible; endeavor to keep it on one line so as not to make it a blog
- Refer to the Paper Process when appropriate so efforts aren't duplicated

Additional Resources

Click on the "Sales Manager Materials" drop down in the Command of the Message Additional Resources section.