www.mercuri.netFor more information contact: Trevor Meadway, Partner Mercuri InternationalTel: 0044 (0)7713 684133Email: trevor-meadway@mercuri.co.uk

FROMOPPORTUNITY TOORDERWHY OPPORTUNITY MANAGEMENT IS

IMPORTANT

A Mercuri International White Paper Page 1 (2)

Opportunities: a Key PriorityMany organisations today want to improve the successrate in converting large opportunities into orders.Opportunities are where big volumes or margin are atstake, or when there is a strategic client or productinvolved. In the current market situation, keyopportunities must be managed properly.

Good OpportunityManagement leads to:

Increased success in winning largeopportunities

Measurable result and quick ROI More systematic opportunity planning,

efficiently duplicated throughout theorganisation

Improved business result Increased revenue and profit on large

opportunities

The Sales Manager strugglesWe asked our worldwide panel of Sales Managers andManaging Directors’ four questions concerningopportunity management, with 329 replies.

The results show that an average sales representativecomes across between 5-10 large sales opportunitiesper year and has a success rate of 1:3. We lookedfurther to differentiate the high performers from thelaggards.

Not surprisingly, high performers have both feweropportunities and a higher success rate than middle andlow performers. Being able to focus with correctpriorities on the right opportunities is one of the keysuccess factors which make high performerssuccessful.

When asked; what are the main reasons you lose theseopportunities, the vast majority said: they were lostbecause the competition offered a cheaper solution andbecause of lack of alignment with the decision makers.

Our experience tells us that losing opportunities to lowerpriced solutions can be for several reasons:

2 out of 3big sales opportunities are on average lost

Copyright © 2012 Mercuri International

A Mercuri International White Paper Page 2 (2)

WHY OPPORTUNITY MANAGEMENT IS IMPORTANT. CONT.

www.mercuri.netFor more information contact: Matthew Everitt, Mercuri InternationalTel: 0044 (0) 7572 343 341 Email: matthew-everitt@mercuri.co.uk

1. The opportunity priorities were not establishedproperly

2. The opportunity was not real3. The clients’ problem was not fully understood4. The value proposition was not clearly defined

and presented in a convincing way5. The sales representative did not know the

selling situation

However, it is important to keep in mind that top profitperformers tended to state price as a reason for losing,much less often than the laggards and focus more onthe value proposition.

Often, proper opportunity assessments are notperformed and resources are placed in unprofitableactivities. The key is how to set up the properopportunity priorities and to assure the sales efficiency.The data clearly shows that the top performers usestructured tools in the opportunity process. Therefore,using simple opportunity assessments which are oftentechnology enabled, improves the overall efficiency ingaining opportunities.

Another common pitfall is the misjudgement of theselling situation. Do the sales representatives have aprofound understanding of the selling situation? Dothey know the attitudes and power of the decisionmakers or in some cases, do they even know all of thedecision makers? Unfortunately, we find this lack ofknowledge of the selling situation to be fairly common

and it has a very negative impact on the ability to securethe order.

Top performers investGiven a list of possible initiatives to increase the win-ratio, 62% state they have regular status and updatemeetings to work on the opportunity.

However, high performers instead are more likely tohave a clear cut documented process and have tools foreach step of the process than both low and middleperformers.

Many organisations want to improve the success rate inconverting large opportunities into orders. Topperformers invest resources in proper prioritisation,processes and tools to improve success.

ConclusionMany organisations want to improve the success rate inconverting large opportunities into orders. High-performers have a clearly documented process andhave tools for each step of the process. They align thedecision making process with their internal resourcesand perform proper assessment and prioritization of theopportunities. In essence, they are using technologyenabled tools and fundamental opportunitymanagement to improve win rates and ultimatelyimprove profitability.

70% stated they lost because

the competition offered a cheaper solution.

High performers have a clearlydocumented process for winningdeals, and tools for each step ofthe process.

40% of lost opportunities could

be attributed to poor alignment of thedecision makers.

Copyright © 2012 Mercuri International