Opportunity Assessment

"How To Evaluate Sales Opportunities For Probability Of Return"

Opportunity assessment is one of the key challenges in today's selling environment. Determining where sales teams should focus their limited time and resources is a critical process. A proper process ensures your sales team is focused on qualified opportunities and not spending valuable time on opportunities that are not qualified.

Assessing an opportunity is an ongoing process. You must strategically assess your position in a sales opportunity at multiple points in the sales process. Things change as you progress through your sales campaign. You may progress in a positive direction where you become more competitive and become the front-runner, or your competitive position may diminish as your sales campaign proceeds.

Phases of Opportunity Assessment

The first questions you should ask when you become aware of an opportunity are:

• Is this a real opportunity that matches our qualifying criteria?
• Should we pursue it based on the limited initial information we have?
• Is this good business for us and our customer?

If you decide to pursue an opportunity, the next considerations will be around whether you should invest your resources. Make certain that the discovery and evaluation you have done give you a positive indication to invest.

Next, you continue to assess your opportunity to determine if you are still competitive. Use your opportunity assessment criteria to determine if you are able to deliver superior business and political value to your prospect.

Towards the latter part of your sales campaign, you will be engaged in activities to ensure that you are positioned to win the business. By this time you should have:

• Confirmation and understanding of the funding approval
• Access to and mind-share of key executives and stakeholders
• All major show-stoppers resolved
• Confirmation on a close plan with your coach and key supporters
• Preference for your solution confirmed by the majority of power decision-makers

Categories For Opportunity Assessment

As you go through your opportunity assessment, categorize your areas of focus into four major areas. Those are:

1. Understanding the customer's initiative and your opportunity
2. Determine how to maximize business value and your unique business value
3. Align with and satisfy the key political powers for this opportunity
4. Focus on keeping your competition off balance and disrupted

Considerations you may want to address for each of these four areas of opportunity assessment are reviewed below.

The Initiative And Opportunity

• Is a customer's project well defined?
• Do you understand the project?
• Does the customer's approach fit well with your company's solution approach?

• Is there an assigned budget?
• Do you understand the budgeting and funding process?
• Do you know who owns the budget and approves it?
• Do you understand the approval criteria?

• Political power is analyzed
• Sponsor is identified
• Power stakeholders driving the opportunity are identified
• You understand key stakeholders agendas and metrics
• You understand the influence of politics in the selection
• You understand and have access to the informal selection process

• Formal selection criteria and process are defined and understood
• You know the informal criteria
• Steps and milestones in the buying process are defined and understood
• Buyers rolls are defined and understood
• The criteria and process favor you and your solution

Business Value

• Critical event


• Power stakeholders understand compelling consequences
• Project finish date is defined
• Consequences of not completing are understood
• Power sponsor is publicly driving the event


• Your solution


• Your solution is defined in terms of the product, service, company, and people
• Solves the customer's key business issues
• Fits their approach and thinking
• Your solution is unique and provides most business value


• Differentiation


• Your solution is unique and addresses issues your competition cannot


• Superior business value


• You provide extra value in the eyes of the prospect
• Your solution connects with the discovery map and value chain issues
• Impact on opportunity drivers is identified
• Value metrics are identified and quantified
• Your value contribution is defined and articulated
• Buyer favors your solution and superior business by


• Value to your company


• It this good business?
• What value does it bring us?
• Are there any risks or negative consequences associated with this business?
• What is the degree of difficulty to win this business?
• Will the cost of sales be appropriate?
• You have the proper resources available at the right time, and at the right cost?
• Is there anything unusual required to win the sale?
• Will this sale provide strategic or market penetration value?
• Is the revenue you will receive appropriate for the effort?
• Is their follow on revenue opportunity?
• Will this prospect be a strong reference for you?
• Can you leverage this win into other accounts or business units?

Political Value

• Past relationships with this customer or prospect


• Strong cultural compatibility
• Strong overall relationship with this
• Strong relationships with buyers
• Strong relationships with power and sponsors
• Proven track record delivering value


• Inside coach


• Do you have someone providing you with valid information?
• Is someone reliable coaching you on how to be more effective?
• Do you have a mentor working on the inside for you?
• Do your mentor and coach have power and respect within the organization?


• Access to power


• Do you have direct access to power?
• Are the power decision-makers more likely to veto or endorse your solution?
• Do the sponsors of your opportunity support and endorse you?
• Are you able to address the business and personal agendas of the power stakeholders?

Competition

Conclusion

Having a proper process for opportunity assessment helps you throughout the sales process. It gives you a better understanding of what you've done well, what still needs to be done, and what areas are still of concern.

Use your opportunity assessment at multiple points along your sales campaign. This helps you determine if you should stay engaged because you have an excellent chance at winning, or whether you should cut your losses as early as possible, and move on to the next opportunity.

Related Articles

• Opportunity Management
• Opportunity Plan
• Business Value
• Key Business Issues
• Political Alignment
• Solution Presentation

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