Closing business in these uncertain economic times...

As this is certainly a hot topic on the mind of every sales person out there today, I thought the best way to address this topic was to post a copy of the letter that Selling to Zebras, LLC is currently sending to CEO's at prospect companies that we are targeting. Zebra Jeff and I wrote the letter together quite recently, and I think it this letter shares several important strategies for success when times are tough.

An important preface to this letter; the definition of Economic Value Added, aka EVA:

EVA is the dollar amount of benefit after removing all costs including the cost of their personnel to run your solution and the cost of capital used to purchase your solution. Most importantly, EVA allows a prospect to assess the value your project creates over and above the value created by any other way that they might choose to spend those same dollars.

And without further ado, here is our current prospect targeting letter:

Dear CEO,

These are tough economic times. Our book might help. Please enjoy the enclosed copy of Selling to Zebras, HOW to CLOSE 90% of the BUSINESS YOU PURSUE FASTER, MORE EASILY, and MORE PROFITABLY.

Account targeting isn’t unique, but our approach is. It’s simple so people will use it. We start with a Zebra – the perfect prospect, and then evaluate all prospects against perfection.

Your sales team is competing for business in a market driven by fear and noise from the current financial crisis. Competition will come from like companies, and from every other alternative use of your prospects available capital. One possible way for your sales team to get past the fear and the difficult economic environment is to create a business case driven by the Economic Value Add (EVA) your solutions create. EVA is probably the most prolific value claim any company can present.

Zebras and EVA create a powerful combination. Would you like to know more? Please read out book and visit our website at www.sellingtozebras.com and our sales blog at http://sellingtozebras.blogspot.com/.

Respectfully,

Jeffrey A. Koser

Founder and CEO

Selling to Zebras, LLC