Sales Chump

As sales people sometimes we just push forward so fast we don’t even remember the last sale we made.  When it’s a big sale it’s a little easier to remember and recollect your thoughts on how that sale made you feel.  Today I write about a big fish that I was able to reel in and it gives off that “new sale smell”.

I tend to work with larger corporations that have big name recognition.  Now this has it’s pro’s and con’s.  The sales cycle is typically a lot longer but the payoff is much greater and the name recognition that it brings to the company get’s the executives talking.

Well after several months and working with legal departments revision after revision for the contracts needed, we finally were able to seal the deal with a signature.  The selling of the product was done well before the deal was finalized.

I know it sounds cliche to say “it’s not about price” but in this instance the value was placed equally on price as well as the terms of the deal.  It wasn’t so much about the price of the product but more of the willingness for my company to sacrifice some of their terms and conditions as well as our soon to be customer’s terms and conditions. There were definitely negotiations and deal making but it was never involving the price.

I don’t look back much on my sales but ever so oftern you get that one that makes you think back to what got you the deal as you sit down and your desk still has that new sale smell.

This is my own personal success story.  This sale didn’t look like it was coming in at all even though I completed a full sales process and everything made sense.  I was getting a little flustered as it didn’t make sense to me why they weren’t signing the paperwork.  I had to take a new look on the prospect and think to myself “What am I missing? Why haven’t they signed yet?”

The answer wasn’t the standard reasoning.  They liked the product, they trusted me, it saved them money and made sense.  The reason was I hadn’t related to what was going on in their business.  I called on a Monday and my goal was to figure out what was going on with them, what was at the top of their priority list.

Come to find out they were back logged with year end reporting and had just received September reports in December.  I immediately changed my tone and my approach with this.  I showed sincere thoughts about what the person must be going through with this backed up paperwork they had to sift through.

I said “I can only imagine what your desk must look like right now.  I apologize that I’ve been trying to get you to look at something like this at a time where you have many more important things to get done first. I know you’re going to have to get this paperwork for your other reports done before the holidays before even taking a look at my paperwork so I’ll contact you after the holidays and give you a chance to get caught up”.

Low and behold, the next day I had my agreement delivered the next morning.  It was unexpected.  What caused this to happen?  The sincere approach about was important to them got my paperwork moved to the top of the list.  They realized I didn’t care just about myself that I had genuine interest in what goes on in there business and was willing to push my items to the back burner while they took care of things that were more high priority.  This in return resulted in getting attention.

Now this approach doesn’t always work and wouldnt’ be something that you should try out of the gate.  But when you’ve done everything else and they want to do business with you, sometimes taking a step back and letting them know that you aren’t desperate for their business can have the reverse effect and have them pushing you.  In this instance it worked.