Five Lessons Learned from the 8 Figure Sale

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan
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Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving - By Dave Kurlan

Here's a debriefing scenario that's hot off the presses.

Last week, an 8 figure deal was scheduled to close at the end of the month.

History - The sales team has pursued this Fortune 500 existing client for 20 months. They have been doing business together for 10 years. The basic terms of the deal have been in place for 90 days and the client had signed a letter of intent 90 days ago. The deal was negotiated 'round the clock for the last two weeks and the 76th version of the proposal was brought to the CFO for approval on Friday. Sound good so far?

The CFO, the final decision maker, was not involved in the final negotiations and was not aware of the compelling reasons, quantification, cost justification or urgency to proceed. The urgency was the sales team's urgency to get it closed before the end of their quarter, not the client's urgency. The 150 plus page proposal was brought to him at 5 PM on Friday and he had 30 minutes to make a decision. In light of the limited time to make a high 8-figure decision and his lack of awareness of the cost justification for the purchase, what do you think he said?

The Sales Team? They invested 20 months and lived and breathed this opportunity for the last 90 days to the exclusion of everything else. They were devastated.

The Client? They didn't get what they wanted but life goes on.

The Lessons? The five big ones follow:

1) The final decision maker must be the one to negotiate the deal - if it's not his deal, how can he say yes?

2) If the proposal is 150 pages, it will take more than 30 minutes to review it.

3) I don't care if the opportunity is with the Fortune 1. High 8 figures is high 8 figures. The CFO's role is to protect the profit and cash flow of the enterprise. The CFO won't say yes if he only has 30 minutes to decide.

4) If you bring a decision-maker into the process when you are between third base and home and he hasn't been deeply involved in the process, retreat back to 2nd base, review how you got to 2nd, review how you got to 3rd, and only then is it OK to present your solution, not the proposal. If he is OK with the solution, then you can provide a copy of the proposal, the solution formalized in writing.

5) Your deadline to get a deal closed has nothing to do with the customer's urgency or lack of it. It's all about them, not you, and closing must take place on their timeline, not yours.

What did you learn from this case history that you can apply to your business? Send your lessons or questions to me for possible inclusion in a future Baseline Selling Tip.

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Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving - By Dave Kurlan

About the Author: Dave Kurlan

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Dave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development. He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling (Dan Seidman), Stepping Stones (Deepak Chopra and Brian Tracey) and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2 (David Riklan).
Click here to visit Dave's website.

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