Recently I’ve been hired to consult on three major pitches, all of which required the client to transition from a longstanding incumbent to the shiny, new supplier.

Unfortunately so many deals are still lost after months of blood, sweat and beers because the new supplier just couldn’t get them over the hump.

In light of this I’ve revised and updated my article  ‘James in Sales: A Personal Story’ to help ensure you have the best possible chance of having the client say ‘Yep, we’re throwing the comfy shoes out and putting yours on’

Here it is:

James walked past the overgrown front lawn and didn’t even notice the front door was already open. His 14 year old daughter was on her way out yet again to a friend’s house.

Loosening his tie, he whispered to his wife in the kitchen ‘Have you paid the school fees yet?’

It was the third time in 2 years he had failed to win the new accounts he had forecast to his APAC boss. It’s not just baseball that has a three strikes policy. He despaired at the thought of yet another bloody round of soul destroying conversations with recruiters.

James opened the fridge looking for the remnants of the previous night’s bottle of wine and found an Asahi instead. As the brew soothed the back of his throat he agonised again as to why he lost yet another deal.

He had 15 years experience, won awards and even went on Safari as a top achiever just 3 years ago.

He had managed the CRM, followed the sales methodology he’d been taught, discussed the value proposition and politics of the account with his boss. The technical consultants spent weeks proving the solution worked and he was pretty sure the client had budget. So, what went wrong…again?

He couldn’t write this one off as ‘you win some, lose some’

What James didn’t know was that the decision maker, Steve was a CIO who was more out of his depth than he imagined. He hadn’t delivered on three previous projects, was over budget and just had two key resources depart on maternity leave. In addition, he had a child at home who needed more time as he was behind at school with a learning difficulty.

James uncovered the business drivers, budgets, buying processes but he hadn’t really had the frank discussion about two key things. Transition and Steve’s personal situation.

In the end, as much as Steve wanted new systems, he couldn’t commit to the time, head space, process change and responsibility of something new.

He stayed with the status quo and allocated all of his remaining budget to the incumbent.

So, what could James have done?

  • Asked the hard questions early and often to uncover Steve’s predicament, rather than gloss over the apparent niggling lack of assuredness that Steve exhibited.
  • Spent less time using the pre-sales resources and more time using his own CFO or CEO to create peer to peer relationships and understanding.
  • Asked Steve to commit budget for all the pre-sales consulting work rather than seeing it as ‘free to be in the game’.
  • Presented transition in a way that Steve would have seen as easier than he thought with the risk transferred to the vendor as opposed to the scary 19 point transition and assumptions check list that was in the proposal.
  • Created a video of his company’s key transition people explaining how keen, knowledgeable, well resourced and ready they were to work on the project and how easy they were going make it.
  • Arranged an existing senior client to meet Steve for a genuine one on one without James.
  • Arranged a personalised letter from his CEO to Steve with his personal guarantee of resources and the success of the project.

James could have simply seen Steve and his business for what they really were, rather than what he hoped they’d be.

What would you have done if you were James?

Written by Elliot Epstein, CEO, Salient Communication

Elliot Epstein is a leading Sales Expert, Pitch Consultant, Keynote Speaker and Corporate Trainer who gets sales results rapidly. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching. He has spoken at over 1500 conferences and workshops for leading companies such as HP, SEEK, Avaya, Hitachi , Computershare and Lend Lease.

 He is internationally renowned for ensuring sessions are creative, engaging, interactive and relevant to winning business in competitive markets.

 Elliot is based in Melbourne where he lives with his wife and two bewildered children who are subjected to reading this article before you.