The Year End Cesspool

December is the most important sales month of the year? Make sure you don't get stuck in the Year End Cesspool like Brian’s story below…”                  

    

Brian was presenting his forecast in front of his teammates and was explaining why a deal that he had originally forecasted to close in the quarter came in three months later. Here’s his story.

    

Brian was excited that the account he had worked on for months had selected his software solution. After several weeks of ensuing price negotiations, a $300,000 purchase order was submitted into the customer’s capital expenditure software system (referred to by the customer internally as the “CES system”). Since several weeks were left in the quarter, Brian expected that he would receive the purchase order well before the quarter’s cutoff.

    

In Brian’s mind the deal was done. The purchase order would be printed and signed and he forecasted the deal accordingly. However, Brian was quite surprised to learn that the rules-based CES system required that a purchase of that magnitude be approved by twenty-one different people. The purchase order had entered the cesspool of order approval.

   

Between vacations and busy schedules, it would take another three months before all twenty-one signatures were gathered. In the meantime, Brian embarrassingly had to explain to his manager why a deal he had positively guaranteed would close wouldn’t.

   

His assumption about the purchase order turnaround time was dead wrong. If only he’d had the foresight to ask about the details of the procurement process before he committed the deal on his forecast.

Tip: Always ascertain the customer’s procurement process with the same diligence you devote to understanding the customer’s selection process