Selling in a Recession: Avoid the Cesspool

Selling in a Reccsion is different. Just because you won the selection process doesn't mean you have won the deal. At this point you are only half way home because there is an another equally challenging sales process ahead, actually getting the purchase order or contract signed!!! READ 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.

   

Because of this elaborate sign off procedure, 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. During a recession you should expect every purchase approval to take three to four times longer than normal. Because every organization exercises another excrutiating level of dilligence to ascertain whether or not the purchase is absolutley necessary.

Tip: During a Recession you must always ascertain the customer’s procurement process with the same diligence you devote to understanding the customer’s selection process

Comments

[wannadevelop.com]

I agree with you 100% -- very good write up, makes sense :)