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November 13, 2009“If we’re not going to win the deal, we might as well get the bad news on Friday, the 13th. At least then I’ll have one easily explainable reason for the loss.”
This quote has been saved just for today. Not often are we able to write quotes about Friday the 13th on a real Friday the 13th. For those of you who suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia, please accept my apologies. I just couldn’t resist.
An informal poll of about fifteen sales people revealed that none of them has ever been asked to stand at the front of a room full of inquiring minds to explain a win. Can you imagine the dour looks from the crowd were such a scenario to take place?
“We won because I did a great job of building a close relationship with the customer,” the salesman would say. His comment would be followed by the engineer saying, “Our victory is directly attributable to a perfect solution architected by my group of geniuses.” The finance manager would then stand with gloom in his eyes and fear on his face. He would conclude the meeting with, “The customer is very happy that our vice-president made the last second sales call to lower our price by twenty percent. Unfortunately, while sales will increase, profit write-offs attributable to this contract begin next month.”
The informal poll also revealed that virtually all of those questioned had experienced the pleasure of formally trying to explain a loss. During a conversation held several years ago, one of our sales folks was perplexed that an announcement had not been made on a contract he was pursuing. While confident in our chances, each passing day without an award in hand left him wondering if he would soon be standing in front of the loss debrief panel. He spoke demurely, “If we’re not going to win the deal, we might as well get the bad news on Friday, the 13th. At least then I’ll have one easily explainable reason for the loss.”
I wondered aloud if it was too late to offer up an arbitrary twenty percent discount.
Craig Halsey
They Said It
November 13, 2009 |
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