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I had this deal I felt pretty confident about. We had had a few meetings already. I was hoping to get a verbal confirmation on this one. I walked into the prospect's office and he was there with another guy sitting in the room. I introduced myself. I figured he was another decision maker I hadn't met yet. I was very wrong. It turns out, he was a sales rep for one of our competitors. Once I sat down, the prospect said, "Alright, I'm going to give you each 15 minutes and after that. I will decide who to go with. Who wants to go first?"
I was completely blindsided. I glanced at the other rep and he seemed equally confused. I panicked and volunteered to go first, which turned out to be a mistake. I went through all the reasons why we were the right fit. I didn't even mention the competitor. I felt like I did a good job under the circumstances. But by going first I gave the other rep the opportunity to refute some of the points I was making and talk about why they were actually a better fit than us. The prospect said he was going with the competitor and asked me to leave. I went back to the office and told my manager about it. He took it pretty well and said "maybe we dodged a bullet." Maybe we did, but I missed my quota that month because of it.
Anonymous Location withheld
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I was heading to pitch to this HUGE potential client (we're talking a $2 million contract) when I realized halfway there that I'd left my laptop back at my hotel. There was no time to go back and get it. I seriously considered faking a family emergency or telling them I had food poisoning. Anything to reschedule. But I decided to just wing it.
When I walked into the boardroom with six executives staring at me, I decided to just come clean. "Look,” I said. “My laptop is currently enjoying an extended stay at the hotel. But maybe this is a good thing. Instead of me showing you slides about what I THINK you need, why don't you tell me about the challenges you're actually facing?"
The silence that followed was deafening. I tried to recover by asking about their pain points, but the CFO glanced at his watch and said: "We've already discussed our challenges extensively. Today was meant to show us exactly how your solution addresses them. We've got three other vendors presenting this week, we'll let you know." He got up and walked out of the room. I stood there embarrassed and everyone in the room just kind of looked around for a minute. Then my point of contact in the room said, "I guess that's it for today," and walked me out of the building.
Anonymous Location withheld
A few years ago, I arrived at the office of a prospect. It was the first in-person meeting, but we had a handful of good calls and I was looking to close the deal. I asked the admin who was showing me around where the bathroom was. I went inside and started to whisper some positive affirmations to myself in the mirror. It sounds silly, but they really do help me. I kept repeating, "You're a professional and you're going to close this deal."
After about a minute, I heard a toilet flush and a guy walked out and started washing his hands next to me. I wasn't sure if he had heard me until he looked at me with a smile and said, "Good luck," before walking out. I was super embarrassed but didn't let it throw me off my game. This was until I walked into the meeting room and the guy was sitting in there.
It turned out he was the general counsel for the company. I was shaken at first, but he didn't say anything. He just smirked at me and gave me an approving head nod. I don't know why, but it seemed like he was rooting for me. I'm guessing he must have been in sales at some point in his career. I went ahead with my pitch. I didn't close them that day but got the signature two weeks later. Now I do my affirmations in the car.
Anonymous Location withheld
