When The Prospect Says We'll Call You

We’re in “Death Valley“. Selling our way out of it isn’t going to be easy!

We’ve arrived here because we did everything right – pitched the right proposition at the right people, made the shortlist, delivered the proposal and presented to the selection panel.

Maybe there are a couple of things we weren’t able to do – Recruit a Coach, Agree a Buy/Sell Process, established ourselves as preferred vendor. We tried but just couldn’t get to those jewels.

So now we have to sit and wait. We have no idea what tricks the competition is pulling. We don’t know how the internal politics are shaping up. Might as well move on to the next deal. Whether this deal comes in is gonna be luck from here on in.

Apart from kicking ourselves in the rear, because we should never have let this happen, there must be something we can do to stay in the conversation. And there is.

First up we have to face reality. If we aren’t in control of this deal somebody else is – either the prospect ( which is bad) or a competitor (which is worse).

Now is the time to take risks because whatever we do isn’t as risky as doing what the prospect tells us.

We have to change the rules of the game. We have to find a reason for some additional benefit suddenly arising. We have to be positive, and whatever it is, it has to add value to what we’ve already said.

At this point we’re into pure tactics. Every case will be different, but here are some tricks we might pull to get back into the conversation:

1) Our CEO is planning on visiting our office and wants to meet with some prospects.
2) Our technology guru is in town – she knows what’s coming down the track.
3) We have a new reference customer who has already solved issues our prospect is facing.
4) Tickets for a ball game, or concert or political dinner have suddenly become available.
5) Management has authorized a new level of “relationship” which will change the fundamentals of our proposal.

These are just some examples of what might work to get us back into the dialog.

Can you suggest others to be added to the list?

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