Why Do Sales Teams Win? – Fix Problems Now (5-10)

As mentioned, I’m going to present reasons why companies win and lose sales deals. These reasons were outlined by Ron Sathoff, a colleague of mine, in a great article for SAMA magazine called “Five Ways to Bolster Your Strategic Account Strategy, and Five Ways to Sabotage it.” (The article is available for download HERE)

This article was written to help answer the ultimate sales question, “How can we win a lot more deals?” In order to find the answer, Ron started by addressing the questions, “Why do we win and why do we lose?” Each of these points were taken from a library of thousands of win loss sales debriefs and compiled into performance rankings.

5. Address needs and problems before they become disasters.

With any account, it is inevitable that problems will occur. According to the interview responses, what distinguished a strong account strategy from a weak one was how the SAM addressed these problems. Respondents indicated that openness about problems, and a proactive approach to addressing them, overcame any negative impressions that came from the problem itself.

In one set of interviews, respondents discussed how their chosen supplier addressed a serious problem. This supplier, rather than trying to hide the problems of its project or offering a bandage approach by fixing symptomatic problems only as they appeared, stopped the project so that it could address the fundamental issues completely. While this caused some initial disappointment, the supplier actually gained in credibility with its decision:

“We thought [Company 1] was showing its partnership ability by being more open than some of the other suppliers. I would rather have my suppliers say, ’OK, we have a problem and we have to fix it,’ than just pretend it is not there, which makes us suffer through it. So, I appreciate the supplier’s honesty. I feel it was the right thing to do, and that [Company 1] is the right partner.”

Respondents explained that the supplier’s openness in addressing the problem prevented a much larger delay from occurring later on. In addition, this approach demonstrated the supplier’s dedication to the success of the project and the customers’ satisfaction.

As an added benefit, using this approach also tells customers that any future difficulties will be handled in an open and professional manner, easing any fears that they may have about getting into a situation where they will not receive support. If they know that their problems will be solved, they will be more confident about the offering and the supplier, and more likely to report difficulties, which can help account managers prevent similar problems occurring with other customers.