The Infinitely Small Nuances of Sales Meetings

In a recent sales opportunity interviewed by Primary Intelligence, we found that a point as small as the introduction process should not be discounted. (For more on this sales opportunity, please see my post from 5/9/2007

Do you have any comments regarding the vendors’ in-person presentations?
“They were very good. It was a very tough decision. The presentations when they came in here were just fine; when we went into their facilities, things were just set up differently.

“At Trilight, we went in and we sat and chatted, but we also walked around more and met the person that we would be working with in each area there. It was like a round robin tour. At Manifesto, we did do a tour of their facility, but all of the meeting basically took place in one room. We could ask questions of the experts and they would come and go. Sometimes when you're walking around it's hard to focus because there's so much going on.

“When we did the tour with Trilight, we knew where we were going, but I don't think we realized what was coming next. When we were at Manifesto, we had an agenda, and we went through it. In hindsight, Trilight’s way seems to be a little more efficient, with Tracy answering all the questions, but I think that's where the team got the feeling that Tracy had all the knowledge, not her team.”

The most important thing here is that Trilight had information that would have told them that a sit-down meeting would be more beneficial, but the value of that information was discounted to the point that they made the wrong decision. Ultimately, this mistake essentially cost them a very large bit of business.

If you want to know the right moves to make, you need to talk to Primary Intelligence. Helping sales teams sell more is what we do. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Clients are Not Stuck in Today

If you have ever had to worry about this quarter’s numbers (and what sales rep hasn’t), it is easy to lose sight of the long-term picture. But, I guarantee that the client has very little interest in the next 90 days. They are talking to you with a year, two or five in mind.

In the example below, our client, Trilight, lost a deal, even though they were comparable in most every way. Primary Intelligence learned the reason why:

What were the primary reasons you did not select Trilight?

“Actually, the decision came down to the very end. Everything seemed to be very similar. We felt, and this was a team decision, that Manifesto had the depth and breadth to do the job. We thought that our account exec at Trilight was phenomenal. We knew she could get the job done, but we weren't sure about the actual corporation or the company. With Manifesto, we were more impressed with the company than the account execs. There wasn't a point of improvement or anything at that point.”

What were the primary reasons you selected Manifesto?

“They presented to us differently. We went to on-site visits at Trilight and at Manifesto. When we went to BI, the difference was we saw more of what they could do for us. We toured their buildings and stuff, but it was more than that. They brought representatives for each department into the room to present. They would come in and do their key element and then leave. At Trilight, we walked around and we saw a lot, but Kelly answered all the questions for the most part, not the so-called experts in that area.

“Manifesto’s method was more appealing because we could see that there was a team of other people to do the work. Our account executive at Trilight, Kelly, was wonderful. She knew everything from front to back, but if Kelly ever left, we didn't know what would happen. Could the other people do the work? We knew she could; she's been there since the start of her career and she's grown up there, but we didn't know, if she decided to leave the company, that they could do as good of a job as she did.”

While Trilight had equivalent services and a good relationship, they lost because the sales experience did not convince the client that they would have adequate resources to service them over the long haul.

Moral of the story: Think long-term with your prospects. You can talk about the price they will pay today, but it is better to show how valuable you will be to them over years of service.

If you have a thought, let me know (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

You Got a Check. Did You Really Win?

In last week’s post, I gave an example of a company that won a deal, but learned something very important about its pricing structure.

Below, I’m going to share a little more about the deal. After reviewing this information, tell me if you think this company is winning business or not.

“They don’t demonstrate their products. I have never met a representative from FlashNet* in person, and that has a lot to do with my rating. They have never shown up. They are definitely not getting the share of business that they could get because of it. I can guarantee it. “I’ll give you an example: we bought a 20 TB storage area network. 10 TB is currently installed, and were looking at upgrading it. They’re in the storage networking business, so they wouldn’t come see us; they were not even in the list of potential vendors because of that reason. It’s that simple.

“Lunch meetings do make business. They have never visited us. I’ll give you an example: I probably spend about $1 million to $2 million in Cisco equipment a year. Last year, I only spent about $60,000 with FlashNet; this year, I probably spent about $200,000 with them. For the last four years, they have only had a small portion of my overall Cisco business, and when you look at it from an enterprise perspective—for example, we just spent $20 million on a new clinical information system—out of $20 million, FlashNet received no money from that project. We have a budget of $30 million, and FlashNet received just $60,000 of that. It’s because they will not fly anybody out here.

“They don’t have a presence out here, and that’s unfortunate for them. They are a good vendor; it’s unfortunate that they will not come out to meet their customers.”

*Name changed to maintain confidentiality

The fact of the matter is that FlashNet got a check and sold some stuff, but they received less than 1% of the total budget and 0% of a project where they had a potentially strong solution. FlashNet is probably getting a little money just because it is an incumbent in some part of the client's business.

This is probably not a unique case. How many times is FlashNet losing because of a short-sighted decision not to travel and visit? There may be logistical reasons, but this client is located in a suburb of Portland, Oregon; hardly the backwaters of the B2B sales world. Last I checked, Portland has an airport and rental car services.

Do you think that FlashNet will make any changes to its processes based on the information above? I hope so. I hope this information goes to the executive level rather than being shelved with all of the other dusty reports. I’ll probably never know. But, if I were an exec, this is the kind of intelligence I would need.

I would stop high-fiving the sales guy for winning $60K and start asking questions about why we’re not taking $5M.

If you feel differently, or if I’m missing something, let me know (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

And, if you want this type of intelligence on your new customers and lost prospects, Primary Intelligence does this kind of stuff every day.