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350 The Rule Of Three

350 The Rule Of Three

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 350 The Rule Of Three Our financial year ended in August and we were up over 20% on the previous year’s revenue results. I should have been ebullient, chipper, sanguine, fired up for the new year, but I wasn’t. Was it because we were back to zero again, as we all faced the prospect of the new financial year? That sinking feeling of , “last year was hard and here we go again, but this time with an even higher target”. Maybe that was it, but it was hard to tell. There were three other things which were gnawing away at me, regarding incidents which happened the previous week. Sales is an emotional roller coaster, we all know that. Well knowing that and being able to deal with the emotional downers is another thing altogether. I am a positive, upbeat person, for whom the glass is always half full. My glass got severely drained and it is still bugging me. I had a pitch for a client’s business to help their sale’s effort. Actually they said they wanted a “transformation programme”. I had met the CEO previously and had understood what he was after. I came back to him with a comprehensive proposal. In the interim, a new HR person was recruited and I was informed were now going to have a five entrant beauty parade. They had various needs. They wanted transformation for their senior leaders, middle level sales managers and also wanted an internal trainer-the-trainer functionality, because the size of their sale force. That cost would preclude an externally delivered vendor solution. I gave them that transformation formula. I even brought all of the training materials to the pitch, so they could see the professionalism we offer. I went through in detail what each group would need if they wanted to transform the business. That week the HR guy wrote to me and said we didn’t get the business. I had no idea why, but I did know I wouldn’t find out the real reason by talking to the HR guy. All I would get would be vagary. I needed to seek out the CEO directly and get some feedback. We rarely ever lose pitches, so I was a bit perplexed. To be honest, my ego was bruised, hurting and I found this news depressing. The point here is that although I know intellectually, that sales is an emotional rollercoaster, it doesn’t make much difference in the moment when you don’t get the deal. The second piece of bad news was a delay in commencing a project. I had done a similar project for their company and they asked me to come back and do another one. That last project was a real nightmare. I was dealing with a young staff member who proved to be very demanding and sucked up a lot more of my time than was expected. Frequent changes were de rigueur and often without much actual requirement, except for whim. Frankly, I was a bit gun shy to go again. However, it was a different member of staff this time, again quite young, but I agreed. Deja vu. Very demanding, very picky, but despite recurring nightmares about last time, I decided I wouldn’t throw in the towel and would tough it out. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger type of thing. Then I got the email telling me to put the project on hold. I am guessing they were shopping the project around and were putting me on ice. I was wondering what was the issue? Was this a generational thing? Both individuals were quite young in business. You have to have some degree of experience, to have perspective and to know how to judge what you are looking at. Is this why there is a gap between what we were both looking at? Another deeper thought occurred to me. Am I secretly blowing it up, because I actually I don’t want to do it? I know how much time it required last time and it looked like we were going down the exact same path again? I was wondering, what was my psychology here? Was I trying to get out of doing it? Or was I too old and inflexible to deal with these demanding young whippersnapper pups? That was a depressing prospect. The third one was a case of sports negotiating. This is an ego trip for buyers, who like to see who is the sheik of the souk, the biggest wheeler and dealer, the cleverest negotiator, the bargain hunter extraordinaire. They like to play a little game of “beat down the supplier” to show how tough they are. Okay, you do run into that from time to time, but on this occasion it came from an unexpected source. You meet people in business who are attractive, charismatic, your type of person. This buyer was like that. We have a lot in common and I like the cut of his jib. He asked for some training previously and I sent him my proposal. He came back with a counter offer that was at a steep discount. I like the guy and reluctantly agreed, because it was the first business with his company. I thought , “well once he experiences our quality, he will pay the right price”. My big mistake right there. So I delivered the training and then ...
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