An executive I know told me recently that a new vice president of sales had joined his firm the previous summer and launched a process to hire a new sales training firm.
The SVP’s preference was for a company he had experience working with. He and the decision-making team evaluated that firm and one other company (neither of which was mine). They went thru their Research and Comparison steps, requested in-person presentations, and then got the sales proposals.
Their first choice wanted over $2 million! Ouch! They decided to delay the purchase since they didn’t have $2 million in the budget. That delay gave me time to get back in the door.
What’s ironic about the two companies that lost out is that the sales methods they teach includes an early step of defining if the budget had been approved for this investment. Not only had the budget not been approved in this case, but the customer had no clue how much the solution would cost. And yet both sales training companies proceeded with the sales process, flying teams thousands of miles to deliver big presentations. What a waste.
