Top 8 Reasons Your Biggest Sale May Not be Your Best Sale

  • July 12, 2011
  • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
  • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

Sometimes your biggest sale isn’t your best sale.  When biggest isn’t best, sometimes it is because:

  • it was anti-climactic.
  • it was too easy to win.
  • there was a lack of competition or resistance.
  • the account was a nightmare to manage.
  • it wasn’t profitable enough
  • it couldn’t be leveraged
  • it wasn’t fun
  • you didn’t like each other
On the other hand, a relatively small or medium size sale might feel like your best sale ever because the factors above were not present and the challenge of winning the business was incredibly difficult.
Anyone who has run a company, or been in sales, sales management or sales leadership for any significant length of time, finally creates (or stumbles upon) the significant opportunity we are discussing and closes it (with or without help).  The point of today’s post is, what one thing or combination of things was it that earned you the business on your terms?  Was it:
  • a magical question
  • the relationship
  • the product
  • the value proposition
  • their perception of you
  • their perception of your company
  • the questions you asked early on
  • your reputation
  • your follow through
  • your persistance
  • your expertise
  • your ability to lower resistance
  • your ability to get an audience high in the organization
  • your positioning and posturing
  • a powerful introduction
  • an effective cold call
  • use of sales 2.0
  • your qualifying
  • your presentation
  • a successful demo
  • a chance meeting
  • a terrific reference
  • no other options
  • your ability to get them to discredit the competition
  • your ability to uncover their compelling reasons to buy
  • your ability to create urgency
  • your ability to execute the sales process
Great Price isn’t on the list and won’t be.  That’s not selling, it’s caving in, and it’s the formula for short-term, unprofitable business.  Share this list with your salespeople to discover if there is a common theme to how they won the significant business.  Learn whether they might have strayed from those items on the list in scenarios when they failed to win the significant business.
Sometimes it is as simple as connect the dots.  Faithfully follow the process and it will lead you to a successful outcome.  Sometimes a single question makes all the difference.  It always takes thorough preparation, focus, listening, questioning, commitment, flexibility, awareness and readiness.