DEALING WITH GIANTS: When to Hold and When to Fold

Dealing With Giants

with Claudine Halpern

Next Steps
Getting closer to the Close...When to Hold and When to Fold

It’s time to think about what to do next, you’ve planned the meeting, and executed the meeting plan, is it in your company's best interest to proceed?

Remember, YOU OWN THE SALES PROCESS, you have an absolute RIGHT and RESPONSIBILITY to make the smart decisions about going forward with the BIG BOY prospect. Not every prospect is good for the company, every sales encounter, whether it comes to fruition or not, costs you time and by default costs you money, and that money adds up.

Like every other decision that you make for your business now is a good time to do your first Risk/Reward assessment. We will do more of these as we move forward but lets do the first one together.

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How do you know if you should continue with this BIG BOY prospect? You don’t. Though by now you will be able to tell if you should stop here. DON’T CHASE A DUD CUSTOMER, they will drive you crazy and bleed you dry.

Let’s talk about some signs that point toward the exit.

1) Rudeness; Your BIG BOY prospect is rude, I mean really rude. Some people are rude to children and small cute animals. If a prospect is particularly rude, to you or to anyone else, think about the cost to your company. Rudeness is strange behavior; sometimes people will use rudeness as a cover for self-loathing, boredom, lack of motivation or any other possible negative feelings. Some business sectors actually expect certain amount of rudeness, if that’s the case then watch and see if the rudeness is cultural or personal.

I was a consultant on a major financial firm’s equity trading floor ten years ago. I had a client who was not only rude to me, he was rude to his junior staff, the people who cleaned the floors, the people who made the coffee and anyone else who got in his way. He also had the misfortune of having toilet mouth, which embarrassed the young people who worked for him and everyone else. He was a big money maker for the firm and they gave him too much leeway.

I told him that when he saw me coming he should picture his mother, and if he wouldn’t say or behave that way in front of his mother, it was unacceptable to me as well. Well I’m a tall woman, I used to watch him open his mouth, stop, look for me, and if he saw me he started behaving properly, if not his toilet mouth returned. About a year later I saw a picture of this guy in a perp walk, he was accused of aggravated sexual harassment and went to jail. Karma comes around.

Long story short, if a BIG BOY is so rude that he makes you, or any of your people feel uncomfortable, walk away, fold.

2) Excessive Neediness; There are people who can never see the positive side of anything, they whine, complain, constantly vent and call you all the time to talk about their terrible lives. Think about this person as a customer, is there any way that you will be able to satisfy this person with your goods or service, or will you get a small sale and have a huge customer service problem, walk away, fold.

3) Totally Unqualified: This BIG BOY is unqualified to make the purchase and won’t introduce you to his boss’s boss who may or may not be qualified. This BIG BOY likes the attention, make sure that you are dealing with a potentially qualified prospect. This does not mean that you don’t talk to the lower people to get to the higher ones, but when the lower person is a blocker but not a facilitator, you will not get past him, walk away, fold.

In this case you want to get the name of the qualified person, walk away for a bit, and try to find a way to get directly to the qualified BIG BOY.

4) Fails the Smell Test: Something smells, I mean something really smells. You have a very bad feeling about it. You are uncomfortable because the BIG BOY is not behaving in a legal or ethical manner, for example if he asks you for up front money or favors.

I used to be the person who interviewed the trainee technical people at a firm that I worked for many years ago. We made a habit of hiring second career people who had retrained as they had life experience that very often made them more motivated employees. I was asked to interview a second cousin twice removed of one of the senior managers for an open position that I had. As with most technical spots, I did a technical interview and this guy did not answer one question correctly, needless to say this was going to be a short interview. I was about to show him out. He pulled a roll of hundreds from his pocket and told me he would make it worth my while and started counting the benjamins. I stepped out, called security and had him removed from the building. He was lucky I didn’t call the cops.

Anything illegal, unlawful or unethical will affect your company negatively, walk away, fold.

Next Articles: Next steps, Getting closer to the Close, How to Follow Up, Moving Forward, Getting a Handshake Agreement

Claudine Y. Halpern, President, The YCH Group, Inc.

Claudine Halpern is a chameleon; she has worked in many different situations during her more than twenty-five years in business; as a management consultant, Claudine advised many of the major brokerage, insurance, and financial houses, completing more than fifteen major corporate initiatives during the past ten years. As a crisis manager for major corporations, Claudine successfully brought in projects and products that other firms would not touch. As a specialist in business and management consultancy, Claudine consults to emerging businesses across the spectrum.

email chalpern@theychgroup.com

http://ychmagicclaudinehalpern.blogspot.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/claudinehalpern

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DEALING WITH GIANTS: When to Hold and When to Fold