Believing that all opportunities are created equal and are worth pursuing is the other major pitfall that hinders selling effectiveness. Let’s take a look at how this commonly plays out in many major firms.
I was coaching a team at Andersen Consulting several years ago that was sent a “blind” RFP from one of the largest Consumer Packaged Goods companies in the world. This was likely a $60M + opportunity and the pursuit team was intent on bidding for the work.
The Red Flags: We had few executive relationships, the prospect wouldn’t give us access to information on their business case or value proposition, and Ernst and Young had won every major IT project at this company for the past 10 years (the CIO, Controller, and CFO were all E&Y alumni).
Should we have proceeded?
Only if we could get the rules of engagement changed or if we were willing to be the stocking horse for the competition. Sound familiar?
The last four major consulting/professional services firms I have worked with in the recent past have universally had little, or in some cases, no widely accepted and implemented opportunity qualification criteria established. I suspect smaller firms are often guilty of the same oversight.
You might be surprised at the number of deal coaching engagements that we get involved with at our clients where we find out, often at the end of the pursuit, that the firm had no logical reason to spend hundreds of man hours and tens of thousands of dollars in pursuits that they had no reasonable opportunity to win.
Coming Next Week: Don’t waste any more time! How to be strategic about assessing opportunities.