An excellent post I saw today reminded me of an example of the challenge people sometimes face of doing the right thing when under great pressure.
A sales guy I knew was facing huge pressure from his business to hit his quarterly sales target.
He was working on a big deal with a prospect that was progressing well but not fast enough to close in the current quarter.
This deal would make the difference between hitting and missing his target.
The prospect wanted to go ahead but needed more time to get everyone on board internally in their organisation. They hadn’t bought this type of solution before so it was all new for them.
The salesperson understood but faced a dilemma. After all, he still needed to hit his target and this was the deal that would do it.
He knew his future at this company could depend on it.
So to cut a long story short, he pushed the prospect over the line in time to hit his target. He felt some guilt but the pressure was on!
And then…
He worked tirelessly internally to make sure the prospect didn’t regret their decision.
He spent more time with the prospect’s people than usual, he addressed all their concerns, brought in additional experts, secured the best resources for the implementation and personally attended all the implementation meetings.
In short, he went beyond the normal call of duty to make sure the project was a success.
The moral of the story…
👉 Sometimes, in the heat of battle, we make decisions that we may not otherwise make.
👉 When we do, we need to do all we can to make sure no-one regrets it.
One final point…..this project led to the seller and prospect working together on many other projects over future years.
A sales guy I knew was facing huge pressure from his business to hit his quarterly sales target.
He was working on a big deal with a prospect that was progressing well but not fast enough to close in the current quarter.
This deal would make the difference between hitting and missing his target.
The prospect wanted to go ahead but needed more time to get everyone on board internally in their organisation. They hadn’t bought this type of solution before so it was all new for them.
The salesperson understood but faced a dilemma. After all, he still needed to hit his target and this was the deal that would do it.
He knew his future at this company could depend on it.
So to cut a long story short, he pushed the prospect over the line in time to hit his target. He felt some guilt but the pressure was on!
And then…
He worked tirelessly internally to make sure the prospect didn’t regret their decision.
He spent more time with the prospect’s people than usual, he addressed all their concerns, brought in additional experts, secured the best resources for the implementation and personally attended all the implementation meetings.
In short, he went beyond the normal call of duty to make sure the project was a success.
The moral of the story…
👉 Sometimes, in the heat of battle, we make decisions that we may not otherwise make.
👉 When we do, we need to do all we can to make sure no-one regrets it.
One final point…..this project led to the seller and prospect working together on many other projects over future years.