Persuasive Momentum Dead End - a Sales Story

Erik, a sales rep from an enterprise software company was excited about a potentially big opportunity with Joanne, a business manager from a large manufacturing firm. In discovery, Joanne had clearly identified her problem. It was just the type of situation Erik's product could solve.

Joanne was quite excited about Erik's product. He had proven that it was capable of solving her problem. But when Joanne found out that Erik's product was a software product not a services product, she became concerned. She mentioned to Erik that any software she purchased must be on her company's approved software list. The Information Technology group managed that list. The approval process could take from 6 to 12 months.

Erik really didn't want to have to get his software approved by IT. He didn't want to add 9 months onto a sale he thought he could close in two. Erik's company could offer all of the services to customize the product for Joanne's needs. He could show that IT really didn't need to get involved. Joanne's situation was critical. He was confident that he could help Joanne push the sale through.

To help Joanne sell his product to her management, Erik got his services team to build a proof of concept for Joanne. It took them 2 months to spec it out and build it. Joanne and Erik demoed the proof to the management team from Joanne's company.

Management liked the demo. But when they found out that Erik's solution would need to be hosted at their company, they insisted that Joanne run the proposal by IT.

And that is where the momentum died.

IT was annoyed that this situation had not been brought to their attention at the beginning of the sales process. They insisted that the software had to go through their approval process. Then they tried to stonewall even that.