Is there a Critical Success Factor in any sale – one single element which increases the likelihood you’ll win if it’s there, and almost guarantees you’ll lose it it isn’t?
A friend of mine lost out on an attractive job opportunity when he didn’t answer this question the way his interviewer expected.
How would you have answered? Market leadership, functionality, price, risk management, fashion, return on investment, budget, process, or maybe even good old fashioned luck.
All of these would be true – but the wrong answer.
My friend answered Qualification. By that he meant the sales opportunity had to tick all the boxes. There would be a business imperative – a clear benefit to the buyer which couldn’t be achieved any other way. There would be a budget set aside – the customer can’t buy if there’s no money to pay the bill. There would be an agreed process for selecting the vendor and a time frame. If there’s no date set for the purchase, there is no reason for it to happen.
He’s a sales veteran – been around the block hundreds of times. He knows the pleasure of winning and the pain of losing. He knows what he’s doing. But he didn’t get the job.
The answer the interviewer wanted was?
An Internal Coach – somebody on the inside who knew who she wanted to buy from and would help make the sale happen.
Of course my friend didn’t agree.
Until he thought about it after.
On reflection, it turned out the interviewer and interviewee actually agreed. They just used different language to explain their thinking.
While my friend was convinced he was right, he now understood that other dimension.
From that point on he added another line to his qualification checklist.
“Do We Have An Internal Coach?”
