I would like to continue our discussion about the must-win deals that are the key to hitting our number for any given quarter and any given fiscal year. We began by reviewing the questions from the last blog that haunt sales management and executives—THE QUESTIONS THAT HAUNT.  In this blog we’ll delve deeper into the question ‘Is the opportunity real?’

I am purposely steering away from the concept of “qualified” as I’ve found it to be contentious at best and something that varies greatly from company to company as well as within the sales organization of any given company. Instead we’ll explore something a little bit less controversial—what makes an opportunity “real”. By “real” I mean is the customer prepared to commit resources if a viable solution is found? This is an insight that should be important to any sales leader. There are several key components that make an opportunity “real” which we’ll explore.

It is the nature of B2B selling that any given quarter as well as any given fiscal year is dependent on a handful of must-win deals. This is simply a manifestation of the Pareto Principle which is better known as the 80/20 rule or the law of the vital few. Where approximately 80% of the effects (bookings) come from 20% of the causes (opportunities).  This has been well documented in many human endeavors. You can see this type of distribution in a single sales territory, district, region, country and even the global corporation.  It is inescapable.