Given that it is now the do-or-die Q4 for many companies, I thought this topic was timely. While this occurred several years ago, I remember it like it was yesterday. After months of intense selling, providing technical “demos” and submitting a formal proposal, my client was now bracing for what they believed would be a tough “price only” negotiation with procurement.

They had dealt with this procurement manager when negotiating the pilot program, almost a year previously and committed about every negotiation sin you can name (conceded on price, gave away valuable services for free, etc.—all without trading for anything). To make matters worse, this was the biggest opportunity in the company’s pipeline for Q4…

After months of intense work, your company has developed a new business strategy in response to competitive market forces perhaps in order to boost anemic sales and/or increase lagging profits or enter new markets.  Executives have identified and communicated the strategy (objectives, scope and advantage), Ideal Customer Profile and corresponding desired market segmentation. This, of course, led to a realignment of the sales organization, new sales roles and a change to sales compensation. In addition, the entire Marketing program has been revamped to get the right message out to the target market and to arm the sales force with the appropriate collateral material.

I’m sure most of you have been through some or all these changes in your career – and they can be extremely disruptive, especially to short term sales. No organization undertakes these changes lightly and some do so because they have no choice.  However, the right strategy when well executed, can dramatically change the fortunes of the business. In this post I want to discuss one key aspect of executing a new business strategy that is too often overlooked.