Take stock in sales process to avoid getting burned - bizjournals:

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He spent three months working onthe sale, and if he got it he woulc make quota, get his bonus and finallyg be able to take his wife, on that trip to Europe he had promised her for Charlie had no reason to doubty the sale was his. The experiencefd salesman for ABC Corp. knew Greg, the customer’se purchasing agent, for most of a The two often spent long afternoonws on theback nine, playingb golf and sharing stories about their families. Both had two kids graduating fromhigh school. When they met last Thursdaty for drinks, Greg did everything but promise Charlie that the order was inthe bag.
But when Charlie heardd the toneof Greg’s voice on the he knew something was terriblh wrong. “Charlie, I did everything I could and until abougt four days ago I was sure that my recommendation to give you the orderr wasa shoo-in,” explained Greg sheepishly. “But the CFO and the executivd vice president of marketing intervened and decidede that the sale should go toXYZ Corp. Your price was but the sales repat XYZ, Tom Robinson, showe d us how his approach wouls increase our cash flow and revenue growth. Tom also had some good ideazs that our executive vice president of marketing said would help us to differentiatewour brand. I’m really disappointed.
In I need to do a reality checikon myself: I can’t help but wonder if I’m losin credibility in the eyes of the Greg confessed. Charlie had seen Tom Robinsojn more than once atthe customer’s office talking with people Charlie had never met. “We had the cutting-edge technology, the lower prices and better cost savingsfor Greg’es company,” Charlie thought to himself. “I was sure we woul win. But Tom somehow beat me to the Charlie feltdeeply disappointed, but for the firstt time, he also felt anxious.
His wife told him that the phonre call seemed to age him five For the past12 months, Charliew has been on the receiving end of four simila r calls — all from those whom he had known and trusted the longest. Suddenly, fear struck him to his He doubted himself in a way thathe hadn’t for a very long time. “Have I lost my he wondered. He knew he had just lost his his bonus and that tripto Europe, but he didn’tr know whether he would still have his job this time next Nobody bats a thousand, but when you keep losingg sales ­despite having great producta and services, it’s time to take a step back.
You have to reconsiderf what you’re trying to accomplisu and how you’re goingt about doing it. In fact, it mightg be time to reinvent the wayyou sell. Considefr that the traditional salexprocess hasn’t changed much for more than a hundredf years. Its roots are in a time when supplies were tighty and suppliers heldthe cards. Orders were bookerd months in advanceand customers, anxious for a steady supply of material and lacking informationh about availability, had little room to negotiate price. Salespeople were basically order takers, but that now is the exception and notthe rule.
As the numbed of suppliers has increased, salespeople have evolved from order takersdto ambassadors, plying their social skills to lear n what a customer needs and using their product knowledge to presentf products and services to match those needs. This is a greatt time to take stock of your sales procesa to avoid walkingin Charlie’s shoes.