Well-intentioned sales people with good service offerings can still fail to shine, because they end up giving too much away – a crucial point at a time of slow growth for the consulting industry. Russell Wardrop, co-founder and CEO at KWC Global, notes five ways in which sales teams can re-evaluate to make the most of their opportunities.
Most unsuccessful salespeople don’t actually lose deals. They win them. But they don’t win them well: lower margin; unnecessary concessions; value handed over too early; a rush to get the thing “over the line”.
It is like sitting at a poker table with the best hand and somehow walking away pleased with yourself while everyone else quietly stacks their chips. At the gaming table, the best possible hand is called “the nuts”. When you have it, the job is not simply to win. It is to maximise the return from the win.
Business is no different. I spend a lot of time with capable sales teams. Smart people; strong propositions; solid experience. But many of them fall into a few habits that quietly erode their position without them ever quite noticing.
Here are the five that appear again and again.
- Not realising when you are in a strong position
You can see it coming a mile off. The offer is strong. The outcomes are clear. The fit is obvious. Yet the conversation is cautious. The tone becomes apologetic. The salesperson behaves as if they are hoping the client will say yes rather than expecting them to do so.
So the softening begins: pricing becomes tentative; language loses confidence; options appear that were never asked for.
If you don’t behave like you are in a strong position, the client won’t treat you as if you are.
- Treating every deal like it matters
When the sales pipeline is thin, every opportunity starts to feel critical. Everything gets chased. Calls are returned instantly; proposals are rushed out; decisions get bent to fit whatever the client wants. The irony is that the more you need the deal, the harder it becomes to win it well.
The best salespeople are not reckless. They are simply comfortable letting the wrong deals drift away.
- Letting the client run the process
This one often starts with good intentions: “Can you just…”; “Would you mind…”; “Could we bring this forward…”
Before long, the client is running the pace, the agenda and the terms. The salesperson is reacting to everything rather than shaping anything.
And once you are on the back foot, it becomes very difficult to protect value. Good salespeople don’t wrestle for control. They simply avoid giving it away in the first place.
- Showing everything too soon
There is a common belief that if we show enough value early, the client will be convinced. So out comes all the thinking; all the ideas; all the intellectual effort.
It feels generous. It is also commercially unhelpful. Once you have shown everything, there is very little left to trade with. So timing matters. Holding something back matters. If you want to negotiate effectively, you must still have something of value left to negotiate with.
- Thinking the job is done when the deal crosses the line
This is the biggest one. The deal is agreed, everyone is smiling, and it feels like a clear win. But when you look closely, the picture often changes.
Margins are thinner; scope has crept; concessions have accumulated quietly. The client has got an excellent deal. The supplier has got… a deal. There is a difference.
Here’s a personal example: some years ago I took a year-end look at our costs of sales spreadsheet and was shaken to see that we had lost money in the sector where we were biggest. We, too, had picked up the five bad habits of unsuccessful salespeople.
Addressing those five bad habits turned a 12% loss into a 22% margin in the next year. Winning business is not the same as winning business well. Most salespeople don’t need new tricks or techniques. They just need to break a handful of bad habits that dilute their position.
Because the real skill in sales is not simply winning. It is winning in a way that reflects the true value you bring to the table. And if you happen to be holding the nuts, don’t rush the moment. Maximise the return from the win.
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