Most sellers are not built to quit or to stop on a deal, so
we need to reframe it a little bit. Instead of saying walking away or
stop pursuing, we should say immediately take corrective action. You're listening to the
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Hello, and welcome to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast. Today we are talking
about when you walk away from account, when do you shut it down and
just move on, and also leaving in the right way. John Kaplan joins
me to talk about this topic. Hi, John, Hey, Rachel.
I'm going to throw a little curveball at the listeners today about whether we're actually
talking about walking away or what we're talking about. Stand by, all right,
Okay, here we go, Here we go. This is a question
that we get a lot in the center community, and it really like knowing
when to walk away from a dealer or a potential deal really requires you to
understand what you know about the account and what you don't know, and you
have a saying called veracious qualification. You tell people to be voracious qualifiers,
and that's sort of the base for this idea today. Yeah, so let
me first kind of explain what I mean by that. So when I say
voracious qualification, I mean that you know, we're always qualifying, but we're
qualifying with passion and conviction. We're not qualifying for compliance for our managers and
our forecast, and that we're qualifying for confidence and conviction around our knowledge of
an opportunity, which causes us to decide what our next steps are going to
be. And so when I was growing up in sales, we used to
have a saying and it's still around today. They say always be closing,
always be closing. And so when I got to PTC back in the day,
the thing to change for me. So the first company I worked for
was said, always be closing, always be closing, and I still like
that a lot. PTC changed my mindset to always be qualifying, always be
qualifying, and this actually has changed mind not only my professional life, but
my personal life as well. So a great mindset to have, especially as
we think about when you want to work from an opportunity. What do you
think are the common instances that are in place with a deal that make you
know that you're going to stop pursuing it. Okay, so here's why I'm
gonna throw the wrench in. So let me just kind of deal with this,
because this is actually a really really hard question because most sellers are not
built to quit or to stop on a deal. So we need to reframe
it a little bit. Instead of saying walking away or stop pursuing, we
should say immediately take corrective action. And sometimes that means that you'll stop pursuing
an opportunity in that moment. But I think we all have to kind of
level set ourselves. There's no metals for walking away from a deal, nor
do you get any sales quota relief for walking away from a deal. So
it's really it's really really important that we look at this concept as a kind
of a mature concept. Let me give you a couple of more just kind
of thoughts on this. So, if you're a voracious qualifier, you know
you're going to constantly find gaps in your deal. They're going to cause you
to take action immediately. Let me give you a few of them and you
can write these down. No champion means no deal. No business issue means
no business, no access to the economic buyer. We all know that's a
massive risk and an opportunity when we ask ourselves how big is this problem and
it's a small problem. It's going to create small opportunities and small deals.
When I look at decision criteria and they're not favorable to me, and a
better way to say it is the decision criteria does not reflect my differentiation.
That's a problem. It means the lowest common denominator is always going to be
priced. And in all these scenarios, if you proceed, you will lose
full stop. Okay, so let me kind of reframe that. We're not
talking about walking away today. We're talking about rattling your cage and saying,
if you proceed with the information that you have and it has gaps in the
common areas of qualification around Medican Medpick, you will lose full stop. So
if you know you're going to lose and you can't fill those gaps, you
should feel like your time can be better spend elsewhere. And in order to
walk away or shift your focus a large component of this is really making sure
you have the pipeline you don't if you don't have to like scrounge and hang
on to things that aren't going to happen or discount your way to a deal.
And having that understanding is critical to making sure your time is spent better
elsewhere. Yeah, so let me say it a little bit more harsher.
You said it a really nice way, Rachel. But look, pipeline cures
all ills. And what I mean by that when you think about when you
don't have pipeline, you can't negotiate. When you have pipeline, you're the
greatest negotiator on the planet. That might be in hyperbole, but it gives
you leverage and negotiation when you have pipeline. So all of this, like
walking away or like your badge of courage, comes only if you have other
opportunities that you could prioritize that needs your attention. And you know, maybe
some of these other opportunities that aren't quite qualified yet would go you'd work pipeline.
You'd put them in pipeline, and you'd work them in appropriately with your
time. So, like I said, pipeline cares all ills. I think
it makes you a more discerning seller. You got to have confidence and conviction
around what you do for a living and know that what you do matters,
And if it doesn't matter to you, why should it matter to your customer.
So when you're looking at that pipeline and you can't figure out what do
I do matters and can I attach it emotionally to my customers and get them
emotionally connected to what they do matters, you wind up in a problem.
And what you're really saying, Rachel, with all this is your time matters,
and to use it wisely. And so if what you do matters and
you can solve a business problem for a company, and you have the confidence
and conviction to keep working to find the right people and business problems and attach
yourself to them, then keep working the problem, keep working the opportunity.
But if you can't put that opportunity in your pipeline and continue to nurture it
and continue to do something, I find very few scenarios in the world,
Rachel, where it's appropriate to walk away. Now, let me talk about
a couple of them, because you know, I know that people may be
signed up for this, they're like, oh, this is what's my walkway
point? Okay, In negotiation, there's a walkaway point. And if you
get into a situation in a sales cycle where you are negotiating and there's a
point that they are asking you to do something on an opportunity, they are
asking you to do something that is no longer good for your company and therefore
it won't be good for their company, then you must have what we call
a walk away point, which means it makes no sense to continue to negotiate
for this opportunity under those terms. So walk away has some significant meaning and
some real meaning. But I want you just to consider what we've talked about
here today. This isn't an episode about walking away. It's more about taking
a reality check every day on every deal where we have gaps and then deciding
what am I going to do about closing them? And Rachel, my bottom
line is, it's not a problem not to know or not to know about
something an opportunity, or to have gaps and an opportunity. It is a
crime punishable by death. That's a little harsh, but being dramatic. It
is a crime punishable by death not to be doing anything about it. And
Rachel, that was my bottom line. There you go. I think your
points, John, give everyone a lot to think about. And it's not
necessarily your walking away, But what do you say. It's not mister right
now, it might be mister right later. I like that one a lot.
That's good. Yeah, I like that thinking about like the timing of
everything and if you don't have what you need, pull it out of the
forecast and nurture it for later. So I think there's some good things to
think about. And I would say my bottom line from hearing everything that you're
saying, John, is also to remember that you're time it matters, and
your time is valuable, and spend it where it matters the most. Love
that one, right well, dub all right, Thank you, John,
and thank you to all of you for listening to the Audible Ready Sales podcast.
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