Be A Listener Not A Chest-Beater

A BIG mistake I see corporations make at the point of entering into an important pursuit, is doing so with a falsely positive perception of the way in which the brand, product or service is viewed by the management of the customer organisation.

Sometimes, this positive attitude crosses the line and becomes industrial-strength arrogance.

The Safer, Wiser Approach

The safer and smarter approach, is to assume nothing and enter into both the process and all communications with the open-mindedness that results from humility.

Conversely, being arrogant, results in shooting your organisation in the foot in myriad ways, including but certainly not limited to:

The Eternally Optimistic Salesperson

To a very large degree, the optimistic, “positive thinking” nature of most business development (BD) and sales executives makes them their own worst enemies when it comes to researching and formulating any degree of strategy for a formal pursuit such as a bid process.

A positive attitude, clearly, is a vital survival mechanism for any BD or sales operative . . . which is probably precisely why the profession attracts people with a naturally optimistic outlook.

The problem is that, as a result of this disposition, operatives in that role are prone to their internal radar skipping straight over anything negative. It tends to blip only at signs of how much the customer loves them, their company, their brand, and their product or service.

Here’s the Problem for YOU, as CEO 

Because the sales force and their other team mates out in the trenches are the primary (and sometimes, the only) feedback channel the company has in its continual quest to win and keep new customers, or to win new business from existing customers, a skewed perspective can easily result.

This is, ultimately, far from helpful for you and other members of the senior executive team.

In the context of a formal pursuit (especially a bid), your organisation has the odds stacked against it, in terms of the ability to take a long, hard critical look at your own potential areas of weakness . . . a critical element when playing bid strategy defence.

Guarding your flanks against the competitors is difficult when you believe you have no reason to do so.

The Distinct Danger in Being Unaware of Your Weak Points

A seller organisation starting out with the view that its product or service is naturally superior to anything its competition might offer, is positioning itself from the very outset, for an inevitable fall. If not with this bid, then at some time in the (probably near) future.

Such a degree of arrogance seems ridiculous on paper, but I assure you it exists and I hear it all the time in one form or another. There’s a strong feeling among many sales folk that because their service or product has a generally good name out there in the marketplace and because their global parent spends millions each year in meticulously-researched “brand awareness” advertising campaigns that, all other factors being equal, their company’s reputation will ultimately win the day. That somehow, when the tender evaluators sit down to their task, their submission will automatically gravitate to the top of the pile.

Not to say that you can’t be proud of your product or service, or your brand, or your reputation.

But the chest-beating approach is well outdated as a method for winning critical pieces of business and new key accounts.