This deal is yet another special one because for the first time in my career, I've been referred to someone else before any actual cooperation with the person/company doing the referral. Furthermore, I've been able to close the company I've been referred to before I was able to close the one doing the referral.
Anyway, moving on to the actual deal:
What helped close it was that at each step my team and I were fully prepared and tackled any issues from every angle possible. I know this might sound like a cliché. But once you show your clients any signs of proof to confirm your claims they should be equally keen to start the cooperation. And here the client has been nothing but helpful in order for us to fulfil our end of the bargain (which is to build a 6-man IT dev team). They've filled out all our forms, sent us all the job descriptions and projects scope.
I will admit though that timing was also huuuuugely in my favour - the candidate for the most important position (the DevOps Engineer) almost fell from the sky into my hands. The client loved him (and his immediate availability to join the project) and shortly after we finalised the contract for the whole team.
My take/advice from this experience is to stick to your sales process. If it's at least decent it will work. Bend the rules a bit if you have to but never break them. It will eventually bite you in the ass. And while they (the management) will smile and pat you on the back during your successes, the failures can reveal their ruthlessness. But I guess that's a story for another post ;)
Members only
23 comments