This freaking deal started as a POC, and then nearly went belly up about 3 times. Finally they agreed to go with us and we began negotiations on T's & C's with only a month left to go in the year.
Our main contact in purchasing had a family emergency and had to fly back to Asia to be with family. We now start over with a new guy, who in our first meeting HADN'T EVEN READ THE PROPOSAL and seemed like he wasn't looking to do any work in the last month of the year.
Bumps in the road are double edged swords, because our champion nearly lost his Sh*t when the purchasing guy told us he wasn't going to be able to do anything until the other guy got back. Our champion had fought through too much (and I'd developed a good enough relationship) that he wasn't going to let this slide. We were offering them an unprecedented discount to be the first to combine two SaaS products into one, but that $500k discount (53%) wasn't extending into the new year.
After leaving the meeting, I got a call from the purchasing SOB and he changed his tune. Apparently our champion had beaten some sense into him, and he said that all we needed was a termination clause.
Turns out-MY SMALL COMPANY DOESN'T HAVE ONE. So I (not a lawyer) got permission to write one. I took one business law class in my MBA, and needless to say I'm not qualified to do that, but I was willing to do whatever I needed to close this before our commission structure changes this year.
After lots of unreasonable negotiation (they asked for the right to cancel at anytime with a 50% refund for any reason) we got the deal done! We had the PO in hand!
BUT THEN FINANCE SAYS THEY CAN'T ACCEPT THE PO BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T REFERENCE OUR QUOTE.
At this point it's Friday afternoon, and this company is closed for the last week of the year. I'm throwing a hail mary and hoping that we can get the clerical change, knowing that it's taken a long time to get to this point and not holding my breath.
Savages-There is a kind sales God that smiles on us all, because we received the PO minutes before their year was going to close, saving me from losing thousands of dollars in commissions, and making this my second biggest new logo of my career.
My takeaways-
- Never underestimate the importance of a good champion. Craft them. Let them mature like a good cheese or wine. They will save you when you can't do anything more outside the organization.
- Never stop fighting for what you want, even if they tell you it's not a possibility. We went from "there's no way this is going to happen" to getting them to cut to PO's in a week.
- Maintain your ethics and your own credibility, but throw your comfort zone out the window. I wasn't comfortable writing a termination clause. I'm really hopeful that they won't use it, and I don't think that they will. That said-I did what I needed to (with the proper approvals and CYA) to get the deal and get the bag
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