This deal took 3 months and I wondered constantly if it was ever going to happen. Gave it a low prob on the pipeline. The opportunity came from a new partner (that I met on LunchClub) that completely understood what we do and how it was different and valuable. The partner played a strategic role and was both my coach and internal champion. Without him I doubt the deal would have happened. I really wanted this deal - the product (think IoT meets baby bottles) is amazing and it's in a new sector that we've targeting for over a year - medical devices.
The sales cycle was a bake off between 3 vendors that we won. The presentation to the entire management and their strategic advisors was long because they wanted to see real life results from other customers for each milestone in the process so they could see what they could expect. That impressed them - "the level of thoughtfulness in the proposal and the detailed examples for each stage is what convinced everyone you were the right choice."
Then the scope expanded, contracted and ultimately was cut in half. I agreed because it was clear the CEO hadn't purchased this type of solution before and the whole thing felt too big and too risky to commit to upfront. That's OK - I still won.
RE: Lunchclub. I've met more folks that led to closed deals and net new logos than any other networking platform. Beats cold emailing or calling b/c you're talking to the right level.
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