Deal initiated in February 2020 when another prospect I visited for the first time recommended that I call this one. The client seemed interested on the first call and agreed to meet at a trade show happening a couple of weeks later on the other side of the U.S. I could feel in my bones this prospect would like our solution - they had tried multple competitors and weren't happy with their current fleet of machines.
March 2020 - trade show, customer sees our solution and loves it, then COVID happens!
Everything was put on ice for almost 18 months. For a long time I was sure it would end in a sale but I had no idea WHEN.
When Covid hit I used the down time to improve my sales game. I ditched selling on "FAB" (features, advantages, benefits) and realised that for years I had been similar to those pesky sales folk that everyone loves to hate. My whole approach to sales changed (thankfully).
This was the first of what has turned out to be 3 opportunities where the order came through after I had written it off. Those 3 orders actually come to a total of somewhere between $1.2 and $1.4 million (the third one is currently closing as I write this, the customer has given us an order number and we are waiting to receive the down payment).
So in December 2021 the deal in question closed. Mutlple factors delayed installation (long lead times for everything, a surge in demand for our products, transport delays and a global shortage of shipping containers) but our solution arrived with the customer last week and final invoices have been settled. Now it's time to make sure the customer is successful!
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