punnirno1
What has lost you the most $$$ in sales?
While selling, I've lost the most $$$ because of...
Attached poll
*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.
33
If I lost it's because of me. I own it.
I actually thought of setting up the poll as "Reasons you think you were responsible for losing $$$...". 🙂 Wouldn't have been as spicy for many of us I guess.
Also, I admire the attitude Sir. 🙌 #JockoWillinkMuch
Also, I admire the attitude Sir. 🙌 #JockoWillinkMuch
I assumed cocaine was part of "personal issues" so that was my vote. Not that I've ever done it, just seemed fitting.
Thanks for clarifying, I almost thought that's the legend of how you ended up naming your profile beezechurger.
No, I'm just dyslecix.
Oonderstud.
I like you. Stick around, WR needs more of you.
🙂
Competitive/tricky market by far. Lots of red tape in my industry. Sometimes the prospect begs us to help them and we can't. Fucking sucks.
Red tape: that's precisely the kinda shit Kahlua helps one get over.
Oh I know.
A very drunk manager cost me a 6 figure proserv deal that would have paid off my student loans. So, bad management for $2000, Alex.
Damn, that actually made me consider replacing my evening caffeine with scotch. 😧 #Sad
Story time?
It's not on here, but not a clear product/market fit. Sometimes, companies grow too quickly by hiring a ton of sales reps and there simply aren't enough quality prospects to go around.
Shitty leads is on there as an option. I agree product market fit is hugely important.
Different than hiring too many people and not having enough quality leads to go around.
Different than hiring too many people and not having enough quality leads to go around.
🙂 That’s a great one to include, one I myself +1 very strongly. In fact, as soon as I read your comment, I tried editing the poll. But Bravado won’t allow me to do that since you (or maybe someone else) already voted. 😅
I experience this all the time. Our tech is really good, but if it lacks any feature the client needs, even if there is a work around it’s an immediate pass. Of course this isn’t discovered until you’ve invested half a day into it.
I would love to select anything other than my own shitty techniques but have to say, if I didn't close it wasn't anyone's fault but mine.
Early on I had such bad happy ears and would skip steps like crazy. I knew what I needed to do but just didn't do it. Failed enough times and finally fixed it and the rest is history.
Damn that was a lot of negatives in one sentence. Win some and lose some.
Early on I had such bad happy ears and would skip steps like crazy. I knew what I needed to do but just didn't do it. Failed enough times and finally fixed it and the rest is history.
Damn that was a lot of negatives in one sentence. Win some and lose some.
Very relatable. It took me a noisy boss (who was also a great mentor) to change my ways. But I still fail to do this at times.
ya its a tough habit to break.
Fuckin thieving ass CFO
Thie-FO
Internal service team and inept management.
Basically a shit business plan for the firm from the top down.
Basically a shit business plan for the firm from the top down.
Tropic Thunder much?
Taxes
Oh man, this got too real too quick. 😐
I agree with @CuriousFox , with the exception of when the Deal Prevention team steps in and starts adding new barriers to the customer after the PO is received.
Recently had this happen where we failed to send an invoice for 6 MONTHS. I still got quota credit and got paid, and my customer got their licenses. So... is it really a loss? But my company missed out on getting paid for Y1 of the license because we didn't get the Invoice to the customer in time for their fiscal year cutoff.
What a freaking cluster.
Recently had this happen where we failed to send an invoice for 6 MONTHS. I still got quota credit and got paid, and my customer got their licenses. So... is it really a loss? But my company missed out on getting paid for Y1 of the license because we didn't get the Invoice to the customer in time for their fiscal year cutoff.
What a freaking cluster.
Bleh, I'm sure the DealPrev guys were always saying that they're JustGonnaSendit. 😅
I see what you did there...
Ha!
Bosses.
I am intrigued by the plurality of it.
Not being coachable early in my career, don’t know what option that would fall under though
That's a great one. 🙂 I have myself suffered big time because of this. I guess it can qualify as the first option ('my own terrible sales practices').
Stupid managers who aren't congruent with their data making snap decisions.
Dude, I'd say such incongruence is what correlates to A grade stupidity. $$ outcomes aside, sales has a big non-data element to it, but people simply don't understand that.
Most of the time I lose either I or an engineer messes up. When it's the engineers though,it's still my fault for bringing the wrong resource on the wrong call
Hahaha, engineers are usually like headless chickens unless they are coding.
Right, gotta take charge yourself aha
Product gaps
Ouch! What kind?
The kind the buyer assumes we do. Get to the 5 yard line and go wait, this requirement was never brought up or discussed?!?!
🤕 Pain sure is a silent friend who shows up unannounced at party time.
Currently it's competition from our biggest competitor and a few key integrations and features missing from parts of the platform. The latter is an instant deal-breaker in discovery unless the client has API expertise, or willing to pay for someone else's.
Curious to know how you try to navigate around this. And any pitching patterns that work better than others?
First is just playing to our strengths. I know where we can compete and where we can't, so I focus on parts of the platform that would make the most sense for the client rather than trying to push a rock uphill. Second is just doing thorough discovery, understanding what their requirements are and seeing if we can offer enough additional value to make up for potential immediate integration/feature gaps. Sometimes they realise they can save heaps of money with 95% of the features intact, so it's fine. Other times requirements are non-negotiable, so it's easier to be upfront and walk away.
The boss forcing the higher level and more expensive version of what we do when all they want is the good yet cheaper version. Honestly, if I could foresee how to close deals, this question and this example isn’t exactly what I’d not want to do! Great question.
I guess it requires great skill on the part of the boss to push for bigger ticket sizes. If done right, it is a serious moneymaker but in so many cases it's just unrealistic or coming out of greed, and doesn't make any sense at all.
Weed
Hmmmmmm, I always thought Mary-jane was operational on the effect side of things and not the cause. Thanks for enlightening me.
Excuses… perfect.
Haha, reasons & reflections, not excuses I guess. What do you think? 🙂
Win some, learn some. I think your poll is fucking stupid.
I agree.
Churn is more expensive than a lost opportunity. Personally, the biggest losses were due to the careless errors by tech. We learned from it, corrected the process for monitoring and escalations. It helped.
However, it’s NOT EASY to get back credibility with that client
Any glitches in the product = Better treated as irreparable damage. The credibility bit is still pretty logical though, right?
I’m surprised, drugs, alcohol and gambling wasn’t an option….
Ummm isn't it a part of most job descriptions nowadays anyway? O_o
for me it’s a combination of #1, #2 and #4 which i guess you can all bundle into one and just say “lack of training and thus using the wrong processes”
:) Well said.
My own bravado (pun intended)
Well my friend, at the end of the day, every old dog does need some new tricks. 🙂
Cybersecurity proof of concept bake-offs. By far. Not a whole lot can be done there from a sales point of view in some of them.
Yeah, this is probably one of the more difficult ones to defend. The truth is that most platforms are very vulnerable and it is only a matter of time before hackers start blackmailing orgs more seriously. Their laziness/unawareness is what's helping so many products survive LOL
Customers are being stingy with their cybersecurity budget which they should not be.
Sometimes I wonder, which department(s) are seeing increases in their budgets, if at all? 🤔
time spent on bad deals. "Happy ears." cost of lost opportunity is massive
Haha, I just came out of one such deal last week. My activity here on Bravado is basically to help me regain my composure.
Pretty much all of the mess ups have been on me. I always have the tools available, but sometimes not asking for help or trying to do too much will cost me.
🙂 We're all human man. But that's a terrific attitude, I could learn a thing or two from you!
Best thing to remember, you either win or you learn.
This new Head of sales who have never done sales in his life... should have stayed product manager buddy...
Ouch! Product to head of sales, that's a rare one. O_o
I worked at a shithole called New Relic.
I don't know how implementation isn't an option here
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