Knowing When to Walk Away

As I arrived in the parking lot for the umpteenth time, I'd forgotten how many times I'd been there; I felt the old familiar sense of malaise come over me. I knew I was going to go into this account, spend another hour or two with the same old boring plant manager and still nothing would be decided, I'd come away with another to do list of 10, 15, or more unanswerable questions, and still be no further along than the last time I was here a week or 10 days ago. I'd drive the miles back to the office and still not be able to answer the question: "When was this account going to close?"

Cos Thagard

I kept remembering what I'd been told in the sales class I'd taken too long ago — "If you can't close the opportunity in less than 10 hours of interaction with the prospect — it's better to walk away." "You've already eaten up the profit you'd make from the account and have not been in other opportunities where you should have been spending your time."

As I sat there, I told myself the same thing I'd told myself every other time I'd been ready to get out of the car and go into the account — You're the only salesman that can close this account. All the others have given up. If the opportunity is made this difficult for you, then it's being made this difficult for every other sales rep who is trying to close it. Stick with it and it will be yours. Be the last rep standing and you'll win the business.

And yet, in my heart, I knew I was wrong, and the guy in the sales training class was right. I needed to walk away. I had to admit it. It was a lost cause, a money pit, a waste of time.

Then I took charge, I did the unthinkable — I picked up my cell phone, and called the plant manager. Unbelievably, the phone was answered. I told the manager I would not be available to meet today. I was no longer interested in the opportunity unless I could receive via email right then and there that we would get the business; I would spend no more time pursuing the opportunity.

My blackberry was active and waiting. "You know what I have to offer. You know my product, my company, and our service record," I said.

He told me they would have to think about it. I told him that was fine but that I would not be calling them. He said (unbelievably) that they respected my position and were having trouble making the decision. I was firm in my convictions that I had spent enough time, effort, and my company's resources on this opportunity.

There are sometimes you have to walk away. There are some buyers who just don't know how to make the decision, when to make the decision, or with whom to make the decision. Your challenge is to learn how to spot them in the first few hours of your interaction with them. What are the tell-tale signs of a tire-kicker? Feel that twang? That's a tire kicker. You know instinctively. You feel it on the first call.

There are several things to do to flush the tire kicker out into the open and close the deal, but it has to be done early in the cycle, assertively, and without hesitation, or insecurity. You have to ask them to come of out their liar and into yours. Ask them to visit your plant. Ask them to visit their product sale sites.

Get them to go on a road trip. If they are willing to commit time outside their offices and time under your control, they are a real prospect. Now they can do all this and you can still lose the deal, but it won't eat up more than four hours of interaction with them. Commit resources in compliment to the resources they commit — one for one, and you'll have a sale.

Cos Thagard is president of MMT Associates, an Atlanta-based sales and management consulting firm. He has worked for IBM Corp. and Quest Diagnostics Inc. over the course of his sales career. He can be reached at cthagard@earthlink.net.