In this episode, I talked with Mary Lombardo at Absolute Impact Corporation about what to do when sales opportunities don’t go as expected. No matter how long you’ve been in sales, it will happen. Sometimes things go south because of circumstances completely unforeseen and out of our hands. At other times it is likely that there were signals, things we missed along the way that we can learn from.
We started by talking about a time when Mary felt she had the sale in the bag and then she lost to a competitor. This has certainly happened to me. Even with years of sales experience, I occasionally make a misstep on the basics. After all, we are all human and sometimes misread the cues that could have helped us course correct the situation.
Many of us have found ourselves in situations where we had progressed to the end of the sales cycle only to have our prospect say that our product or solution “is just too expensive”. That is probably one of the most frustrating things to hear, especially when you thought things were going so well. Mary shares her thoughts on what she has done when that has happened to her.
Have you ever found yourself in a sales situation when you got through the sales cycle, presented your proposal, and your prospect says “I need to take this to my boss.”? For me the answer has always been to involve the “boss” from the beginning of the process but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. So, now what do you do? Typically, someone inside the company isn’t going to sell your solution as well as you can. And, if you go over their head does that cause you a bigger headache? Mary and I talk about what you can do when you find yourself dealing with this type of selling scenario.
Finally, we talked about what to do when you get to the end of the sales cycle and your proposal seems to hang out there and age like fine wine. In other words, the sale gets stuck. Learn how that happens and what you can do about it.
Enjoy the interview!
About Mary:
Mary Lombardo, Founder of Absolute Impact Corporation, a positioning and professional sales development firm that helps start-up and midsize companies increase profits through custom-designed sales solutions. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Mary has served in Executive Level Leadership and Management roles her entire career, generating revenues from $14 -$60 million dollars that led her to win the coveted title “Salesperson of the Year” both in 2008 and 2009 and joining the Million Dollar Club in 2007. Mary spearheaded and landed a colossal level win while in her role as the Senior Strategic Partnership Leader for Evans Newton, Inc. included a $5M sale for districtwide whole school reform programs that produced double-digit corporate profits.
Her clients have included:
- CEOs of major organizations
- CEO of national higher education institution
- VPs of HR at national retail chain stores
- VPs of HR at national aerospace engineering company
- VPs of HR at a national real estate agency
- VP of HR at a national retirement facility
- District Superintendents nationwide
- University Deans
With 20 years of sales experience, Mary has a broad and deep scope of all aspects of the pipeline—from lead to close.
In addition, Mary studied ballet for 10 years, is a wish-granter for the Make-A-Wish Illinois Chapter, a volunteer at Lutheran General Hospital, a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) working with the Cook County Juvenile Court, a lover of theater, and a very proud mother of two children.
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