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THE Sales Question: “What Does Success Look Like to You?”

6 years ago
business, sales
2 Comments

Most of my sales work involves a productized service: the SQL Critical Care®, a package of consulting work with a defined set of steps and a finish line.

But sometimes on introductory calls, prospective customers just start venting.

They complain about performance, management, capacity planning, architecture, upgrades, downtime, cost, staffing, the last guy, and a litany of stuff.

As a consultant, though, I can’t write a Statement of Work for that. Or to be more specific, I can’t write it up in a way that an executive will actually sign the contract to let us start work.

So when I’m not sure where things are going, here’s what I say:

What does success look like to you? At the end of the gig, I want you to be able to say, “Thank goodness we called them because they were finally able to ____.” What’s in that blank?

What failure looks like
What failure looks like

The answer helps us all:

  • Understand what the first project’s finish line looks like (not necessarily the end of our entire working relationship, just the first finish line that we need to cross together)
  • Understand if I can help them cross that line (because sometimes it’s not a good fit for me)
  • Set things out of scope when they’re not related to the finish line (it doesn’t mean we’re never going to do that work – it’s just not part of this first race we’re running together)

If you don’t have a productized service yet – or even if you’re just applying for a full time job – success is so much easier when you understand what success means to the other person.

business, sales
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2 Comments. Leave new

  • Rick Boyett
    December 20, 2016 8:26 am

    All those are good points Brent, but I would add another bullet there. Understand whether the finish line is tactical or strategic in nature. If it is tactical, find out how it aligns with or supports C-level strategies. Discovering or insuring this alignment increases the chances your contract is going to get signed by the people that hold the purse strings.

    All too often I see IT staffs, all the way up to the director level, that have no idea what the corporate strategy is from the CEO/CIO/CTO levels. That causes a lot of their problems to begin with as they focus on work that isn’t relevant to their bosses. Those of us in sales and/or consulting need insure there are no gaps between the tactical and strategic or we will lose out.

    Reply
    • Brent
      December 21, 2016 5:38 pm

      Rick – great point. Sometimes you’re having discussions with folks who can’t actually sign contracts, and you wanna get to that knowledge fast, too.

      Reply

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Hi. I’m Brent.

That's me, Brent.

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm on an epic life quest to have fun and make a difference.

I co-founded Brent Ozar Unlimited to help make your SQL Server go faster. I also maintain sp_Blitz® and the open source First Responder Kit repo.

My current car collection includes a Jaguar XKR-S, Porsche 944 Turbo, Porsche 356 Speedster replica, and a Ferrari 328 GTS.

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