Comments on: Early failure is better than late failure http://sales20network.com/blog/?p=114 Sharing sales insight, hindsight and a little foresight Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:28:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: SalesJournal.com » You Can Avoid Losing Deals http://sales20network.com/blog/?p=114&cpage=1#comment-1350 SalesJournal.com » You Can Avoid Losing Deals Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:33:49 +0000 http://sales20network.com/blog/?p=114#comment-1350 [...] Daly’s previous post Early Failure is Better Than Late Failure, he wrote about the need to qualify rigorously.  He has received a number of emails about this, [...] [...] Daly’s previous post Early Failure is Better Than Late Failure, he wrote about the need to qualify rigorously.  He has received a number of emails about this, [...]

]]> By: Early Failure is Better Than Late Failure « Dave Stein’s Blog :: Commentary for Sales Leaders and Sales Managers http://sales20network.com/blog/?p=114&cpage=1#comment-106 Early Failure is Better Than Late Failure « Dave Stein’s Blog :: Commentary for Sales Leaders and Sales Managers Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:00:52 +0000 http://sales20network.com/blog/?p=114#comment-106 [...] Posted on November 13, 2008 by Dave Stein Donal Daly, CEO of The TAS Group, wrote a great post (Early failure is better than late failure) on his company’s blog that is more than worthy of your consideration. (Disclosure: The TAS [...] [...] Posted on November 13, 2008 by Dave Stein Donal Daly, CEO of The TAS Group, wrote a great post (Early failure is better than late failure) on his company’s blog that is more than worthy of your consideration. (Disclosure: The TAS [...]

]]> By: Mark Parker http://sales20network.com/blog/?p=114&cpage=1#comment-102 Mark Parker Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:45:54 +0000 http://sales20network.com/blog/?p=114#comment-102 Great post Donal. I was in Chicago in early October for the Selling Power Sales Leadership conference. Neil Rackham spoke about this also. His comments were to strip the deadwood out of your sales pipeline and focus on a smaller quantity of winnable deals, rather than stacking masses of rubbish that simply diminish your chances of winning anything. However, as much as I see the logic in this, I also see two real life problems. Firstly front line sales managers are still too focused on efficiency - they still believe more is better and if your pipeline multiple to forecast is x-times, then you'll make your number. Which is crazy. Secondly, sales reps are often unprepared or unwilling to make the touch decisions and qualify opportunities out. I think this is partly cultural (the must win mentality - are you sure you've tried everything) and partly a lack of business acumen in that they don't understand the implications of investing in dead deals, nor do they understand the cost of a sales resource spending time on business they aren't going to win. Great post Donal.

I was in Chicago in early October for the Selling Power Sales Leadership conference. Neil Rackham spoke about this also. His comments were to strip the deadwood out of your sales pipeline and focus on a smaller quantity of winnable deals, rather than stacking masses of rubbish that simply diminish your chances of winning anything.

However, as much as I see the logic in this, I also see two real life problems. Firstly front line sales managers are still too focused on efficiency – they still believe more is better and if your pipeline multiple to forecast is x-times, then you’ll make your number. Which is crazy.

Secondly, sales reps are often unprepared or unwilling to make the touch decisions and qualify opportunities out. I think this is partly cultural (the must win mentality – are you sure you’ve tried everything) and partly a lack of business acumen in that they don’t understand the implications of investing in dead deals, nor do they understand the cost of a sales resource spending time on business they aren’t going to win.

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