Posted by Jon
An amusing evening recently with a small group of very senior salespeople, who shared their favourite (true) stories from their bidding career. (And I do love good sales folks: they’re such good company and such fun to work with).
The first anecdote concerned a bid to a major Japanese institution. During the pitch, it became obvious that many of the client team didn’t speak especially good English, or really understand the complex solution under discussion. So the bid team started to introduce fictitious information into their explanations. Amongst the financial regulations and indices that would affect the deal were four that were particularly important: ‘R2′, ‘D2,’ ‘C3′ and ‘PO’…
An amusing evening recently with a small group of very senior salespeople, who shared their favourite (true) stories from their bidding career. (And I do love good sales folks: they’re such good company and such fun to work with).
The first anecdote concerned a bid to a major Japanese institution. During the pitch, it became obvious that many of the client team didn’t speak especially good English, or really understand the complex solution under discussion. So the bid team started to introduce fictitious information into their explanations. Amongst the financial regulations and indices that would affect the deal were four that were particularly important: ‘R2′, ‘D2,’ ‘C3′ and ‘PO’…
And then there were the days in which financial houses could pretty much name their price for services to ill-informed clients. One offer included an “administration fee” – equivalent, effectively, to pure profit for the bidder, with little actual justification. So, how to fix the amount? Here’s the game they played in some London meetings: look out of the window, spot the number of the third bus to pass, and go with that. If the number 9 bus went past, the admin fee was £9,000; pity the client on the day it was the number 141…
As one of them commented, relating a conversation with a colleague:
As one of them commented, relating a conversation with a colleague:
“I’m a sales guy at heart.”
“What does that mean?”
“I try to legitimise my lies.”
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