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Daily Sales Tip: Recognizing 'Bad' Sales Opportunities

One of the quickest ways to go out of business and/or to encounter sales burnout is by pursuing deals that are unprofitable. Not only do you incur the cost of pursuing the deal (hard dollars and/or time), but you also have the heartache of waking up one morning with a new customer who is not capable of providing your organization with the level of profit that you require.

Or, on the other side of that coin, you have closed a deal that requires far more support than you and/or your organization is prepared to deliver. In that sense, you have worked hard to lose money and, now that you have lost some money, your relationship with this customer will continue to cost you money. Obviously, this is not the way you want to go.

A very sharp and, indeed, a cynical eye applied to each opportunity going into your pipeline will keep some of these problems out of your life. Make sure that you screen all opportunities going into your pipeline against this standard.

In summary, being skeptical about opportunities is a very valuable strategy for sales organizations. Only work with those opportunities that will work with you in the form and fashion with which you and your organization are best prepared to work. I have nicknamed this process "building a funny-shaped door" to keep all undesirable opportunities out of your pipeline.

There are a certain circumstances (size, shape, distance, purchasing decisions, etc.) that comprise your funny-shaped door. Know what the components are of your description of an ideal opportunity. Don't change the shape of your "door" to allow unproductive and/or unprofitable opportunities into the pipeline.

By adhering very closely to the funny-shaped door rule, you will prohibit bad opportunities from getting into the pipeline and will give yourself more time to go pursue good opportunities. You will eliminate one of the major causes of sales burnout and sales stress. Pay attention to who gets into the pipeline and you will never have to suffer the frustrations created from realizing that you have only a pipe dream rather than a pipeline.

Source: Sales consultant/trainer Gil Cargill (www.gilcargill.com)

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