Big Balls Yields Big Results
You’re Selling, Act Like You Have Nothing to Lose
One guy who screwed me (read: beat me) in a business deal was actually kind enough to give me some of the greatest life advice ever. Long story short, I was at my first well-funded tech startup and was working on a 10-month+ deal with the NA division of a Japanese auto-manufacturer as well as their ad agency.
For those not familiar with major brands and their ad agencies, it’s really hard to get large deals completed in a timely fashion (or at all sometimes) because they’re used to getting everything for free and getting the proper decision maker(s) to buy into the idea is like herding cats. You don’t have to sell you product once but often several times before a deal is reached.
Anyway, I was about to close this particular 10-month+ sales process in a deal that would result in 60% of our company’s annual revenue and cost the brand less than 1% of their annual spend. I had done so much work and was about to explode with exhilaration only have lost the deal during the last 3 weeks of the process. I had never experienced such a let down in my short career. I was pissed, upset and dumbfounded. More importantly, I still hadn’t figured out what the hell I would tell my boss or the primary investor.
I called the agency and the brand to get answers. I knew it was a long shot to get anything more other than the typical rhetorical BS about “having no money” or “it not being the right fit or time.” I knew our competition had come in late and was told by the agency that we were the front runner; so I couldn’t figure out what went wrong. Finally one of my upper level contacts told me, “Christien, your competitor told us they could offer feature X.”
“I didn’t even know you wanted feature X nor is it relevant to what you’re trying to accomplish!”
“I know, but the brand just thinks it cool that they have it. They see it as a promise of future innovation to come with their partnership.” The conversation continued but none of it mattered.
On a hunch that the rep would be cool and was in LA for one more night before triumphantly flying back to New York, I emailed him and asked if he would meet me for a drink in the Beverly Hills Hotel. He agreed and in true LA fashion we met somewhere between 10 and midnight at the bar.
Over the course of 3 hours, a 25 and 44 year old traded war stories; and finally near 2AM, I asked, “Dude how did you pull this off over me? Y’all don’t offer X. In fact, I know your company sucks at almost everything it does.”
He laughed, “Yeah but the client trusts me. I always promise things that we don’t have,” he paused and took a sip of whatever we’d moved onto at the time…scotch I think. “I’m not lying to them because I always come through.”
“But what if your team doesn’t deliver? You’re screwed for life with these people.”
“Let me tell you something my friend,” he said in a fatherly voice. “You know technology. You know people. It’s your job to know what your team truly can and cannot pull off and then sell the dream to the client. Shady salespeople sell things they don’t understand; and thus, they don’t follow through. All stakeholders end up looking like assholes after the deal is completed. They make the good ones like you and me look bad too. If you’re going to be #1 in sales or own a company, you have to have big balls because you must promise the world to your clients and make sure everyone behind you does their job. It’s the ultimate leadership position. If you don’t deliver be prepared to receive the wrath of God personally and professionally. Clearly, you have big balls or you wouldn’t have made it this far or even have swallowed your pride enough to seek advice from me. When I was your age, I wouldn’t have even thought to call me the way you did. You have huge fucking balls. Use them to their max!”
I haven’t seen him since they gave me those quotes but their messages have been true to me. If you wanna be great (at anything), you gotta have big balls. If you don’t have them, then you better start acting like you do.
photo courtesy: len matthews
