Moe Revenue

The Nemesis of All Sales Campaigns

Many readers have talked to me about the comparison I make in the book between sales and poker. There are at least three similarities between poker and selling that are easily recognized but the most toxic parallel is the risk of ‘winning’ both the longest average sales cycles and the highest sales cost as a percent of revenue.

The three similarities are:

1. There are no guaranteed outcomes—everything invested is at risk.
2. There is only one winner.
3. When you draw a bad hand in poker, the wise decision is to minimize your loss and fold. The same applies in sales, but if your sales reps don’t know the reality of your position in the deal (as in how to qualify), they will always push to keep you in the game.

Like in poker, #3 is the only one you can manage – the first two are simply rules of the game. That is why we spend so much effort in the book developing the Critical Qualifying Questions (CQQ’s). CQQ’s are not only the basis of our Bankable Forecast Process, they are also the roadmap for achieving both the shortest possible sales cycle and the lowest possible selling costs.

Knowing, as soon as possible, when an ‘opportunity’ is not an opportunity for your business and saving that additional sales time/expense is a critical qualifying skill. Any sales rep can stay in a deal until the end – the CQQ’s are designed to eliminate that behavior.