Moe Revenue

An Ounce of Preparation…

OK, I know I am twisting the wording on that title, but you will see why.  My last post regarding my worst sale was a bit dated but still burned into my memory. It seems like anything pre-internet is now considered from the dark ages of sales history so let me bring you my next major disaster after the dark ages.

I was coaching a regional sales, service and parts distribution company in the roll-out years of PC-based networks. Corporate America was investing aggressively in this new technology but state and local governments were tracking behind the curve – partly due to heavy investments in mainframes and partly due to having IT staffs that arrogantly viewed pc networks as trivial.

My customer recruited an impressive list of their technology vendors to participate in a ‘network seminar day’ hosted at a conference center directly across from the state capital building in Lincoln, Nebraska. The logistics were impressive – several keynote presentation rooms supported with break-out topic rooms for more detailed discussions, buffets of food and beverages everywhere, dozens of topic experts on the agenda, etc.

Invitations were sent to literally hundreds of government contacts with no RSVP required – just walk over and learn everything you want to know about PC networks. We all arrived the day before the event to make sure everything was ready to go. Our expectations (and preparations) were for over 250+ people to attend.

The next day came and we were a bit shocked that our 8:30 am sessions were not as popular as we hoped – NO ONE showed up!  So we started working on the coffee and bagels to get ready for the 10 am rush when one of our techs walked in and dropped a critical piece of information on us.

The state offices were closed that day. Yup, a special Nebraska state holiday was underway and no one was at work. It was clear by 9 am that the day was a total bust and no one would be attending.

I suppose there are many lessons here, but proper preparation sure seemed like an appropriate one that day.  We simply assumed the government offices were open that day.  Not one of us did any sort of research on the calendar.

Another timeless sales truth – when you assume, you lose.