How Quick Do They Send You Their Dimensions

“they’re superkeen, but not sent the dimensions through still yet … “

I heard this uttered by a salesperson.

I can see you pursing your lips, nodding your head from side to side, muttering, ‘they’re not superkeen, then…’

It’s a classic staller. You have a terrific call. You feel they’re your kind of people. You ask for something to be sent to you afterwards. Then you wait. And wait.

Nothing arrives. Life drains from your hopes.

There’s one school that suggests you should be grateful for this. It’s a qualifier. No sendage, no deal. Move on, free yourself up for other campaigns. Yet this outlook may leave you with an empty funnel if you’re not careful.

The general Solution rule invokes quid pro quo. Buyers constantly expect you to jump when they click their fingers. Demanding all manner of often tricky to compile info at ridiculously short notices. You should stand firm. They want something, then so do you. Each request goes two ways. Bi-directional traffic. You give, they give too. The art is in knowing what you ought ask for in return.

The ‘dimensions’ issue above is a typical one of spec’ing. You need their data to give the fullest quote. You could go with guestimates. But you’ve probably already thrown around ballparks. And there comes a time when you must deliver the ‘bad news’ of an actual, real-life amount of cash required to solve their niggle-stroke-nightmare.

There’s many reasons behind specifications not arriving. They can be kilned into three main brick walls.

• the person you asked cannot provide them alone
• your contact is having second thoughts about the whole enterprise
• they’re busy-lazy-distracted

There are ways to handle these once they strike. Yet, like many a Solution pothole, they are much better handled before they’d hit.

It reminds me of asking who holds ultimate sign-off. “Do you control the budget?” invariably leads to a resounding “yes!”. Which is rarely true (even ceos tend to desire buy-in). Whereas the proven, “who else would normally be involved in discussion of this nature” gentle formal query can open more windows.

If you’re used to a single sole handling the spec, then having their documentation as a standalone part of your bid steps might be dangerous. Options like concurrent activity or providing help should be considered. If the specs need multiple inputs, then you’d want to have channels open to those people as well.

I wonder how many crm fields where a choice of superkeen exist?