Is Your Colossus About To Suffer?

"A sporting colossus suffers while an unaccountable cadre of administrators prospers. It is the eternally English way."

Boom. A recent sign-off from London-based broadsheet sports columnist, Oliver Brown.

The legend that is England Test captain Ben Stokes. Forced out by backroom chicanery. All cricket fans feeling for him today.

'A business colossus suffers while an unaccountable cadre of administrators prospers. It is the eternally corporate way.'

We might occupy said place of colossus. Superstar seller (or Exec, given my blog longtime subhead). With internal drags to consider.

Or it can be our prospect. The person most aligned with our vision. Who, and this is key, are for their organisation nonpareil, sui generis, ne plus ultra. Yet there are colleagues that crazily dismiss such notion.

We've long faced such Sales Prevention Department fiends. Red tape thrown around our ilk ever since busy-ness got birthed. Bureaucracy's more latter-day Clipboard cartel have bred today's pernicious Lanyard class and Tantric sector blights.

Your champion knows this feeling intimately.

They've found the problem. Built the case. Brought you in. Vouched for you internally at some personal cost. And now the deal is somewhere in a calendar invite between some self-styled Head of Procurement who's never carried a number and pseudo Vendor Governance Lead whose actual job title is likely its own punchline.

In which case, consider when they go quiet on us.

Is the reason a sinister sham-stakeholder stabbing? Their radio silence neither them going cold nor disinterest. But momentum they'd proudly driven now strangled by dark forces from within.

Going over and around brings jeopardy as seasoned sellers recognise.

Although nowadays I'm almost full-circle in often doing so regardless again...

But as first re-step, go in with something concrete. Reloading with not simply a new fact, as that'd be dismissed as before. But a whole fresh argument.

Think of something coming from inside their company.

We now have a cost of delay angle to push.

Which swells worse with each passing weekly catch-up call.

We might have a competitor fright to deliver. If you're happily hoovering up all those from a particular shared sector, say so. Their competition are on the 'problem', someone from on High will soon ask why aren't they too?

We could know of an internal trigger. Shifting Board priority. Budget cycle closing. Key new hire demanding urgency. Any roadblock opens up undesired risk. Surely no-one wants their name attached to that.

Another interesting angle on this is that prospects can watch how potential partner organisations treat their high performers. They notice when organisations protect process over people. Kafka consuming ambition in slime. When the language of accountability runs downhill only. Never laterally, never up. Hands tied of those who could bring the win, and the committee that held things back issue their TikTok-style tribute video.

In or Out, either scenario needs action. The Lanyard class will keep calendaring. The Tantric sector will keep signalling. You/your prospect colossus are deciding right now whether the fight is worth it. That decision has your name on it.