What Are Your Levels Of Terror Threat & Response

Je Suis Charlie.

The aftermath of the week’s barbarity in Paris reminded me of the genius and power of cartoonists.

It also saw examination of the terror threat level in London.

There are five such levels.

What triggered my Sales thinking is the type of response each engenders;

Whilst of course in no way equating mindless terrorism with deals going south, there is an interesting framework here.

Let’s take the Heightened states for example.

Where an “attack” is “highly likely” or a “strong possibility”;

“Additional and sustainable protective security measures reflecting the broad nature of the threat combined with specific business and geographical vulnerabilities and judgements on acceptable risk.”

Many moons ago I worked with one salesteam that created what they called KSIs; Key Security Indicators.

Salespeople were meant to assign scores to a long list of threat factors.

Back in those days, willingness to fill-in yet another spreadsheet evaporated almost immediately. Yet it was a winner of an idea.

Different to a standard qualification checklist, this procedure really got into the meat of how strong the deal footing was.

What are the possible threats to your bid success?

Incumbent or biggest competitor relationships inside your prospects?
Delays from customer service, delivery, product development?
Misalignment of corporate and project goals?
Results not pictured in technicolour?
Enthusiasm absent or waning?
Worse pain elsewhere?
Momentum slows or stalls?
Dwindling or tiny audience?
Airtime or wallet quotient?

Once identified, steps can be taken to stave off any threat.

Are you planning for that or just winging it?