I finally got my first significant deal within a couple of steps of closing at the publicly traded software company where I was masquerading as a new enterprise software account executive. It wasn’t clear to me how long those few steps would take my customer to complete, but I was confident they’d get it done by the end of the current quarter. My previous sales experience at a privately owned software company didn’t prepare me for the unmerciful grilling I’d find myself experiencing over the next three months.

The Forecast Cadence

The forecast call cadence during the first month of the quarter proceeded as always with a Friday call to review all the deals in the district with corporate management. Each call for me was a humbling experience, as it was clear I was figuring out what to do on the fly. The regional sales vice president on the calls was always very calm and patient with his inquiries into my deal. His stern directives for the actions I must get completed before the next call was clear but non-threatening. The other people treated me like a suspect under the assumption that I was guilty of lying about my deal until proven innocent. As I got to know the players better, the people who treated me like a suspect had never been in sales before.

Rolling into month two of the quarter, the heat on the grill suddenly jumped from medium to high. My forecasted deal made enough progress that my manager took a leap of faith and committed on his forecast for the deal to close. Let me explain. At this company, just because the account executive forecasted a deal to close didn’t mean the manager committed it to close. I didn’t find this out until a year or two later.

A Call from the SVP of Sales

Then, one evening I got a call from the SVP of sales. He obviously didn’t believe my manager or his regional VP about my deal and wanted to baste me over his own personal fire. The fact that my deal was a seven-figure booking and that my manager now believed me enough to commit the deal to close increased the scrutiny on every step or misstep I made in trying to get the deal closed. The cadence of the forecast calls increased from weekly to three times a week. Trying to make meaningful progress from call to call was impossible, but the heat only got more intense. With five weeks to go in the quarter, we moved to daily calls.

Any remaining sanity and decorum on the calls were tossed out the window. Some of the account executives on the calls were absolutely lying about the actions they were taking on their deal. These were guys in the same office as me. Everyone knew what everyone was doing with the exception of our manager. Of all the people who should have been helping me, I figured it would be my manager, but he was more comfortable sitting behind his desk than visiting with clients. I began to earn a small morsel of respect from some of the executives when I started barking back at them on the daily calls. If I didn’t have any new updates, I said as much. Why would I make stuff up about what was happening on my deal?

Does Anyone Know the Buying Process?

With three weeks to go in the quarter, my sponsor for the project and I met with his company’s chief procurement officer. He said, “You should have talked to me weeks ago, and I could have told you there was no way this contract would get done by the end of this quarter.” The silence in the room was particularly awkward. My mind separated from my body for what seemed like 5 minutes but was probably 15 seconds. I wondered if I was going to have a job and how I would present this news on the daily forecast call. I managed to pull it together enough to validate whether there was any possible way to get the contract signed this quarter. After being told NO three more times, I shifted to asking when it would get signed and exactly what the process would be to get it signed.

My sponsor apologized profusely. He knew what I was facing and even offered to speak to my senior management. Exiting my client’s building, I must have had the most severe case of lost puppy face ever. Missing your forecast at a publicly traded company will instantly drop the confidence your management has in you and put your manager’s job in a perilous position too.

Learning from a Forecasting Train Wreck

The lack of useful advice I received during this process was pretty astonishing. It made me wonder how long it had been since anyone in management closed a big deal themselves. During the insanity of this sales process, the regional vice president did stand out as the only one who actually knew what was going on. One pearl of wisdom he shared with me continues to help me today. He said, “It’s likely that none of your contacts actually know with any certainty all the steps they’ll need to take to get the contract approved.” He was spot on.

His nugget of closing wisdom is why I pushed my sponsor to find someone in the company who really knew what it took to get through the contract process. It’s been my experience that the larger the company, the more opaque the buying process becomes. Never settle for one, two or three versions of what it takes to get your deal signed. It’s not that your client is lying to you, it’s likely that it’s their first time to go through this process or that the process has changed from the last time they went through it.

There’s one thing I’ve learned over and over again on just about any product transaction. Getting the deal over the line takes significantly longer than you or your customer believe. Learning the customer’s buying process much earlier in the sale will keep you from getting bad news that your deal won’t close. Committing a significant deal to close is a scary proposition. It’s important for your customer to know what’s at risk for you and your company too.