I was speaking with a good friend of mine last week who is in the sports business and who represents a couple of key professional sportspeople. He tries to find them sponsorship and also looks to broker deals with advertisers for other organisations.
He was pretty downbeat when I spoke to him as a deal he had been working on for some time was not going to happen as the potential client had pulled out. We chatted about the deal and I said well that’s ok as you have other deals in the pipeline, don’t you?
Then there was a silence…..
‘No I don’t’ he replied.’ I was sure I could get that deal over the line and so I didn’t want to waste my time talking to other companies’.
I consoled him for a few moments and then told him he needed to learn one big lesson from the whole process.
He had become a ‘prisoner of hope’ and that had to change.
He asked what I meant.
So many business owners and sales professionals fall into this trap. I know as I have been there myself and it’s incredibly frustrating. I am not sure where I first heard the saying but the meaning itself is so true.
When you have only 1 or 2 deals in your pipeline that you ‘hope’ will come across the line, you become a prisoner to them. If they are your ONLY option to hit your target or bring cash in, you lose control of your own destiny and when this happens, you get eaten rather than you eating!
When you have limited amounts of deals in your pipeline, you become reliant on them happening and as in the case of my friend, when they don’t, your world (if only for that short time period) falls apart.
You are a prisoner of hope if, within your pipeline and list of opportunities, you are totally reliant on 1 or 2 things to go your way. Because you don’t have other options to fall back on, you have to HOPE they do close.
How can you avoid this? The answer is simple.
Continue to generate leads and ensure you build up a ‘Fat Funnel’.
The more opportunities you have in your pipeline, the better it is and the less likely you are to become a prisoner of hope. If one opportunity falls through (as it did with my friend) then although it’s frustrating, it’s not the end of the world. Because you have others lined up.
But what happens if both of them happen and you don’t have the capacity to do both? Then you are in the box seat. You can start to dictate prices and terms. Maybe even raise prices? You can choose who you want to work with and hopefully do work with both.
The point is this, you are in control and you don’t become a prisoner of hope.
We all have to go through the ups and downs of sales and business but we can take action to avoid potential problems. The tip from today is don’t just rely on one or two deals to achieve your goals.
Build contingency. Build alternatives. Build other exit routes from the prison of one deal!
It’s sometimes difficult to do and maybe something you think you don’t need to do but when deals go awry (which they often do), having backups will ensure you avoid becoming a prisoner of hope.
How successful are you at building alternative options in your pipeline? Have you been a prisoner of hope recently? How did that feel?
Use these feelings and emotions to ensure that you are in control of your sales destiny.
