The Journey: Turning Lemons into Lemonade

That may not have been the win that Paul hoped for, but he made the best of it and found a win.

After transitioning into a more customer-facing role, Paul quickly found himself in deep water. His first major project responding to a customer RFP became a crash course in pricing, margins, and commercial strategy. Although he worked with the commercial team, Paul realized too late that he had not built the necessary customer relationships beforehand to truly understand expectations. His initial bid missed the mark badly. But instead of giving up, Paul regrouped, pushed to stay in the game, and successfully negotiated a contract renewal. It felt like a major win until the details caught up with him. Paul soon discovered he had underpriced key products and over-relied on procurement promises that didn’t materialize. The experience taught him hard but vital lessons: build real relationships before the deal, tie discounts to real activity, and never assume a “yes” today guarantees success tomorrow.

Link to the first post here

Today we are fast forwarding a couple of years for Paul. He has taken on a new challenge with some different products and is learning how to handle sales calls from a couple of other sales professionals that have been selling these products and services for a long time.

This Journey will share the updates and downs of a sales professional as he moves through his career. If you know someone struggling with sales please share this with them.

Also new posts for the journey will be coming out on Thursdays so subscribe now so you do not miss any of the Journey.

Sales Engineer

The Joint Call: The Power of Listening

Paul sat at his desk, refreshing his email and hoping something new would come through. He had recently taken on a new role with the company—more of an account management position tied to a new product line. New role, new location, new product.

Paul was starting to understand the products better but still needed help with sales calls. Just then, an email popped into his inbox, asking about a product he didn’t even know they offered. It wasn’t from a customer directly—it had been forwarded by his manager. Moments later, his manager Greg stopped by.

“Morning Paul, did you see that email I just forwarded you?” Greg asked.

“I did. But… what’s a Hose-O-Matic?” Paul replied.

“Yeah, it’s something we offer, but we don’t sell a lot of them. I figured you could team up with Tim on this one and go talk to the customer,” said Greg.

Tim, who sat in the neighboring cubicle, stood up over the wall. He was an experienced rep—close to retirement, really. He’d worked in several locations and was now helping out the local sales team.

“I don’t mind helping you out,” Tim offered. “Why don’t you reach out to the client and set up a meeting? I’ll come with you and cover the technical stuff.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Paul.

Paul scheduled the meeting for later that week. Tim gave him a quick rundown of the Hose-O-Matic and they went over a few more details while walking to the customer’s office.

Once in the customers office a very interesting sales call transpired before Paul’s eyes.

“Nice to meet you, Adam,” Tim said.

“Same,” Adam replied.

“So tell me a little about what you’re looking for,” Tim continued.

“We’re expanding a location and need some hose systems. I was just curious about your Hose-O-Matic. We’re really early in the planning stages,” said Adam.

With that, Tim launched into a full-blown feature dump—several configurations, technical specs, and use cases. He barely paused. Paul watched Adam slowly disengage.

Finally, Paul stepped in. “Thanks for that, Tim. Adam, how about I send over a couple of product options and a data sheet? That might help you with budgeting.”

“That would be great,” Adam said, clearly relieved.

They wrapped up and walked back to the office.

“Man, that went great!” Tim said. “I bet we can get him taken care of.”

“Yeah, I’m sure we can,” Paul replied, but in his head, he was thinking: There’s no way that guy wants to work with us. I’m not even sure the Hose-O-Matic is the right fit for him.

Paul drafted and sent the quote, then added a follow-up reminder to his calendar. But his hopes were low.

Let’s Try That Completely Different

After about a week of no response from Adam, even to the follows of the quote, Paul was sure they had lost that sale. But then Sarah stopped by. She was the OG in the office, having worked there for several years. She was really plugged in to the area and knew a lot of the customers both the ones she called on and the ones she did not. There was a potential account that had not been called on for a while. So the leadership thought it could be a good chance for Paul to bring in some work. Sarah knew a few of the folks over there.

“Hey,” she said, “I was talking to Alex over at Dyno-Ops. I thought we could swing by and check in. It’s been a while since anyone stopped in. Good chance for you to meet a few folks.”

“That would be amazing I really appreciate it. Anything I should prepare before we go?” Asked Paul.

“No this will be more just chatting but we’ll see if anything some up.” replied Sarah.

So she sent over the invite and two days later Paul and Sarah were headed over to Dyno-ops office. It was a pretty good sized company with operations that ran pretty much all the time. They got into the office and signed in. There was a coffee shop on the first floor so they just met there.

“There’s Alex and John” Said Sarah.

Pleasantries were exchanged and Paul was introduced. They talked a little about their backgrounds and Sarah caught up on the family side with Alex. Then things shifted a little more to work talk.

“So how are things at Dyno-ops these days?” Asked Sarah.

“Not too bad. You know there is always a new initiative.” Responded Alex.

“Speak for yourself.” Chimed in John. “We’re being asked to cut our costs 40% this year and it seems like most of our vendors are really struggling with our volume.”

“No kidding?” Said Sarah. “Are they just late with deliveries?”

“Late, poor quality, no service, you name it I’ve heard the excuse recently.” Said John. Paul could really sense his frustration.

“Tell me a little bit about what you are needing and by well?” Said Sarah.

“We’re looking to grow into a new region so we need about 20 systems in the next quarter. Pretty standard stuff it just seems that everyone is a little short on hands down there.” Said John.

“Where are you all expanding to?” Ask Sarah

“The Plains region. Seems like the hot new place, but everyone is struggling to get equipment and service down there.” Said John.

“You know we do have some operations down there. I do not know much, but I would be happy to ask some questions and see what we might be able to do for you down there, if you want?” Offered Sarah.

“Man, it’s been a long time since we worked together. There might be some hesitation given the history, but it never hurts to have another options. That would be great. No promises though.” Said John.

“Totally understand. Honestly all of that is Paul‘s problem. I’ll just see if we got any capacity down there and let him take it from there.” Said Sarah.

They finished up their coffee and headed back to the office. Paul had a page full of notes and more questions running through his head. When they got back to the office He sat down with Sarah and Greg his boss to better understand what they should offer.

Things to Remember:

As we walk through this Journey with Paul we’ll stop every so often to look back and see what we can learn from Paul.

1. Sales calls are a conversation and really should be 80% customer talking 20% you talking.

   1. Remember if the customer isn’t talking you aren’t learning.

2. Features don’t win deals problems do.

   1. Everyone has features, if you sell on features you will always have competition.

   2. If you solve a problem you will become the solution for your customer.

3. Two is better than one. Do not shy away from joint sales calls.

   1. One person can focus on keeping the conversation going. The other can focus on notes.

Don’t forget that a new post about Paul’s journey will be coming out on Thursdays so subscribe now so you do not miss any of the Journey.

Have you had an experience like Paul’s let us know about it in the comments. What did you learn?

Are you going through something similar right now and want some coaching? Reach out and let me know so I can help you avoid the challenges that Paul faced.