Imagine you’re lying on an operating table as the surgeon comes into the room.
The surgeon looks around and says, “Hey, has anyone ever done this before?”
You’d probably jump off the operating table and run out of the room!
Yet, this is the position many sales teams put the client in when the time comes to start writing down the deal. After all the time spent sharing with the client the tremendous value of the services to be provided, the sales team rushes the close process to get to “done” and doesn’t take the time to properly draft the documentation required to get the deal signed. Instead, some poor young professional who used the word “whereas” or “including but not limited to” in a conversation is deemed fit to create the statement of work or description of services for the client to review.
Or worse the account team puts a signature block on the last page of the original proposal and sends the PowerPoint deck to the client to sign (true story!).
In the excitement to get to “done,” they short-circuit the process of setting up a proper close plan and start throwing hastily-prepared paper at the client for review and execution.
All client decisions are made on the basis of a single word: trust. That applies not just to whether the client trusts you in the sales process, but also in the contracting and delivery process. If your client has done a project like yours before, they likely know what “good” looks like when it’s time to write down the deal. And the client has an expectation that you, as their service provider, also know the professional and proper paperwork required in order to document the agreement. If you send something over that does not meet their expectations for a quality contract, you’ve now impacted their perception of the professionalism of your whole company, and you now risk not getting the deal you’ve worked on for so long.
In deal making there is an adage that “time kills deals.” And that is true of going too slow, and too fast. As in baking, if your goal is to celebrate a magnificent creation, rushing the cake out of the oven too soon will leave you with a disappointing mess.
