IT’S true. I blew it.

It gets worse: I made rookie mistakes.

Here is the setup: We were in our offices with a buyer’s table from the whale’s side of 6 people- The Polar Bear, (ultimate buyer) who is also our raven, (champion). There were 4 other people who will be deeply involved in the program if we land it. We had a small team from our side- The meeting was mid-process in our sales process for a whale-sized engagement. We were exploring their needs, credentializing ourselves and discussing how we might work together. Where did I make my mistakes?

1. Talked when I should have asked – I cringe when I think about it- but we did not prepare our questions in advance to drive to the core issues of the other people in the room. Our polar bear was our raven- so the conversation focused on him- except he had ALREADY BOUGHT! So, we were working with him on the rest of his team- and that means asking, not telling.
2. Rushed the discussion – We knew we had a hard out for the meeting time, so I kept pushing to my agenda, the one in my head, instead of listening to their issues and the agenda in their head.
3. Didn’t solve the fear – If you don’t ask the right questions, you don’t give the right answers- In this case, the fear we were answering was “will this work?” The fear that they had was “how long will this take to implement of my time?” Strong disconnect.

Errors happen all of the time- you try something and it doesn’t work, so you learn and try something else. In this instance, I knew better… I just didn’t do better. Anybody else out there make rookie mistakes?

So, my new resolution on old mistakes:

• Prepare my questions in advance so that I am focused and mentally accessible.
• Slow down-
• Identify, confirm and re-confirm what the issue is that you are addressing with the person you are addressing it throughout the meeting.

I wouldn’t mind it if you had a rookie mistake you have made recently if you shared it here in this blog- It is painful enough to make them- it is even worse to think you are the only one who does.