While dealing with bad news is never a fun part of the job for CEOs and Chief Sales Officers, it\u2019s why you \u201cmake the big bucks\u201d, right?\u00a0\u00a0 When it comes to bad sales news, we also always prefer January challenges over December surprises.\u00a0\u00a0 Most Boards of Directors will agree with that!<\/em><\/p>\n Let\u2019s say you are one of those Sales Leaders who has done what we suggested and really scrubbed your sales pipeline.\u00a0 All the dead wood is gone and you\u2019re left with a much more realistic, but painfully smaller list of opportunities to close.\u00a0 Now you have tell the CEO that your chances of hitting the first quarter sales target are much lower than you thought and the rest of the year is going to be an uphill climb.\u00a0\u00a0 Resist the temptation to delay the conversation \u2013 and prepare yourself for the discussion with data and a plan.<\/p>\n Check and double check the important data on the remaining deals in your pipeline.\u00a0 Pay particular attention to close dates, values and probabilities.\u00a0 Your credibility is on the line here and any questionable information will cast a dark shadow of doubt over the entire situation.<\/p>\n What is the best outcome the company can expect from the revised pipeline \u2013 and what is most likely.\u00a0 This is the time to rip the Band-Aid and get all the bad news out there.\u00a0 How many quarters will be impacted and to what degree?\u00a0 Don\u2019t be defensive when answering questions about how this happened and be open to suggestions from the CEO and the rest of the Leadership team on ways to recover.<\/p>\n If you have not finalized your 2012 Sales Plan \u2013 NOW IS THE TIME!\u00a0 Come prepared to demonstrate how your sales team will rebuild the pipeline.\u00a0 Explain what resources and organization support will be needed to help the plan succeed.\u00a0 Prepare a budget of required investments in people and process.\u00a0 Be realistic about the expected timelines and results.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t about setting up the diving catch at the goal line to win the game.\u00a0 It is about demonstrating that planning, process and execution are the way to permanent recovery.<\/p>\n Sales leadership is often about accepting reality the way it is, not the way you want it to be.\u00a0 It is also about accountability and transparency and this is the time of year to establish that with your CEO and the rest of the organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Is a Good Time for Bad Sales News? While dealing with bad news is never a fun part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7971"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8912,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971\/revisions\/8912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Three Requirements for Dealing with Bad Sales News<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Get Your Facts Straight \u2013 the First Time<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Determining Exactly Where You Stand and Know the Impact<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Have a Plan for Recovery<\/strong><\/h3>\n