Dog wagging the tail, or tail wagging the dog?
Recently I had the opportunity to speak with some sales / pre-sales practitioners, many of them representing companies selling solutions and projects involving professional services effort. And a few shared with me the pain they encounter - "How do I challenge estimations I get from my delivery teams? Because at these estimates, I'm not competitive at all."
It's not an uncommon theme, and I've seen that personally in my carrer within professional services business. Having been on both sides, both of them have fair points:
š° Sales perspective:
-
the first-phase is a "foot-in-a-door", we can't shoot too high
-
we need to fit within what the customer is able to spend
-
competitors are already "dropping their pants" š
š Delivery perspective:
-
if we overpromise, we'd most likely underdeliver
-
the requirements were given, we're telling what it takes to deliver them
-
after the deal is done, it's all on us to tackle the mess
-
ahah, we can't forget about the "risk" multiplier š
Sales x Delivery clash.
Who's the dog, and who's the tail?
And any tips to manage that?
#estimations #professionalservices #delivery #sales #presales
Dog pic for attention
