Eradicate Neediness
The buyer’s process is designed to wear you down. Radio silence during RFP reviews, last-minute requirements, unexplained delays, and multiple "best and final" offers—it's a familiar playbook. The goal is to shift power, making you feel like you are begging just to keep the conversation alive.
By the time you reach the final negotiation, the field is anything but level. Sellers have been conditioned to plead, not to partner. This dynamic creates the single most destructive mindset in a high-stakes deal: neediness.
If your team needs the deal too much, they’ve already lost. That desperation infects every decision. They overthink simple emails, freeze up when challenged, and panic at the first sign of a delay. They make concessions without asking for anything in return, negotiating against themselves before the buyer even has to ask. They trade margin for the illusion of progress.
This behavior is a direct result of forgetting one simple truth: the buyer is here for a reason. They have a problem they cannot solve on their own. They engaged in a lengthy evaluation process because maintaining the status quo is costing them money, efficiency, or market share. They need a resolution.
The antidote to neediness isn't sales tactics; it's conviction. And that conviction comes from being anchored in the value you deliver.
The key is to build and over-communicate the business case. This isn't just a formality for the buyer’s CFO; it's you - and your champion’s - source of truth. It is the clear, quantifiable, and mutually agreed-upon story of the value your solution creates. It documents the precise cost of their problem and the ROI of your solution.
When you are armed with a validated business case, you are no longer just a vendor trying to close a deal; you are a strategic partner with the key to solving a multi-million dollar problem. The conversation shifts from what you want to what they stand to lose.
I remember the rep who had worked with his champion to quantify the annual cost of nursing attrition at a mid-size hospital system - $19M! From that point forward, he started every presentation (including negotiation meetings), with that slide or a mention of it: “We’re here to solve the $19M annual attrition problem.” It was the perfect framing (and personal energy boost) required for anything they might have thrown at us!
Stop letting your deals be haunted by desperation. Arm yourself with a compelling business case and eradicate neediness.
