1️⃣ Delay the concession after a good story Two experiments with 622 B2B salespeople found that a buyer’s story raised willingness to concede by 17% and trust by 10%, even when the buyer had lied.
💡 Why it matters Separate persuasion from verification. No price or term decision should be made while the story is still doing the work.
☕ Coffee talk Who checks the buyer’s facts while your best negotiator is enjoying the anecdote?
2️⃣ Demand value that reaches the P&L BCG warns that AI pilots can report productivity gains without producing cost savings or measurable business value. Local efficiency is not an end-to-end result.
💡 Why it matters Give every pilot an operating metric, an owner for the full workflow and a date for stopping it. Usage is not a return.
☕ Coffee talk How many successful pilots could finance themselves if the central budget vanished tomorrow?
3️⃣ Do not mistake the CRM for the sales process Jen Abel maps enterprise sales as roughly 15 steps, not the five stages shown in most CRMs. The pipeline forecasts the deal; it does not tell the team how to move it.
💡 Why it matters Manage the work between stages: stakeholder access, pilot design, procurement and redlines. That is where momentum is usually lost.
☕ Coffee talk Which stalled deal is still green because the CRM has no box for the person blocking it?