Comments on: “Thought Bubble” Inflation: The Sales / Service Handoff http://salesscale.com/thought-bubble-inflation-the-sales-service-handoff/ Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:11:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.2 By: Molly http://salesscale.com/thought-bubble-inflation-the-sales-service-handoff/#comment-11 Molly Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:20:22 +0000 http://salesscale.com/?guid=41aea8046f057f45906a8d8c1a695ab9#comment-11 Paul, I love the cartoon illustrating the “thought bubble” inflation. As a sales person and a consumer I’ve had this experience. I never thought about the importance of this gap until now.

]]> By: Wil Bradley http://salesscale.com/thought-bubble-inflation-the-sales-service-handoff/#comment-10 Wil Bradley Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:29:54 +0000 http://salesscale.com/?guid=41aea8046f057f45906a8d8c1a695ab9#comment-10 Great article. As someone who has been on the sales side, as an SE, a consultant and part of the execution team, this hits home.

Setting expectations is key to any type of sale, especially technology.

Sales definitely needs to have the SE or a consulting rep review SOWs. Involving them at the kickoff meeting may be too late. It might be a good idea to have the SE review technical reqs with the client during the sales cycle. This can be done over the telephone or via Goto Meeting between sales calls. Preventing the unexpected always helps.

The “bubble” usually bursts with implementation. The customer implementation group runs into unexpected issues or requirements. If they haven’t been included in the buying process, it leads to a “You should have asked us first” mentality. Things go down hill from there.

Sales people hate it, but I believe including some type of technical review by the implementation group during the sales cycle, can keep the bubble floating to the next sale.

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