The self inflicted wound.

I have two POS consulting projects that are the beginning stages. My first step in the process is to indentify the client’s needs and the second is to qualify vendors who can meet their needs. I begin to evaluate vendors’ right from the onset based on their responsiveness. I send them an outline of the client and the features they looking for in a system. From that point I start the winnowing process until there are a least three vendors to bring in to demonstrate their systems I monitor the vendors very closely. My basic premise is if a vendor is not responsive during the sales process they most likely will be even less once they have the client’s money. Here’s where the “self inflicted wound” comes into play. You would think after a vendor has invested their time responding to emails and incurring the expense of coming to the retailer’s location for a demo they would certainly be quick to respond to the necessary follow up. The process of selling application software is time consuming and requires a lot of follow up. This is not a commodity sale it’s a sale that involves many steps. There are many reasons sales are lost, some you understand and some are defined as the mystery of sales. If you are in the business you know the vagaries of sales and all the things you can’t control. Having said that why would a sales person lose a sale because of a “self inflicted wound”? I’m always baffled by this.