As a buyer, how often have you sat through a sales pitch where they droned on about their company, flashed a slide full of big-name logos to prove credibility, and then
dumped a pile of product features on you?
It’s a script most sales teams follow without thinking.
Here’s the problem: nobody cares.
Your prospect doesn’t care about your logos. They don’t care who else you’ve worked with. They don’t even care about the clever features you’re so proud of.
What they do care about is one thing:
What can you do for me?
And not just for my organization – for me personally.
That last piece is critical. Because while we all like to believe business decisions are made in the “best interest of the company,” the truth is much simpler: every decision gets filtered through self-interest. If it doesn’t align with what matters to the individual sitting across the table, the deal is dead on arrival.
Let me give you two real-world examples.
Example 1: The Plant Manager Who Loved His Junkets
A friend of mine is a highly accomplished engineering consultant. He’d given a major Australian manufacturer a proposal which would see production efficiency sky-rocket – adding millions of dollars to their bottom line.
On paper, it was a no-brainer.
But the plant manager shut it down.
Why?
Because approving the project meant automating away some of the processes that justified his annual “study tours” to Europe. The trips were perks he loved. His personal self-interest – keeping his junkets – outweighed what was clearly in the company’s best interest.
He recounted how he was literally marched to the door by the plant manager.
Example 2: The Facilities Manager Blocking the Deal
In another case, a facilities management company was trying to win a contract. Logically, their offer was stronger, cheaper, and delivered more value.
But the local facilities manager resisted. He saw the move as a threat to his authority and his job. So he pushed back hard and stalled the decision.
Understanding self-interest was at play, the organization quietly offered him a position with them as the state manager looking after their whole portfolio.
Surprise, surprise, he pushed the deal through and then accepted the new role.
The Bottom Line
Features, benefits and logos don’t close deals. Aligning with self-interest does.
Every proposal needs to answer two questions:
- How does this create value for the organization?
- How does this make decision-makers’ and any influencers’ personal lives better, safer, or easier?
Ignore that second question, and you risk losing the deal to politics, fear, or ego – even when the deal makes sense in every other way.
Because at the end of the day, people don’t buy in the company’s best interest. They buy in their own.
If your deals keep stalling – even when your solution is the logical choice – maybe it’s time to shift how you sell. Let’s talk.
