Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play Quotes

“We highly recommend that you write out an Intent Statement and develop the ability to act congruently with that intent, even under pressure. A good exercise for clarifying intent is provided in Appendix Two.”
― Mahan Khalsa, Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship

“If they say anything other than that they would make a decision, it is fair to push back: “I’m confused. It seems that even if I were to get you what you want, just the way you want it, it would not help you say yes or no. What’s missing?”
― Mahan Khalsa, Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship

“we will discuss in the Winning section, we should advocate for plenty of time to present our solution. We can use part of the presentation time to facilitate an Opportunity dialogue with the client stakeholders. We might start off by saying, “Our goal is to provide you with a solution that exactly meets your needs. Toward that end there are some things we know and some things we don’t know. Your company has given us some good background information—sufficient to come here today with a good hypothesis of what will work. However, we haven’t had a chance to speak with you personally and wouldn’t feel comfortable making a final recommendation without more fully understanding your perspective on what needs to happen. Before we present our solution, would you mind if we ask you a few questions?”
― Mahan Khalsa, Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship

“Stephen Covey’s sixth habit of highly successful people, “Seek first to understand—then to be understood,” applies to highly successful business developers.”
― Mahan Khalsa, Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship

“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
― Mahan Khalsa, Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship

“Consultants, being the intelligent people we are, have formalized the guessing process; we call it a proposal.”
― Mahan Khalsa, Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship

“The client’s question, “Are we getting the best deal?” (price negotiation) is very different from “Can we afford this?” (value justification); it is important to understand the difference.”
― Mahan Khalsa, Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship