Let’s consider for a minute what we are trying to accomplish in the buying cycle, in this meeting with the prospect in which we once played the role of presenter.

Mission: Position

First, let us focus on our business development mission—our highest calling and purpose. Our mission is to position ourselves as the expert practitioner in the mind of the prospective client. We must resist the temptation to sacrifice our mission for money or other short-term gains. This mission should guide everything we do in the buy-sell relationship. It is a contravention of such a mission to try to sway someone to hire us through a presentation. This simple idea is radically at odds with what most of us have been taught. It is not our job to convince the client to hire us via presentation or any other means. As we will see in the fourth proclamation, convincing has no place in selling.

If we have failed in the first proclamation and we have not set ourselves apart from the competition, then we may never see the truth in the second. Obtaining the expert position and replacing presentations with conversations will remain an unachievable ideal.

Objective: Determine Fit

While our mission is to position, our objective at each and every interaction in the buying cycle is simply to see if there is a fit between the client’s need and our expertise suitable enough to take a next step. That’s it. It is not our objective to sell, convince or persuade. It is simply to determine if there exists a fit suitable enough to merit a next step. Our mission is to position; our objective is to determine a fit.

In accepting any invitation to present in the buying cycle, we sacrifice our mission and reduce the likelihood of arriving at our objective.

Once we have obtained power through the sacrifice and hard work of following the first proclamation, why, for reasons other than our own personal needs and the profession’s long ingrained habits, would we voluntarily give up that power through the sales pitch of the presentation?