I Made a Half a Billion Dollar Unsolicited Bid to a Fortune 100 Company. Here’s What I Learned.

Back in the summer of 2019, I won a $6.6M SaaS deal with one of the world’s largest cable companies by submitting a $504M unsolicited bid to manage their customer service business.

Below, I summarize the 5-step “success algorithm” that landed me the largest deal that year. It took me 8 1/2 months to go from introduction to closing the hefty 7-figure deal. If you implement these steps, you could find yourself landing the biggest deal of the year too.

Dare to dream big.

For context, I was a “new logo hunter” in 2018 and first got introduced into the account (a large ~$10B global telco company who was not yet our customer) in December of that year.

I was far down the path to closing my first two deals at my company that month, which meant I was working very closely with our EVP of Sales.

Because those deals progressed well in my first year, it helped me earn his trust when strategic opportunities came across his desk.

Best way to earn the trust of your execs is to deliver good work.

So when the telco brand’s EVP of CX and Regional Market Strategy reached out to our EVP of Sales, he assigned me to lead the pursuit.

I had the trust of our EVP, but now it was time to earn the trust of their EVP (and their broader team).

Here’s how I did it and closed the deal in less than 9 months, step by step:

Step 1: Make it Easy to Get Inside Their Four Walls

Leverage a strategic initiative of the brand to make it simple to get a fast, early win. It’s important to show them how to think big, but act small. Help them launch a new initiative to get a contract in place so you can start working closely like partners.

Step 2: Get help

Having a good internal supporter to be equal to their executive sponsor is key. Be ok pulling in someone who above you who is more experienced in managing the executive relationship.

Step 3: Good early results uncover the facts (and gives you momentum)

You need to collect their actual data, not a hypothesis, to make the proposal more real, and then move quickly while sentiment and interest are high after winning on the first strategic initiative.

Step 4: Apply design thinking

Work backwards from the ultimate end result- the output of the transformation to guide your plan.

Step 5: Set up the strategy using project management skills

Show and easily articulate how to go from point A to Z without a lot of complicated jargon or slides.

Anybody who tries to make selling big deals more complex than this, simply hasn’t done it.

If you want to read the full detailed breakdown of this deal, you can do so HERE.

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