The Great Pretender is often the best candidate AT THE INTERVIEW. In fact, often they seduce the interviewing team into believing that they are a “natural born salesperson” and can “sell anything to everyone.” Trouble is . . . this is rarely the reality and the Great Pretender arrives to start selling “their proven way.” Unfortunately, this “proven way” is often bogged down with lot’s of excuses around “relationship selling”. Those relationships are slow to build and lack revenue generation.
In fact, the Great Pretender is often nothing more than a professional visitor. Worse, they are so eager to please the prospect that they will waste a lot of time quoting on proposals for prospects that will never buy. In addition, the Great Pretender drags out the sales cycle, because they have no defined strategy to control it. After all, asking for the business would be “too pushy” and might jeopardize the relationship with the prospect. Sound familiar? It doesn’t have to be.