Latest / Closing the Deal with Fexingo: Sales, Negotiation, and Revenue Conversations for Operators / How One Rep Turned a Lost Deal Into a Partnership
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this story out of a mid-market SaaS company — I'll leave the name out — where a rep named Diane had been working a Fortune 500 prospect for about six months. Luna: Six months is a long cycle for mid-market. Lucas: Right. And she'd done everything by the book: demos, executive briefings, a proof of concept. Then the prospect goes dark for three weeks. She finally gets the VP of Strategy on the phone, and he says, 'Look, we love the product, but we've decided to build something internally. We're going a different direction.' Luna: Classic build versus buy. And she's sunk six months. Lucas: Exactly. Most reps at that point would either discount heavily — 'what if we cut the price by 30 percent?' — or just walk away. Diane did neither. She said, 'I understand. But we've spent six months understanding your problem. What if we did a joint research project together, and you let us publish the findings?' Luna: Wait — she asked to do research together? After they said no? Lucas: Yeah. She reframed the entire conversation. She wasn't selling a product anymore. She was offering a partnership. And the VP paused and said, 'Actually, that's interesting. Let me think about it.' Luna: So the VP didn't hang up. That's already a win. Lucas: Huge win. Because when you get a 'no' and then ask for something smaller — a referral, a meeting with someone else — you're still in the vendor bucket. But when you ask for a collaboration, you step out of that bucket entirely. You become a peer. Luna: And what did the research project actually involve? Lucas: Diane proposed a three-month joint study on how large enterprises handle that specific workflow — the one their product addressed. The prospect would provide access to some anonymized data and a few internal interviews. Diane's company would do the analysis and write the white paper. Both sides would get to co-brand it. Luna: So the prospect gets thought leadership content without having to build it themselves, and Diane's company gets credibility and a foot in the door. Lucas: That's the genius of it. The VP came back and said, 'We can't pay you for the research, but we can fund a pilot program that will generate the data for the study.' Luna: So they went from 'we're building internally' to 'we'll pay for a pilot.' That's a complete reversal. Lucas: Complete reversal. And the pilot was for six months at about a hundred and twenty thousand dollars. It was a paid engagement, just not under a standard license agreement. Luna: And then what happened? Lucas: The pilot went well. The internal team that was supposed to build the in-house solution got reassigned to a higher-priority project. Six months later, Diane's company signed a two-year contract worth two point four million. Luna: So the research project was essentially a Trojan horse. But a legitimate one. Lucas: Exactly. And the key insight here is that Diane didn't try to overcome the objection. She didn't argue about why build was worse than buy. She just shifted the frame entirely. Luna: Is there a risk that the prospect says yes to the research but never becomes a customer? That they just take the free consulting? Lucas: That's the obvious risk. Diane mitigated it in two ways. First, the research was structured so that the pilot — which was paid — was the only way to generate the data. Second, she made sure the research question was tightly coupled with the product's value proposition. If the research proved the workflow was broken, her product was the natural fix. Luna: So the research itself was a sales tool. It built the case. Lucas: Right. And this isn't just a one-off story. I've seen this pattern work in professional services, in marketing tech, even in some hardware deals. The common thread is that the rep has to have enough domain expertise to propose a credible research question on the spot. Luna: Which means this probably doesn't work for every salesperson. You have to know the industry. Lucas: Absolutely. If you're selling a commoditized product and you don't have deep expertise, this feels forced. But if you're in a complex B2B sale where you've already spent months understanding the prospect's business, you probably have the raw material to propose something useful. Luna: So what's the signal that tells you it's time to pivot instead of keep pushing? Lucas: I think the key signal is when the objection is structural, not competitive. Diane's prospect said, 'We're going to build it ourselves.' That's a structural decision. It's not that they didn't like her product. It's that they had a policy or a strategy that prevented them from buying. When you hear that, pushing harder on features or price is pointless. Luna: Whereas if they'd said, 'Your product is too expensive' or 'We like a competitor better,' that's a different kind of objection. Lucas: Exactly. In those cases, you probably should negotiate or differentiate. But when the door is closing due to a policy — 'we only buy from approved vendors,' 'we're building in-house,' 'budget freeze' — a partnership pivot can reopen it from a different angle. Luna: Do you have another example where this worked outside of enterprise tech? Lucas: I remember a case in management consulting. A boutique firm was chasing a strategy engagement with a retail chain. The chain said, 'We're not hiring external consultants this year.' So the consulting partner offered to do a free one-day workshop on a topic the retail chain's CEO cared about — customer loyalty in the digital age. The CEO agreed. At the workshop, the partner surfaced a major gap in the chain's loyalty program. Four months later, they signed a two-million-dollar transformation project. Luna: So the workshop was the research project in that case. Lucas: Exactly. Same pattern: offer something that feels like collaboration, not a sales pitch. The prospect says yes because it's low risk and high value. And then the collaboration reveals a problem that only your solution can fix. Luna: It's almost like you're selling the diagnosis, not the prescription. Lucas: That's a great way to put it. And the diagnosis has to be credible. If you're just going through the motions, people see through it. Luna: So for a salesperson listening right now, what's the actionable takeaway? The next time they get a structural 'no,' what should they say? Lucas: I'd say: don't counter with a discount. Don't ask for another meeting. Instead, say something like, 'I understand. Given how much we've learned about your situation, I think there's an opportunity to do something together that would benefit both of us. Would you be open to a short research project or a co-branded piece of content that explores this problem?' The exact wording matters less than the pivot from vendor to partner. Luna: You know, it's funny — conversations like this are exactly why listener support matters to us. We keep the show ad-free because we want to dig into specific tactics like this without any sponsor constraints. If these episodes have helped you in your own work, you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small way to keep these deep dives coming. Lucas: I appreciate that. And honestly, the only reason we can spend ten minutes on one sales rep's move is because we don't have to squeeze in ad breaks. So thank you to anyone who's chipped in. Luna: Alright — back to the pivot. One thing I'm wondering: does this work in a smaller deal size? Diane's was a two-million-dollar contract. What if you're selling a ten thousand dollar software subscription? Lucas: I think it's harder. The partnership pivot requires enough at stake that both sides are willing to invest time. If the deal is small, the prospect might not see the ROI of a joint research project. But the principle still applies in a lighter form. You could offer to write a case study together instead of a full research project. Or you could propose a beta test that gives them early access in exchange for feedback. Luna: So scale the collaboration to match the deal size. Lucas: Exactly. The core idea is the same: when the sale is blocked, offer a collaboration that creates new value. That collaboration can be small — a single testimonial, a referral, a joint webinar. The point is to change the relationship dynamic. Luna: And once the dynamic changes, the old objection often becomes irrelevant. Lucas: Right. Diane's prospect didn't suddenly decide to buy the product. They entered a new relationship where buying the product was a logical next step. That's the real win.