Qualification and healthy close
Saying no to the wrong opportunities and protecting margin: ICP, the 21% win rate, the discount that costs 8× EBIT, the toxic yes and incentive systems that destroy margin.
When the OEM knows the Tier 2 cannot leave: price negotiation under conditions of structural asymmetry
The structural concentration of automotive Tier 2 suppliers on a few OEMs changes the nature of annual price negotiation. Without protective contractual clauses and without active diversification, margin erodes by construction of the model.
The agroindustrial co-operative qualifies slowly and pays late. The true customer cost that the manufacturer fails to calculate
The qualification process in an agroindustrial co-operative is lengthy. The payment term, after invoicing, is lengthy as well. Without explicit financial calculation of both effects, the declared customer profitability is misleading.
The salesperson visits the manager. The workshop foreman decides. The asymmetry that defines construction machinery sales
In small and medium-sized public works operators, the decision on which machine to purchase is not signed by the person who appears to sign it. Working the signatory without working the real decision-maker is wasting the sales cycle.
Being prescribed is not being purchased: how prescription is lost in the last kilometre of electrical works
Winning technical prescription in the design office does not guarantee purchase on site. Between award and actual order there is a silent kilometre where the brand may be substituted. Defending prescription is a distinct discipline from winning it.
The toxic yes: why some closed contracts are born already destroyed
There is a recurring industrial commercial pattern: contracts signed with aggressive discount and operational ambiguity that turn into a loss before delivery is complete. Detecting the toxic-yes signature before accepting it is a specific executive capability.
The hidden cost of an imprecise customer profile in mid-sized industry
Defining the ideal customer by sector and size is the convention. The evidence shows that this definition is insufficient to govern an industrial pipeline, and that its imprecision costs more than the executive committee usually recognises.
Commissioning the industrial sales rep by volume: the system that pays to destroy margin
The most widespread incentive scheme in mid-sized industrial companies rewards volume closed, not margin captured. The consequence is a sales team that is individually rational and collectively erosive of profitability.
The 21 per cent win rate: why four out of five large bids the company writes are lost
The average B2B close rate is 21 per cent. In large transactions, it falls to 12-18 per cent. Accepting the figure forces a rethink of how, and to what, to decide to respond when an opportunity arrives.
The discount granted at closing is worth eight times more profit than it appears
The arithmetic of price in industrial B2B is counter-intuitive. One percentage point conceded in negotiation equates, on average, to eight points of EBIT lost. The discount conversation rarely incorporates that magnitude.