John McMahon, veteran enterprise sales leader and board member, explains how aligning product differentiators to customer criteria drives wins.
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“Whoever locks down the decision criteria is going to lock down the deal.”
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“It should. It should still hold true, no different than, like, I think about a sports team. Sports team has a playbook, and the players have to know the playbook, so they have to have the knowledge, and then they have to have the skill set to execute the play,…”
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McMahon: Six months without meeting the economic buyer means no deal
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