I’ve been diving into The Framemaking Sale by Brent Adamson and Karl Schmidt, the minds behind The Challenger Sale

There’s a specific scenario Brent describes that hit me with a wave of "sales dejà vu." 

It reminded me of a pivot I made years ago that changed how I hunt

The Speed Trap

We’ve all been there: a deal is moving at terminal velocity, everyone is high-fiving, and then, thud

It hits the brick wall of Purchasing

The momentum dies, the forecast shifts, and suddenly you’re in a defensive crouch

I eventually got tired of the whiplash

I started engaging Purchasing early, not because I loved the paperwork, but because of resource protection

If a deal is going to die on the vine due to a procurement technicality, I want it to die fast

Why burn through my limited pre-sales resources and engineering hours on a ghost?

If we can't clear the hurdle, let’s qualify out and walk away with our dignity (and our budget) intact

From Gatekeepers to Champions

Back when I was selling to NHS Trusts in the West Midlands, this strategy paid off in spades

By the time we had secured our first few wins, the Purchasing teams weren't just "processing" us; they were actually supporting us

Because we respected the due process and proved functional fitness upfront, they saw no reason to drag their feet

They realized that if the business need was real and the solution was proven, there was no sense in tying everyone up in a bureaucratic loop

The Mystery of the "Impossible Bid"

There was one particular open tender where I worked so closely with the procurement team that I helped them draft the advert

The specs were so precise that, frankly, we were the only ones who could realistically tick every box

The strange part? 

Four other companies still spent the time and money (they would have had to work over the weekend) to bid on it

It worked out great for us, Procurement could point to a competitive field of five bidders, but it still baffles me

Why would anyone waste precious cycles bidding on a game they’ve already lost?

Conclusion

In complex sales, your "enemy" isn't necessarily a competitor; it’s the lost time spent on deals that were never going to cross the finish line

By bringing Procurement into the fold early, you aren't just checking a box, you’re building a fortress around your deal

It turns a potential bottleneck into a powerful engine for expansion