5 Things I Learned From Closing My First Deal

About two weeks ago, I put out a pretty raw post on LinkedIn. I opened up about the fact that I had been at my job for over two months and hadn’t closed a deal yet. Writing that post I felt like a failure, a screw-up, and a disappointment to the people who hired me.?

There was a perpetual pit in my stomach that worsened as more days ticked by without a sale.

But, yesterday on Day 68, everything changed.?

I sold something.?

It wasn’t the biggest deal in Blind Zebra history, not even close. But now it’s my biggest deal to date, and that’s something to celebrate.

Yesterday was filled with celebratory champagne and Instagram boomerangs with my team followed up with massive, knock the wind out of you kind of hugs from my roommates when I walked into our apartment. It was a day I’m going to hold close and never forget my entire sales career.

As the initial excitement and shock wore off this morning, I did some reflection on how exactly I got myself to this milestone and what I will take with me as I work toward my next sale.

1. Patience Pays Off.

I had been working this deal for what felt like forever. In reality, it was only about five weeks, but when all you want to do is close your first deal, five weeks can feel like an eternity. Patience has never been my strong suit, I’m more of an instant gratification type of gal. This deal taught me that sales is a long game. You need to give your prospect time and room to think. Trying to hurry a deal along simply for the sake of closing is going to come off to the prospect as pushy. You’ll look like all you care about is making a sale, not what they are thinking or how they are feeling.?

2. CFDs Work

CFD stands for “Clear Future Date.” It’s a tool we teach at Blind Zebra, and looking back at this deal, I can see why. CFDs are electronically accepted (yes, there has to be a ? or it doesn’t count) calendar invites with a prospect. BZ teaches to schedule follow-up meetings and send the calendar invite while you are on the phone with someone. The idea is that this helps avoid chasing after prospects to find a time to meet. In each step of this deal, I relied on this tool. By setting out next touchpoint in the moment, I didn’t spend even one minute chasing this prospect for a meeting.?

3. What You Put Out in the Universe Tends to Happen

It’s not magic, but sometimes it seems like it. Verbalizing goals or writing them down seems to make them a reality. I’ve had closing this specific deal on my Top 3 Priorities list for the last four weeks… and it finally did. Getting your goals outside of your own head helps propel them forward.

4. Celebrate the Wins (Within Reason)

Celebrating your wins is so important. It’s time to acknowledge the fact that you worked your ass off for a sale and take a moment not to think about what’s next. But, be careful of becoming too excited when a deal closes. Detachment is a BZ principal that most people would think of more when it comes to rejection or losing a deal. That’s only one side of detachment. You also need to be healthily detached from the good outcomes. This is NOT saying don’t celebrate your wins. Trust me, I did. But, placing too much weight on your wins can throw you off balance.

5. Pile on!

This is something Blind Zebra founder, Bryan, says to the team in almost every monthly KPI meeting. When things are going really well business-wise, it's natural to want to take your foot off the gas and coast. Ride out your win and take it easy. Instead, Bryan pushes us to pile on. Keep doing more of what got you that sale. Pushing through our instinct of letting up is when success really happens.