Patrick Mosher won a multi-billion-dollar consulting contract by ditching slides and telling an 18-second story about three Day-1 priorities: price clarity, sales assignments, and legal compliance. He skipped the pitch and offered next steps instead, arguing that unconventional wisdom embedded in stories wins deals and builds trust.
Chapters
Alright, so I promised story. So let me start with a story. And I, and I want, as I tell the story, think about what your story is. And so I'll, I'll begin this way. So I, I left, I left Accenture and about 2 months after I left Accenture, I got a call from a, a partner that I'd worked with on one of my last projects and said, the client has asked, the client is doing a post-merger integration, a billion-dollar acquisition, and they're selling each of the, the functional verticals one by one to each of the consultants, you know, putting each one out for bid. And you guys know how that goes, right? And so, but they're willing to put, not put the commercial, the commercial function out to bid, If you come and do the work. I was like, well, dude, I, I don't work at Accenture anymore. So the answer's no. And I'm like, okay, okay. So he went away for like a day, came back and said, could you, what would you be willing to do? Would you be willing to come back and do this? I'm like, there's all sorts of issues with a partner coming back and trying to do work through, you know, blah, blah, blah. And so he worked out some of the details, like, would you be willing to do this? I'm like, okay. I love the client. Uh, fun was the client was a lot of fun. So, uh, then we sat down and started planning out the orals and you guys know how orals go. So, you know, and the typical way to do that. Now I've been, you know, I'm, I'm looking at being an entrepreneur now and I'm going like, okay, I can get a team of, of Accenture people for this thing. So I don't have to go get that myself. They'll go get that. But I wanted to do things different. So we prepped and prepped and prepped, which we know how that goes. And then when we got ready to go to orals in Nashville, Tennessee, so the, the partner said, so, um, you know, where, where's the deck? I'm like, I'm not, I'm not gonna do a deck. Okay. You guys know that's, that's like, no, big no-no. I was like, no, I don't do, we're gonna go have a conversation. This is the commercial side of the business. Chief sales officers don't do decks. They have conversations and I could see him go like, uh, okay. Okay. So, um, uh, so we need to place a team. So what team are you gonna bring, you know, to the, to Nashville? I was like, nah, it's just gonna be me and you, you know, I need you in the room. And he's like, you're not gonna bring the team in so they can vet the team? I was like, nah, that's not, that's not what we're doing here. So, um, and, and Nate, you totally get this too. It's like, So this partner is totally uncomfortable with me coming after. I'm, I'm, I'm sure he was getting there going like, why did I ask him to do this? I'm not sure. But, but we go in. So there we, we show up in Nashville and, and it's this hotel. And, so we're waiting in the hallway because the other team went first and then the other team comes out through the doors. 5 guys, you know, you know, good suits. I'm not going to mention the company, but it's one we all know. And so they're coming out, high-fiving each other. They were, you know, like, this is great. And then we walk into this big conference room, you know, at a, like, you know, hotel ballroom kind of things. And there's one table in there with 4 people sitting there. It was each, you know, each company's chief counsel and each company's chief sales officer. They're just sitting there. And so they're, they're, they're in there and I walk in and I could just see them going like this and they, Client I knew is like, okay. And so what I saw was the, you know, the previous teams up on the, on the screen was their last slide. And then on the white, on the flip chart, there was playbook, merger and acquisition playbook, and, you know, all these kind of assets that they had to, to win the work and everything like that. It's all standard stuff, right? You guys, stuff you typically see. I walked in, sat down, and, and they said, oh, where are your slides? Like, oh, I'm not gonna do slides. Okay. That's cool. And so I said, so, so where do we go? And I was like, if I think about doing a post-merger integration, your concerns are about day 1. We, we gear up for day 1. And on day 1, you're gonna have 3 issues. 3 things that you want to feel good about. The first one is, does the customer know the, the price? Because, you know, two, two companies coming together, their prices were different. So on day 1, you want to put the customers to be really clear about the price of the product and then actually who to go to. What salesperson do I need to go? How do, how do I, how do I transact with the company now? So that's number 1. And I could see them all going like, okay. And I said, number 2, 1 plus 1 in a merger is not 2. So 1 plus 1 is usually 1.6 or 1.5. So you're gonna have to let go of a lot of salespeople. And so on day 1, the salespeople have to know exactly who their clients are and which one of us is the guy that's gonna sell to this client. This customer. So that, so your salespeople have to be crystal clear on day 1. And number 3, nobody can go to jail because of fraud or bribery or difficulties like that. This is one of those industries that, that stuff can happen. So, so nobody can go to jail. So that's my presentation. What questions do you have? And they were like, oh, so what did I, what I had done is I did not prep for orals. I prepped for day one workshop. So I, and, and they call that a presumptive close. And you know how that goes, Nate, too, because you're in the sales part. It's a presumptive close, but not a, not a, a used car salesman presumptive close. I just looked beyond this thing. It's like, let's go. Now the partner that I was with, he's like, you just gave, if they don't choose us, you just gave the other team What they needed. And I said, no, I gave the client what they should do next. And that's about trust. So we had that conversation, great rich conversation for the next hour and a half. And, you know, we're going through stuff and clearly, you know, I kind of knew what I was talking about because I could talk about it. And then, they said, okay, that's great. We got up, walked, and this, I, I timed this. I walked through the doors of the conference room. I got a tap on my shoulder from legal counsel saying, you won the work. I did not talk price, team, or deliverables, or timeline. So, you know, we won the work. It was basically a blank check. What better way to sell stuff than, than have a blank check because you're so convincing with your story. Cool. All right. That's my story. I call that my 18-second sales story. Now, I'll also give you a part of this story, too, is that I had prepped for this thing and it was about a week ahead of time. I had my business coach tell me, go have a conversation. Don't prep for this as if you're going to, you know, have a big PowerPoint deck. So I got spun a little bit at the back end of this thing. And it worked. So, uh, the point of that is, well, let me ask you, what did you learn from that story? What'd you learn from that story? And, and I gave them an ambition, right, of that, of, of a story that they could write for this. So I'm going to fix this while we talk, but, um, but, you know, I helped them develop their story, which was, was great. I love that too, as, as, as how we talked about this. Okay, so I'm gonna add one more piece to this as I change the battery here. Another piece that I gave them that I want you to think about is I gave them unconventional wisdom. Those, those 3 things that I gave them was they could resonate with immediately, but it was unconventional wisdom. Nobody's walked in and said that to them before. And I love that too. So, so, and, and Paul, this is kind of for you, um, with what you're gonna put out there as a speaker, you need unconventional wisdom. Mm-hmm. So all the stuff sounds normal and rote and routine, the stuff you always see, but what are some of the unconventional wisdoms that you have? And I look for those for in my work. Another one that I give out there all the time with unconventional wisdom, if I'm asked to do an organization design, I say, you know, you guys all want to start with an org chart. Do you realize that an org chart is a, it's a how exceptions get processed? If I were gonna do a process map, would you want me to start with asking you where all the exceptions are? And they'd say, well, no. And I was like, an org chart does not tell you how work gets done. It tells you how it doesn't get done. Because it tells you where people have to escalate the problems. So let's start with what I call an org model and start with how the work gets done, which is in the lowest part of the organization, because that's where value's created. It's not created in this room with all you guys. You're just, you're just managing exceptions. And when I, I did that with the, at one of the big pharmaceutical companies, and it was just like with 35 people in the room, and the president was like, yes, this is the right guy. Now all the direct reports were going, no, we hate this guy because they had all built their chart. That's how they were going to build their big fiefdoms out of this org change that was happening. But that wasn't where value gets, it happened. So anyway, that's a mini story of unconventional wisdom. So I encourage you too, as a part of your story, where's the unconventional wisdom? In the story I just told, the unconventional wisdom is I walked in with 3 points. That's unheard of in the consulting world. Okay, cool. So, I don't have much time left. So I'm
