Weaknesses:
- Lack of ability to find (or to appreciate importance of it) the needs and motivations of customer.
- Lack of preparedness/knowledge about the product:- price estimate, list of hospitals, collecting testimonials from existing clients proactively
- Lack of building relationship ability. Mediquip already admitted that their competitors know the decision makers at client side better than them and Mediquip is learning faster. He was not able to identify the key players early on and their role(or level of influence) in the decision making process and as a result he was unable to come up with a coherent sales pitch to impress the decision makers. Thaldorf did not make any attempt to find out/confirm the 3rd decision maker. He also didn’t do any background work to know the personalities of decision makers.
- Lack of convincing ability. He could not demonstrate to Hartman, the key decision maker, the technological superiority of the product. Hartman was clearly onfused when he quoted that every competitor is telling that their product is a hi-tech one
- Thaldorf did not make any effort to connect further with Dr. Rufer who might have had a significant influence in the decision making. Dr. Rufer was clearly unimpressed with Thaldorfs offering.
- Lack of ability to set proper price strategy. Pitching initially as high tech product for high price, he reduced the price drastically leading to contradicting his initial sales pitch.
Strengths:
- Thaldorf was very sincere in following up, connecting with customers for nformation.
- Good at interacting with people who are friendly. He was able to impress Professor Steinborn by addressing all his concerns regarding the product features when asked. He also connected well with him at a personal level as well. (asked about vacation, sailing experience).
- He is good at leveraging the expertise of coworkers. He got the specification verified with product specialist. Worked with the boss for price setting.