I was with a group this week outside of Atlanta at Legacy Lodge and Conference Center on Lake Lanier (what a beautiful location - I definitely hope to get back there when I have a little more time to enjoy the surroundings). They are just getting started with the IMPAX Process and they had a ton of great questions for me that just about covered the spectrum, including:

• How do you develop coaches?
• How do you create compelling business fits?
• When do you use business fit and when do you use solution fit?
• How do you develop the "right" action steps in your presentation?

One of the toughest questions of the day: "What if you've got a customer who has declared that you are a vendor and will always be a vendor"? My first response was a couple of questions back at them:

• "Who told you this?"
• "Is this person the decision maker?"
• "If so, how had you gone about presenting your value?"

The heart of my answer was this - for this challenge to deter me, it had to have come from a decision maker after I gave it my best shot at presenting my value (business fit). Usually, when I am put in the vendor trap I am put there by an evaluator or gatekeeper. If the objection didn't come from a decision maker, I still have a chance. Even though there are many evaluators who are incented to cut costs, there are still decision makers who are incented to invest in value. If this objection did come from the decision maker after I presented (in IMPAX format) to them, I just qualified my efforts. Many of us appreciate the old saying, "give me a yes or a quick no."

This doesn't mean we can't continue to compete for their business, we just have to have our eyes open that we'll be competing as a vendor.