Why Deals Die Inside the 10-Yard Line with Randy Riemersma

podcast hosted by John Kaplan and John McMahon. Today's conversation features Randy Reimersma, founder of Sell With Precision and a sales leader with more than 35 years of experience building and leading B2B teams. Randy explains why deals lost inside the final 10 yards are rarely about product capabilities. They are lost when the buyer no longer has enough confidence to take the risk. He breaks down how elite sellers reinforce belief through executive alignment, credible proof points, and consistent communication with the champion. Let's dive in.

Look, I'm going to say something crazy. I think all deals lost inside the 10 yard line had nothing to do with your capabilities. It has everything to do with their lack of confidence. Because I think sometimes for data salespeople, we're selling somebody $3 million worth of software. If this hits the fan, their job is at risk. Which is why when we get inside the 10-yard line, there are some things that we've got to have done very, very well. Our customer referrals have to have gone absolutely cold stone fantastic. Our executive alignment with them has got to be fantastic. John, I know you're going to love this. We have to be texting with our champion on a daily basis at this zone because they are going to

be getting nervous. We have to hold their hand.

Our surround inside the 10 yard line has got to be execution excellence on our side because they've already decided about the product. They've already agreed to the business case. Now it's like. I'm about to put a pen on a piece of paper. Am I going to lose my job for this? And it's our job to make sure they don't. That confidence, if we do a great job there, creates that urgency that gets us all the way into the end zone.

Great. Great.

So one, I'm really fascinated by this conversation and I've been studying and people, you know, you've heard like when we were younger, you'd see it in locker rooms or whatever. People say, believe like they would just have a, they would just have a, you know, sign called believe or so. I don't know. A couple of years ago, I started to really dig into and the science behind belief is is so incredibly pure and telling. They have it down to the science of like healthcare. There are differences in outcomes when a patient believes that they are, and even in placebos, so they've given medication to somebody that has a problem and they've given a placebo effect. And until they did this and studied it in medicine, they really didn't capitalize on it. But people, by the very sense of believing something, will look for more evidence around them that they're right and it's true. And I find this so fascinating. And if I'm a seller today, I would learn as much as I can about a belief system and how to leverage someone's belief system and incorporate somebody's belief system because they wind up, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy in so many cases. Now, I don't wanna minimize anybody's illness and I'm not trying to do that. What I'm saying is, I'm saying is that if you're a seller and you understand that at the point where Randy's talking about where customer needs belief, they needed you to listen to them. They needed to be heard. Now