--- title: How to Get the Really Big Deal Through Your Pipeline | The Sales Blog description: The space at the bottom of your sales funnel is just wide enough for you to get a deal through. You can think of the size of the bottom of your sales funnel as your personal sales capacity. It represents your ability to get a deal from target to won. Most of your deals will […] image: https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/The%20Sales%20Blog-2.jpg --- ### [Now booking SKO meetings for 2026/27! 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You can think of the size of the bottom of your sales funnel as your personal sales capacity. It represents your ability to get a deal from target to won. Most of your deals will fit through your funnel without any trouble at all. The small deals can zip right through without touching either side of the funnel—these deals don’t even begin to push the boundaries of your capacity as a salesperson. But really big deals are too big to fit through your funnel. In order to get these deals through the funnel, you have to stretch. You have to increase your capacity as a salesperson; this means improving your [skills](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/what-is-success-the-ultimate-guide). **A Deal Is a Deal . . . Except When It Isn’t** It is more difficult to obtain the really big opportunities by an order of magnitude over smaller deals. You have to increase your ability to [open relationships](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/prospecting-the-ability-to-open-relationships), knowing that your big deal dream client already [belongs to your competitor](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/all-your-best-dream-clients-are-taken). Because your big deal dream client has deep relationships in place, you have to work longer, harder, and more consistently to [nurture](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/no-single-encounter-beats-nurturing-and-why-you-should-be-more-like-richard-nixon) the relationships that you need to gain an opportunity. You have to be better than your competitors, and far better than is necessary on smaller opportunities, at [obtaining commitments](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/closing-the-ability-to-ask-for-and-obtain-commitments). You have be able to obtain the commitments that allow you to develop your opportunity, working to discover the dissatisfaction that gives your dream client the motivation to change and the rationale for doing so. There is [no single authority](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/just-get-in) on most really big deals. These are complex sales with complex needs and politically complicated buying committees. You have to build the consensus of these buying committees, including all of the [decision-influencers](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/where-the-real-power-resides) and stakeholders. And you have to deal with political realities that don’t accompany smaller deals. Presenting your solution isn’t enough to win the really big deal. Instead, you have to be able to [incorporate the visions](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/whose-proposal-is-more-likely-to-win-your-story-their-story-or-our-story) of all of the buying committee members and their constituencies with your solution, creating a proposal that they can support, recommend, and later defend. Then there is the [negotiation](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/negotiation-the-ability-to-create-win-win-deals). Unlike smaller deals, big deals almost always have more complex negotiations. You have to manage risk managers, procurement managers, and legal departments, all of who red line your agreement and change the terms and conditions of your big deal. **And So Your Power Grows** All of these activities stretch your beyond your present capabilities, if you let them. All of these demands on your sales abilities are growth opportunities; they are personal and professional development opportunities. Once you have stretched the bottom of your funnel open by increasing your sales abilities, you never have to allow it to return to its original capacity. You can continue to push big deals through a bit easier. But if you wait too long, your capacity for big deals will start to return to what it once was, and it will be harder to push really big deals through later. **Conclusion** Working your big deal dream clients through your sales funnel requires that your capacity as a salesperson grow to match the size of your deal. You have to stretch and grow to fit the big deals through. **Questions** 1. 1. What is the average size of the deals in your funnel? What do you have to change to increase the average size of the deals in your sales funnel? What do you have to change to get the really big deal dream clients into the top of your sales funnel? 1. 1. What does it take to win your average deal? What does it take to win the really small deals? What would you have to improve in order to win the really big deals, once you have them in your pipeline? 1. 1. Do you move from quarter to quarter, from year to year, winning larger and larger dream clients? Has your capacity to sell larger deals increased over time? What changes in your sales skills and attributes have allowed you to win bigger deals? How could you grow from here? 1. What do you have to do to ensure that your capacity to win the really big deal dream clients continues to allow you to win these deals? What skills and attributes do you need to maintain and improve as our society, our economy, and business environment change? What is your plan for doing so? For more on increasing your sales effectiveness, subscribe to [the RSS Feed](https://www.thesalesblog.com/feed/) for The Sales Blog and my Email Newsletter. Follow me on [Twitter](http://twitter.com/iannarino), connect to me on LinkedIn, or friend me on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/thesalesblog/). If I can help you or your sales organization, check out my coaching and consulting firm, [B2B Sales Coach & Consultancy](http://www.b2bsalescoach.com/), [email me](mailto:anthony@gmail.com), or call me at (614) 212-4279. Read my interview with Tom Peters ([Part One](http://thesalesblog.com/2010/03/the-sales-blog-interview-tom-peters-on-the-little-big-things-part-one/) and [Part Two](http://thesalesblog.com/2010/03/the-sales-blog-interview-tom-peters-on-the-little-big-things-part-two/)). Read my [Blogs.com](http://www.blogs.com) featured guest post on the [Top Ten Sales blogs](http://www.blogs.com/topten/top-10-sales-blogs/). Read my monthly post on [Sales Bloggers Union](http://www.salesbloggers.com/author/iannarino/). 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His latest book for an even wider audience is titled, The Negativity Fast: Proven Techniques to Increase Positivity, Reduce Fear, and Boost Success. Anthony speaks to sales organizations worldwide, delivering cutting-edge sales strategies and tactics that work in this ever-evolving B2B landscape. He also provides workshops and seminars. Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn, X or Youtube. 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What we’re doing right now **is working**, even in this challenging economy. **Would you like some help?** [![Solve for Sales](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035) ### Join my Weekly Newsletter for Sales Tips Join 100,000+ sales professionals in my weekly newsletter and get my *Guide to Becoming a Sales Hustler* eBook for FREE! --- ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org/", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Anthony Iannarino" }, "dateModified" : "2024-09-11T11:07:33 AM", "datePublished" : "2010-07-14 22:09:17", "description" : "The space at the bottom of your sales funnel is just wide enough for you to get a deal through. You can think of the size of the bottom of your sales funnel as your personal sales capacity. It represents your ability to get a deal from target to won. 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