Sales Brief: Southwest cuts outlook, HPE's AI deals slip to 2026, Victoria's Secret lifts guidance
The signals are mixed across travel, enterprise tech, and retail - which means your pitch, timing, and deal structure should be too. Here's what changed and how to adjust your approach to protect pipeline and pull revenue forward.
Southwest (LUV): profit outlook cut on shutdown fallout and fuel costs
- Southwest now expects 2025 profit around $500 million, down from $600-$800 million.
- Drivers: a 43-day US government shutdown that forced flight cuts, plus higher fuel costs.
- Echo from peers: Delta's CEO said shutdown-driven flight reductions could shave about $200 million from pre-tax profits.
Sales angle: Airlines will prioritize yield, operational efficiency, and cost predictability. Non-critical, nice-to-have projects will slide.
- Lead with hard ROI tied to cost per available seat mile (CASM), on-time performance, or fuel efficiency.
- Offer pricing certainty (rate locks, fuel-indexed clauses, or phased rollouts) to ease budget anxiety.
- If you sell to airline ops or network planning, show 90-day payback or quantifiable savings - or expect deals to stall.
HPE (HPE): AI server deals delayed; sales miss and softer guide
- HPE missed sales estimates after some AI server deals were pushed into 2026.
- CEO Antonio Neri cited the government shutdown and timing issues with a European client.
- Current-quarter sales outlook came in below analyst expectations.
Sales angle: Enterprise AI infrastructure is still a go, but procurement is sequencing spend. CFOs want proof, not promises.
- Break big AI projects into milestone-based phases (POC → pilot → production) with exit ramps and clear KPIs.
- Pitch OPEX-friendly models, deferred starts, or ramped capacity to keep signatures in 2025 while spend lands in 2026.
- Arm champions with a one-page business case: workload, expected utilization, cost per inference/training hour, and the breakeven vs cloud.
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Victoria's Secret (VSCO): strongest quarterly growth in four years, outlook raised
- Top-line growth accelerated, with strength from the core brand, Pink, and beauty.
- Fewer promotions and selective price increases expanded revenue quality.
- Tariff impact is now expected to be slightly lower than earlier estimates.
Sales angle: Pricing power is back when product/brand momentum is real. Retail spend is flowing to conversion, merchandising analytics, and inventory agility.
- Lead with margin math: fewer promos + better mix = room for investment in traffic, personalization, and checkout.
- Propose quick A/B pilots tied to conversion or average order value; commit to lift or discount on renewals if you miss.
- If you sell supply chain or planning tools, emphasize faster read-and-react to demand spikes without bloating inventory.
Practical scripts you can use this week
- Airlines: "Given shutdown-driven schedule cuts and fuel swings, we cut onboarding time by 40% and target a sub-90-day payback on ops. Can we review where delays hit your CASM most and size a phased pilot?"
- Enterprise AI: "Most boards are asking for utilization proof before they greenlight build-out. We break deployments into three checkpoints with unit-cost targets and a cloud parity score. Want a 30-minute review with your CTO and finance lead?"
- Retail: "You've pulled back promos and still grew. We can lift PDP-to-cart by 6-10% in 60 days. If we miss the floor we set, we discount year two. Up for a test on your top 20 SKUs?"
What to prioritize in your pipeline
- Time-to-value: Projects with measurable impact inside a quarter will clear approvals faster.
- Flexible commercials: Ramped capacity, usage credits, and renewal options keep deals alive despite budget timing issues.
- Champion enablement: Give finance-ready one-pagers. Translate features to unit economics the CFO cares about.
- Risk-off positioning: Offer opt-outs tied to milestones; it reduces perceived risk and accelerates signatures.
The takeaway: match your offer to the buyer's current constraints. Airlines want efficiency, enterprise tech wants staged proof, and retail wants conversion and mix. Keep it concrete, show the math, and make the first step easy to say yes to.
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