Tuesday 15 April 2014

Cart Before Horse

imageProspecting is hard – winning clients harder still. There are many strategies. Many perceived ways of going about it.
Many though don’t think to put the cart before the horse. By this I mean they make grandiose promises of what value the prospect can expect or will receive once they become a client, but don’t show them until the client commits. Ironically, promised value is often valueless until they see it.
This is particularly true where the prospect has heard these promises before, but failed to see execution.
It is easy to say what you’ll do, it is harder to be authentic and deliver on it.
Why don’t sales people do this? Possibly because it’s ‘showing your hand’. Or because the risk of expending the effort and not winning the client in the end. Or because they just don’t think to. Or, worse, because the promises are empty.
Prospects should choose you because you SHOW meaningful value, not because you promise it.
Show your prospects what it’s like to be client of yours, then ask them the become one.

Friday 11 April 2014

Keep The Ball In Play

2007_Rugby_World_Cup_ballsIn recent times, we’ve seen the NZRFU and IRB adopt various experimental law variations to keep the ball in play longer, with fewer stoppages and more running rugby, thereby creating a more free-flowing, faster and exciting style of play.

You may recall the stat (right or wrong, but it’s the point that matters) that at one stage only 27mins of an 80min game were actually real running time. The rest of the time was used up in fixed plays/stoppages like scrums, line outs etc. A necessary part of the game, but not the key parts. Not the purpose of rugby. ELV’s aimed to improve this.   To spend more time playing the running game, less time stationary.  Keeping the ball in play.

Now think about your sales process? When was the last time you looked at how much time was spent doing the core sales activity, versus the time spent doing the bits surrounding it (the stoppages). Is the balance right? Are you ‘keeping the ball in play’.

There are many conflictions in sales that can prevent/inhibit us from selling – CRM notes, admin, responding to internal emails etc. Sure, some of these things need to be done. But are you consciously or unconsciously choosing to let them rank ahead of sales activity?

Like the NZRFU and IRB – you need to look at what ‘sales time variations’ you need to put in place to limit the things that prevent you from true sales activity to increase the portion of your available time to ‘sales running time’ rather than stoppages. Keeping the ball in play.

Truly think about it. You have so many hours in the week, how many of them do you truly dedicate to sales? If not many, why? What things are you letting prevent you from selling.

Maybe you need to follow the direction of rugby and change the way you ref your sales time to keep the ball in play more often?

Tuesday 8 April 2014

Magpie-ing

Cracticus_tibicen_hypoleuca_male_domainIn sales we can be guilty of collecting or searching for ‘shiny things’.  Things that look important and are worth showing off, but don’t necessarily add value to what we do or amount to anything of value.

This isn’t meant as toys – but refers to prospects.  It is very easy to fill ones pipeline up with these ‘shiny things’ to make ourselves and/or our bosses feel better.  We then have important things in our pipeline – we and they feel better.

We’ve all seen it and, no doubt, some of us have been guilty of it.  Chasing those ‘shiny things’ – referring to them at every opportunity, showing them off when someone asks what in your pipeline.  Coveting them, but doing very little productive with them.  Magpie-ing

What does this do to us?

It distracts us from real prospects.  Real business.  Real value.  Some of the best prospects aren’t glamorous, aren’t big names.  In fact, most aren’t.  ‘Shiny things’ are notoriously slippery and, when we finally realise we can’t hold on to them, we suddenly realise the opportunity cost(s) of being so fixated on them.

It also makes for difficult conversations with your boss when you finally have to strip these ‘shiny things’ from your pipeline.

Most shiny things are coveted by many people, yet the person who currently holds it usually knows it’s of value, loves it to death and, therefore, it becomes very difficult to make it yours.

Sales Managers aren’t immune from this either.  Actions by sales managers can reinforce this behaviour, this blind pursuit for trophy prospects.  For example, only celebrating the shiny things in your pipeline reinforces the belief that, as a sales person, you must find them to be recognised as good.  So you chase them.  Sometimes blindly.

You should start from a solid foundation of which prospects are your ideal clients.  Sure, some of these may well be ‘shiny things’ – and, in fact, some should be.    Filling your pipeline is important – but please fill it with meaningful prospects, otherwise it just becomes a distraction.

You have to ask yourself three questions:

1.    Is this a client I am likely to be able to win?
2.    If yes, can I demonstrate the value needed to displace it?
3.    How long will this take?

If you can’t answer yes to 1 and 2 – don’t bother with 3.  It doesn’t mean drop it entirely, it just means de-prioritise it until something changes that you can change the answer to these questions.

Don’t magpie and base your entire sales strategy around ‘shiny things’.  Otherwise you may just end up with a nest full of great names in your pipeline and no business written.