I spent twenty minutes R&R last night reading the always entertaining AA Gill review a recently opened London foodie haunt. It was partly because a friend had recommended it to me, and also due to a reverence for the author’s review ethos.

Years of dining out has led me to identify meals that give you an unspun, naked insight into any eaterie. Fish ‘n Chips in a London gastropub, Eggs Benedict in a Cape Town brunch bar. That sort of thing. And now I learn that,

“This is what they call in the catering trade an attitude dish. You may not want to eat it, but it tells you something about the restaurant, about where the kitchen is coming from, how they want to be perceived.”

The extra angle here that also interests me is the concept of not necessarily wanting to eat it, but if you do then you really uncover what’s going on in their heads.

Of course, it’s not a giant leap in logic to think of all those things that we as salespeople must do (in the form of both deed and document) and wonder what “attitude” they betray.

What does, for instance, your Proposal say about you? Does it truly represent you as you want it to? How do your customers think it matches up? What do they feel it reveals?

Knowing the attitude dishes that you can serve up, and nailing their impact, indeed seems a worthwhile pursuit.

Here’s an entertaining quote I picked up as the last paragraph of an interview with an actor that’s been in all 11 Pixar films to date. This apparently makes him the 6th highest grossing movie star of all time, with over $3bn taken from Pixar ‘cartoons’.

What’s interesting from a sales point of view is how it shows a winning mentality required to power from strength to strength, year after year.

“Until Finding Nemo it was impossible to animate water and have it look like water. That was the chore they gave themselves. In The Incredibles, they’d never had fabric blow in the wind properly, so they set out to do that. The fur in Monsters, Inc was new. Every one of their films breaks a barrier. They could’ve rested on their laurels by now, but they never will. They view each film as if it’s their first. That’s why they’re Pixar.”

It made me pause for a moment and think … what’s my animating water, blown fabric and fur?

I caught a review of the latest annual Davos shindig. It investigated (with a mixture of surprise and pride) how S Africa apparently made the biggest impact of any country for decades at its World Economic Forum, and all despite the worldwide abhorrence its president’s polygamy engenders. Apparently, in polling at the event for instance, the place came in 4th of all countries most desired to visit (interestingly, both the UK & US were in the top three).

The chap answering the questions was “acting-CEO” of The International Marketing Council of South Africa, Paul Bannister.

The one quirky point that stayed with me was almost a throwaway line. In his 40 years of experience, he’d never seen a more cost-effective piece of marketing as the scarves they gave out. (See lots of pics of them here.)

A triv question that all S Africans seem to know is ‘which country’s flag has the most colours’, mainly because it’s theirs. The marketeers took the six colours, plonked them as stripes on wool and it became a must-have accessory.

Salespeople are always looking for gimmicky handouts that help keep their prospects thinking of them. Huge websites devote themselves to emblazoning logos onto pens and mugs and mousemats and anything you can imagine.

Yet here’s an idea so simple it is brilliant. Davos in winter is a chilly snow-covered town. Everyone could do with a scarf. Why not a scarf in the colours (and style) of your flag? Genius.

It makes you think twice about that biro you gave away last week, doesn’t it?

I was faced with a tricky dilemma the other day. Across the table from me was a chap running a successful injection moulding plant. His machinery-filled busy factory floor helping to produce just over $1m a month of product.

He was conscious of an 80/20 imbalance. He was certain that the rump of his lines that only provided a fraction of sales could be at least doubled, and all at a virtually zero cost increase. How could he do this?

This issue is right up my alley. Over the years I’ve spent significant time improving just these very kinds of wholesale situations.

The problem I had here though, was that very quickly it became abundantly clear to me, that what the business owner sought was someone to take the entire sales headache off his hands. In short, he wanted an interim sales manager. Someone who full-time, and for a considerable length of time at that, could commit themselves to make his ambitions happen.

I had a quickfire choice to make at this point. Do I propose a short piece of work to kick-start a process, hoping for incremental awards during progress, or do I front-up that this is a big project for someone with more time on their hands than I have?

I chose the former route, effectively qualifying out. I was duly reminded that ‘buyers’ hate possible vendors doing this. They want solutions. You say you have one, but not for them, and frustration takes over. It’s such a one-way street (and in the wrong direction) for us, isn’t it?

Regardless, the owner (a production guru with neither desire nor inclination to manage sales people) was clearly frustrated with his current state of affairs. So I suggested a three-step process that people would normally follow to achieve the kind of result he was looking for.

Unfortunately, rather than help, this may have merely compounded his misery, as I felt it dawn on him the sheer scale of work involved in resolving his sales issue. This made me sad, but on later reflection, nowhere nearly as sad as I would have felt after doing a week’s work that would have provided an initial uplift, only for sales to drop back down to previous levels once the intervention was long forgotten, and all the associated negativity my work may have then unjustly garnered.

I saw the boss of a WPP-owned “communication channel agency” (basically PR person Ryan Williams, Group MD, Nota Bene) on telly, and was pleased to see him come across rather well.

He was asked how firms could make the most of a huge event (like the World Cup). The issue of legacy was uppermost in his response.

He suggested that legacy could be measured in three ways; community, brand & revenues.

What intrigued me about this was that, although unashamedly a marketing slant (leave aside the pavlovian response salespeople have to marketing ideas just for now please) there are clear parallels to this and lengthy solution sales campaigns.

What this suggests is therefore a framework for ensuring you allow for your ambitions to be sustained beyond the signatures.

The first legacy area is interesting because it refers to what you do to improve the lot of the community that feed into your target market. For global brands identifying the socially needy nowadays seems an omnipresent part of corporate responsibility policies, yet I wonder whether an adaption of this thinking can similarly apply to a sale? If you take the ‘community’ to extend to those outside the borders of direct impact from your proposal, then ideas could well be forthcoming from hitherto un-considered arenas.

Brand also throws up new lines of thought. The examples cited discussed how a phrase from an ad campaign slips into everyday language. It’s easy to hear in your mind’s ear how certain syntax peculiar to you can be pushed which helps cement your agenda as the ‘chosen’ one.

Then the obvious revenues legacy suggests that you not only need to secure cash as a once-off, but work to ensure there’s a lifetime of commitment from your customers. This of course is something many solution proposals fail to tackle, despite worldwide acknowledgment of the difference between day-one and on-costs, capex and opex, maintenance and returns.

Having a plan in place to create an environment conducive to all these three during a sales campaign I am sure would prove a winner of an idea.

Surfing through the largely irrelevant sales section of the Entrepreneur site the other day served up one of the best one-liners I’d heard in a while;

‘people buy from people that understand them’

How do you test that your prospect feels this way? What can you do to demonstrate such insight? When do you know you’re in this zone?

This grandiose title relates to a doc appreciated by a particular business funder. I get the impression it is for endeavours that have gone past the ‘prototype’ stage, yet are still to fully understand a comprehensive business plan.

After a meeting with them recently, they kindly provided a checklist of what such a doc should cover. I found it fascinating. I’m always interested in seeing different perspectives on what business plans (and similar style sales docs) need to show.

The expertise involved here has over 17 years personal exposure within managing projects, so holds wonderful insight into what kind of planning makes for effective execution. I suspect that some of their nine categories could be readily adapted for sales proposals in general. Rather than the full explanation, the headings alone should be enough to trigger ideas:

1. Introductory Overview
2. Macro-Economic & Social Context
3. Sponsor Info
4. Regulatory Issues
5. Market Viability
6. Operational & Technical Management
7. Financial Projections
8. Economic & Development Impact
9. Risk Analysis

I learned through a TV interview that Steve Ross, the American head-hunted to turnaround retail chain Edcon, has managed to more than double the size of the business and return it to healthy profits. Consequently, he’s considered somewhat a leadership guru in his S African sphere of  commerce.

He was asked at the end, as these things often run, to isolate his one key tip. He answered that a manager must always “set the standard”.

It is a point frequently heard from “how I made it” autobiographies, but one worth reflecting on once more nevertheless.

Not only is it relevant to (sales) managers, but also to solitary salespeople. The standard set can so often rub off on those around you; your bosses, customers, prospects and colleagues. And when pursued with vigour, the right standard set can lead to all sorts of rewards.

Despite how fond reps are of swapping war stories, recounting outrageous one-liners that prompt shaky hands wavering with a dripping pen to finally scrawl on the dotted line, the winners all realise that Closing is a Process.

Where lack of appreciation of this can be most starkly highlighted is what happens after a first-time meeting with a prospect.

An alarm bell (both for any aspiring self-analytical rep or hardened sales manager) is often how many first meetings are burned through with no second meeting ever following.

I’ve been closely involved with an endeavour lately in an arena notorious for it’s spectacular lack of results. In spite of the obvious fall back that too many ‘prospect-side’ lack enthusiasm, in my view it is equally the fault of the commercial vendors as it is their oft-derided for disinterest public sector counterparts.

The prime reason for this is that however well-intentioned the project, relationships seem to fizzle out after meeting number one.

Consequently I was delighted just now to see an email which focused on creating a process of activity between potential partners in this field.

In short, if you find yourself struggling to construct a plan for progression in the maelstrom of your meeting conclusion, here’s two tips to get you on track:

Agreed Next Action

Too often it is the seller that leaves with a raft of tasks to do, in the misplaced belief that doing loads of work will put you in a healthy light. Think of what your prospect should be willing to do for you once you’ve left their building. And have a plan to discuss it later.

Never Yes Or No

Too many first-meets make it easy for the prospect to dismiss any potential proposal. Shift the focus from a binary outcome. When faced with a strict ‘yes’ or ‘no’ most people will gravitate towards the ‘no’. There’s no emotional investment yet in your plans, so instead encourage either a ‘yes’, or a ‘what more do you we need to do to assess this’ style.

“When [the CEO] is standing up there and cutting the ribbon what we need to have made sure is…”

This was a joyous phrase I heard in a post-sale project management meeting I was involved with the other day. There were two elements to this that impressed me:

1. the client was clearly focused on the day of delivery, and
2. a ceremony of some sort was envisaged.

In terms of delivery focus, it was great to want to fully understand what needed to be in place when the ‘ribbon was cut’. And as for the ceremonial aspect, it struck me as a great way to visualise acceptance, endorsement, opening or closing of the project. What ribbon-cutting party can you throw, and what stage of your delivery, too?