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Archives: February 2010

Feb 16, 2010 0

What’s Changed

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One terrific way of opening a meeting, whether during a first-time campaign or as part of an account management process, is to start off by asking “what’s changed” since you last got together.

Yet the other day I was in a meeting where our last get-together was only the day before. Due to the typical ebb and flow of business, our previous forum was curtailed and we’d agreed to recommence the next day.

‘What’s changed’ was hardly relevant, so I fell back on that other banker for getting a revealing and positive conversation going; the search for true feelings.

Before re-confirming the agenda, my initial question was along the lines of ‘during the past 24hrs, when you’ve caught yourself thinking about our project, what’s gone through your mind?’

The answers flowed for several minutes. Each one gave both crucial insight into where we stood and provided opportunity for further emotional assessment.

We found out what was slightly scary, what gave rise to excitement and where the timelines were considered challenging. All priceless intel that, in the words of one attendee, would help figure out “how we can fix the puzzle”.

Feb 16, 2010 0

Darwinian Difficulty

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There’s all sorts of wonderfully produced BBC documentaries celebrating Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of his Origin of the Species publication.

One such programme focused on what Darwin did not know at the time, and pondered whether it added or subtracted from his proposition.

One base for the academic fronting the show was Chapter Six: Difficulties of the Theory.

Given his own upbringing and the legion of religious zealots bound to pounce on his (r)evolutionary, natural selection ideas, he decided to confront head-on those most likely to pour scorn on his writings.

It appears a masterstroke. At once both disarmingly transparent and aggressively dismissive.

I instantly recalled a couple of meetings where I myself have been the vendor and (always a techie the other side of the table) I’ve been asked something ugly like, “what makes such a project fail?”

In both Business and Sales Plans that I’m asked to write, I typically create a page around Risk Assessment & Mitigation. I wonder how a page in a pre-proposal kind of doc might go down that talks solely about why such implementation of solution sales proposals can fail, and use it to garner buy-in for success?

Feb 16, 2010 0

Brad Sugar’s 5 Ways

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Flicking through the Entrepreneur mag, I came across a fella peddling his own fail-safe system on how business owners can generate crucial extra profit.

It’s not without merit, and reminded me of the simplistic approaches sales managers like to use when trying to get more activity out of their charges.

The first line of his system is:

Lead Generation x Conversion Rate = # Customers

Most reps realise that to gain more customers you either put more prospects into the top of your funnel, or close more at the bottom (… preferably both).

I guess the consultancy around this system walks people through all the myriad options for achieving these.

The second line is:

#Customers x Avg. Dollar Sale x Avg. # Transactions = Revenues

And again, pretty much every successful salesperson I’ve met has at some stage struggled with how to increase their personal average order values.

And finally, a laudable focus on the bottom-line:

Revenues x Profit Margins = $ Profits

So there appear a quartet of variables where improvement can unleash significant financial rewards for seemingly small incremental improvement; Leads, Conversions, Average sales, Margins.

I sense that a fifth also exists. Conversion rates alone are only part of the puzzle. Average order cycles are integral to sales success. Shortening the time it takes to switch from cold prospect to new customer can work wonders. Why are buying cycles the length they are, and what can be done to reduce them?

Feb 16, 2010 0

Tactical Surprise

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Over the past few days, Afghanistan dominated rolling news. Initially it was the awesome exploits of its fledgling cricket side qualifying for the World 20/20 Cup in the Windies in April (although, ICC take note, what we need is a 20/20 series akin to the IRB Rugby 7s Series and not this type of bi-annual bash). And next it was the ’surge’. One talking head on this military campaign that said something interesting was Sir Jock Stirrup, Chief of Defence Staff.

He posited that there was no “strategic surprise”. The Taliban know we’re coming. In which case, you must focus on “tactical surprise”. Yes, they may indeed know that we’re coming, but they do not know where, when or how.

Much of business school strategy seems to emanate from the battlefield. When it comes to selling, you can sometimes have more than one ‘foe’. Not only are your competitors the enemy, but insurgents can lie across the table from you within your prospect organisation.

In such instances, your strategy could well be common knowledge. How you execute that though, could be what gives you the edge. The advice of Sir Jock is clearly to map out several things that you can do that will either be unexpected or designed to put the opposition off their guard.

Feb 9, 2010 0

Concept Doc

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Many, many solution salespeople I met get frustrated by what they perceive as unappreciated effort. Spending hefty chunks of time crafting proposal-style documents often goes unrewarded when the pdf emailed over does not get read.

Where it even exists (which is in a surprisingly small amount of cases) standardised documentation stretches to being just one single proposal doc.

On the basis that without a proper Process, solution sales endeavours are ultimately doomed, there is a strong case for having more than one, if not several, papers that get produced.

I can hear salespeople the world over groaning, ‘not more docs!’

Yet what a great opportunity. You gauge prospect leanings, you test relationships, you gain chances to bring people towards you.

One company I worked with last year created a new step in its process; the Pre-Proposal Meeting. It appeared to work well.

And I came across another allied approach last week. It was called “The Concept Doc”.

The main purpose of this was twofold:

  1. “it must dangle the juicy worm in front of the fishy” (in a way that gains acceptance of big picture figures), and
  2. “it must be a study to confirm feasibility” (and not called something like ‘pre-feasibility study’, which was considered totally the wrong vibe).

I suspect that in cases where you are creating the need, especially where there’s no pre-assigned budget process, this will prove a winning addition to your armoury.

Feb 9, 2010 0

Another Golden Rule

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I was involved in one of those informal, first-meet handshake, style introductions over a bottle of excellent red the other day with a chap that ran a firm specialising in writing business plans on behalf of prospective corporate funders.

He thought that there was an unhealthy attitude prevalent among the ‘angel’ community whereby they insisted on taking 70, even 80 percent of equity in new ventures. Their retort when challenged is often to shout out “I take the risk…” He considers such people “sharks”.

I asked him what he thought might be fairer and how that mentality could be re-aligned. His fence-sitting answer was understandable, given his political position, yet he did give an insight into how tricky an obstacle it can be.

One piece of advice was that if you’re in bed with someone who follows what he called the ‘golden rule’, then perhaps you should think twice:

The Golden Rule:
“He who holds the gold makes the rules”

Feb 9, 2010 0

Think Fluid Mechanics

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A chap I met recently was moaning about the seemingly never-ending roadworks around JoBurg-Centurion-Pretoria. One day it might actually be finished and a good thing, yet he feared that they hadn’t taken into account one simple rule from fluid mechanics.

Being his forte, he was delighted to elaborate.

Liquid only flows as quickly as the movement in the smallest, slowest part of the pipeline.

What’s the point of having nearly everywhere geared up for rapid progression, if a crucial bottleneck still exists?

How true too for sales processes.

Most sellers will think optimistically about where their campaign is forging ahead, but if there remains an outpost where the pace is way slower, then the whole project is usually derailed.

Perhaps a touch of bottleneck assessment (both inside and out) can work the occasional wonder?

Feb 8, 2010 0

Getting Luckier

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One of sport’s most well-known quotes is surely from 9-time golf major champion, Gary Player; “the more I practice, the luckier I get“.

So I was intrigued to catch a CNN chat with him alongside 20-year old Northern Ireland prodigy, Rory McIlroy. Player was asked to pass on wisdom. He gladly obliged.

His first point was that he did not believe in tiredness. He felt that the human body had huge tolerance meaning that you should always push yourself. He then recounted a brief summary of his recent itinerary, culminating in a gym session that would make many an athlete raise an eyebrow, let alone a 74-year old like him.

Then he revisited the hard work mantra. There are, he beamed, no shortcuts.

Feb 8, 2010 0

The Right Target

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Premiership managers are often heard talking about how they must first reach 40 points. It is at such a mark that they feel they preserve their prized status for another year. Gain 40 points, so the theory goes, and after all 38 games are done and dusted, you won’t be relegated.

Yet I heard a fascinating insight from a former Charlton player and S African international, Shaun Bartlett. During Alan Curbishley’s (widely considered successful) reign, he felt that they had the 40-pt mantra drummed into them so much, that when they reached the threshold (often laughably early, even during Feb) then the players, however unknowingly, relaxed. Every year they seemed to fall off a cliff and win no more points.

He firmly felt that this was an under-achievement, and one that could have been prevented.

The same holds true for sales performance on so many levels. The obvious pair of approaches are to break-down the target into smaller chunks and have target-steps.

In the context of football, this would mean earning points over different segments of the season. Ideally, the target would be more than you actually need (say 12 points from each 9 season-quarter games). Also, targeting a mini-league of games (where you pace yourself against your most vulnerable opponents) could also be a different, and more effective, way forward.

Such thinking when applied to solution sales can encompass your own seasonality, type of client or competitor and provide the kind of over-achievement clearly lacking from Charlton.

Feb 8, 2010 0

Change For The Better

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I just saw an interview with a former CEO of BP, John Browne, as part of his autobiography PR. He was pressed in typically rolling-news-knock-everything fashion that going into business was surely solely about the pursuit of making money.

His response certainly resonated with me, as his answer suggested that if collecting huge wads of cash alone is your goal, then you’ll be unlikely to succeed.

Instead, he remarked that you should focus rather on creating change, and making people feel better.

It is a sentiment that I see missing from many a pitch. How is what you propose really going make a change for the better?

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