Scattered, Smothered, and Covered….

After my arranged engagement/marriage fell apart over religious differences, she drove a Chevy, I a Ford;  I went to drown my sorrows at the only place appropriate to fill the emotional void that filled my heart….the Waffle House.

Now for our Yankee readers, our Waffle House is the equivalent to your Dunkin Donuts.  They are everywhere.  You can’t really swing a dead cat in the South without hitting one of those pillars of culinary delight.

I found my future wife sitting next to the only vacant seat at the counter.  While I did not notice her face, I heard her say to the waitress that she would like her hash browns prepared in the same manner that I ordered mine…scattered…smothered (in cheese)…and covered (in onions). 

As soon as the words left her lips, I knew that was the woman with whom I needed to spend my first marriage.

What lesson can the Waffle House teach us about sales?  Keep it simple.

You know how when you go into some restaurants they have fabricated crap on the walls?  There’s pictures of old stuff, old dead people, and old movies starring old dead people?  There are ferns, maybe some sports trophies, and the menu is nine pages long with long-winded narratives how the chicken will be prepared in a manner similar to those shown on Man vs. Wild.

The Waffle House is simple.  Look on the walls, there are pictures of food.  Want to see a plant?  Go outside.   In the Waffle House you are there to enjoy a good meal, at a  reasonable price, and then to get the hell out.  There’s no wasted space and people who want to sit and talk can do that in the car.

Right now, Sales teams around the globe are trying to figure out how to drive new revenue with very little new investment.  Most are pursuing a course of action that will be bourne from internal group think, with little real integration, and a questionable value proposition.  Gems like the Cadillac Cimarron were create in these environments.

Go Waffle House. 

1. Simplify your message so that it can be easily consumed by a broader audience, not just Subject Matter Experts in your field.
2. Provide a quality product
3. At a reasonable price

Number 1 is the most challenging of course.   But if you haven’t done so, craft your elevator pitch.  In 90 seconds or less, describe why someone would choose to do business with you.  If you need help,  ask yourself; do your customers do business with you because you are a mid-tier vendor with 200 customers in the perverted arts vertical OR because you can help them solve their widget problem?

If you are thinking of ways to possible build a new revenue stream, take your solution with its widget solving capabilities and boil it down.  Is there a fundamental tenet that if everything else was stripped away it would still contain value?  Does a niche market exist that this would serve?  Can you take this fundamental solution, combine it with a RELEVANT product/service and improve on the value proposition?  Does this new solution present logical upsell opportunities?

If you explained the new solution to your receptionist, how long would it take for them to get the concept? If its longer than 90 seconds, start over.

If you want to brain storm (or mind map) on this idea, here’s a few key questions:

• Look at your customers, what common characteristics do they share? 
• Why did they choose to purchase your solution? 
• Why do people/companies choose to do business with your competitors?
• How can we make it easier, within reason, to purchase a solution from you?
• If you had to cut 90% out of your sales pitch, what is the 10% you choose to keep?

If you havent tried mind mapping yet, I encourage you to do so.  Go to www.thebrain.com and download the free version of their solution. 

Good Luck

Kevin Sasser