What Happens in the Pasture, Stays in the Pasture

You know its that time of year again.

Its that time when strategic sales plans are updated, balanced scorecards are re-balanced, and your sale manager lays in a fetal position chanting “Sell on Value….Sell on Value….”.

One of our fans (contrary to belief we have more than one) just pinged me to let me know he was heading out to his sales meeting…..in Michigan.  Not Vegas, Miami, L.A., but Michigan.

Trying to put an optimistic spin on this locale, I commented “well, at least you don’t have to worry about your reps marrying strippers” to which he replied “yeah, but there will be plenty of booze and they have a lot of farm animals”.

This was followed by a moment of awkward silence.

This is also the time year when your marketing department provides you with a new set of updated slides for your pitch.

One of the members of my “Yankees that I like” group IM’d me the other day as his team was trying to deal with this year’s PowerPoint and wanted to hear my thoughts.

Before we get into that, do you remember our favorite sex shop, The House of Love? It seems that they made enough money in their “Going Out of Business” sale that they not only stayed in business, but have come out with some new billboards along the interstate.

The first new sign is emblazoned with the slogan “We Support the Troops“.  Being five miles away from an Air Force base, I assume that the troops support them too.

The second new sign was delivering a new set of “value add” that The House of Love is incorporating into their overall  Unique Selling Proposition:

• Pet Rest Area

• Free Coffee

Now, when you salute the troops your target market is pretty obvious.  But I had to put some thought into who would find sex toys, a pet rest area, and coffee an appealing motivator to pull off the highway, stop, and make a purchase.  My guess is retired RV’ers.

Imagine if you will, a big RV rolling down the highway with the stickers on every state visited on the windows, big-ass mud flaps swinging in rhythm, and maybe a couple of mountain-bikes attached to the back.

Behind the wheel is a distinguished looking gentleman with a head of silver hair, age lines, and a few sun spots.   His wife is sitting next to him with a pound of gold hanging from her ears and neck with a sun visor that she bought at that cute little gift shop in Boca. On her lap is an overweight toy poodle, named after their favorite waiter as some resort, looking out the side window and looking in need of relief.

As they are approaching the HoL’s billboard, the husband turns to the wife and says

You know honey, I wish we could find some place convenient where the dog could take a crap, I could top off my travel thermos, and maybe you could find a high quality sexual appliance that will satisfy you in ways that could only be achieved by a contortionist on a crystal meth binge…..Holy smokes, look at the sign!!!!

So what’s the lesson?  Have your target market in mind when building your marketing and sales strategies.

Now, back to my Yankee friend and his Powerpoint.

Our instant messenger conversation started off with the agenda

” Here’s what we are thinking:

• Our company overview
• What we see happening in the industry
• Our “vision”
• Our unique approach
• Our customer’s project

what do you think?”

To which I replied “If you pitched to me, here’s what would be going through my mind:

• Blah
• Blah, Blah, Blah
• What do I need to do for my next meeting?
• Man my boxer’s shorts are riding up this morning
• Time to fake an emergency and get out of this meeting

Then I directed my Yankee friend to watch Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule.

Then I suggested the following agenda:

• Why you are in my office taking up my time
• My problem that you can solve for me
• How you will solve the problem in clear, concise, concrete terms
• The benefit that you will deliver to me that your competitor cant

Now, if you will excuse me, The House of Love is having a sale.

Sasser

My Most Ignored Advice

Recently, while reading  a section on hiring and firing in Guy Kawasaki’s “Reality Check” , I was reminded of an exercise for a long-forgotten business management class  from my underwhelming sophomore year (1989)  in college.

The exercise was simple enough, we were given a resume of an executive and had to justify why or why not we would hire this person.

The resume was impressive.  There was the Bachelor’s from one of the many colleges that rejected my application citing something called “academic standards”.

The work experience was diverse and meaningful showing a steady progression up the corporate ladder, accompanied by increased responsibilities and superior performance.

Finally, the salary requirements for the candidate aligned perfectly with the budgeted amount set by our mythical board of directors.

However, in the end I chose to decline the candidate, citing his advanced age.

I figured in a few years this geezer would be putting a strain on our health care costs and having to take naps in his office just to make it through the day.

He was 35.

Today, when younger sales people meet me and they learn that I have a blog read by tens of readers every fiscal quarter, they constantly ask “How can I be better in sales?“.

Judging by their facial expression it appears that they are expecting  some parlor trick or magical chant, e.g. “Ok, you have to sacrifice a virgin, and you will probably have to go out of town to find one.”

After asking some preliminary questions, my most common reply is

“Start walking in your customer’s shoes”

or to state it another way, start caring about the things that your customers care about.

I used to think that there was this huge chasm between the average and the top performers on a sales team.  While the results may be separated by a lot of white space, the effort required to generate is relatively close.  The key difference is that the top performing sales executive can have an intelligent conversation with a prospect on a range of topics relevant to the prospect’s business, the average performer can only speak about their solution.

It takes time to develop the knowledge to hang in an executive-grade conversation, however, if you put forth the effort, you will notice a progression of how more engaged your conversations will become:

• You will be able to tie your solution to a relevant, specific challenges in the prospect’s industry, and go past the crap propositions birthed from your marketing department.

• You will be able to articulate the secondary benefits of your solution and how they impact less than obvious areas of the prospect’s business, enlightening your prospects to benefits they had not realized existed.

• The Holy Grail: You will be able to ask the right questions that let your prospect know that you are a professional and that you know the challenges he is looking to solve.

For example: “We all know your industry is seeing  growth in the Pacific rim.  While its not listed on your requirements, would you like to spend a few minutes discussing how we can help you if/when you show choose to expand to this area?”

So here’s how you start “Walking in Your Customer’s Shoes”.

• Read the Front Page of Wall Street Journal (5 min a day)

• Read the first section in BusinessWeek  (10 min a week)

Even if you only sell into one vertical, you need to know about whats going on in the entire business universe.  These two publications have done an excellent job of condensing the main events into the first few pages (or page).

• Learn about RSS feeds and how to use Google Reader (10 min a week)
  

When a friend shared with me that they formed their entire personal political opinion from watching Fox News, I damn near threw up.  With a RSS reader you can receive and consume your news from 50 sources everyday in less than 10 minutes.

• Love the PodCast  (90 min a week)
  

I consider podcasts to be the secret weapon of top performers.  The great thing about podcasts is that they are slimmed down to the meat of the topic, many are under 20 minutes, and you can listen to them at your convenience.  For example, I listen to WSJ podcasts while doing my cardio work out.

Here’s are our podcast recommendations :

• Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders by Stanford Technology Ventures Program

When I first started listening to this podcast, my original reaction was “Holy #@$%!!!”.  This series is absolutely awesome.  Want to hear the thoughts of the lead product manager for Google?  Want to hear what’s on the mind of Silicon Valley Venture Capitalists?  Want to hear Carly Fiorina’s story?  This is the podcast for you.

I lost track of the number of times that this podcast has allowed me to hold the attention of a “C” and have a meaningful discussion.

• NBC’s Meet the Press

Don’t think politics is important?  Then obviously you do not work in the auto industry or financial services sector.  MTP is straight forward, with little to no spin, and its directly from the news makers themselves.

Not only with this podcast let you speak intelligently about politics, but also foreign affairs, and kept you abreast of the details on which industry is next in line for a bailout.

• The Economist

This is a U.K. publication offering its insight into global affairs.  Did you know Germany is one of the keys to the U.S. having a better relationship with Russia?  Neither did I.  It also interesting to hear how the rest of the world thinks of our affairs.  What did the EU think about Sarah Palin?  How do our bailouts affect the economies of countries like Kazakhstan? How do others view our relationship with Iran?

If you sell to global companies, this podcast is a must.

• Stuff You Should Know

Where is the best place to get shot?  Whats the best thing to do in a plane crash?  Really, how did the sub-prime mortgage thing happen?

Do not underestimate the value of small talk in your deals.  If you can engage your customer in a non-business conversation that they enjoy, they are more likely to pick up the phone when you call.  Add this podcast to your list and you will have a ton of topics to grab people’s attention during those off-script moments.

• This American Life

Man can not live on bread alone. I have been listening to this show for over ten years, first on radio now on podcast.

This is one of the most popular podcasts on iTunes and one of the best shows on public radio.    At an hour long, this is perfect for the ATL-DCA flight.

If you are not familiar, hosted by Ira Glass, the show takes a theme and offers a series of stories based on that theme.  The stories are real and always have a twist or edge that will keep you anxious in hearing more.  If you like authors like David Sedaris, you will love this podcast.

BTW, this is the one of the podcasts to whom I gladly donate.  If you would like to contribute, click here.

Public radio is taking a real beating this year.  They are looking at a multi-million dollar shortfall and have been reducing staff.   Any help you can lend will be greatly appreciated.

The Rolodex Myth – Part II

The collective groan was almost audible when our SVP announced that he had filled our vacant Sales Director position from “a star from one of the heavy hitters”.

“She’s got a 90 day pipeline worth about 3 million in new business. We’ll bring her on, hit the low-hanging fruit hard and at least add 500k to next quarters number.”

If Pavlov had met my SVP, he would have given up and skipped the dog.

We had been down this road before, many times. Any candidate, with one of our key competitors listed on their resume, basically had the job before he/she entered our office.

“He did over $2 million in business in 1998 (overlooking that whole “dot com” thing)”

“He didn’t work long for vendor X, took some time off to care for his sick dad, now he’s ready to get back in the game.” (Vendor X fired the crackhead and we were the only suckers to bite on the bait)

“He closed every deal that Vendor X had in 2001, we are lucky to get him.” (We pay 20% less than Vendor X, and yet this superstar wants to come work for us?)

While it does happen that a top member of a sales team will jump ship for an opportunity, there’s usually some….um….”opportunity” there. For example, a startup with a disruptive offering, or the turnaround with a huge equity position are logical scenarios for a person at the top of their game to make the leap.

Selling the same stuff, to the same people, is not that kind of opportunity.

One of the key concepts on which my SVP lack clarity is that the sales rep is part of a bigger package. That package includes the rep, the solution being presented, and the company. With the exception of financial services or other extremely commoditized markets, the elements are not interchangeable.

Take out the rep, you lose ground and have to backup. Swap out the solutions, you immediately put the prospect on the “bait and switch” defensive. Worst of all, try to swap companies, thats almost always a total reset and you have to go back to square one. This is the especially true if the rep stays in the same industry.

This is what the prospect experiences “Ok Mr. Prospect, I know when I was selling widgets with Vendor A I told you how great we were and how we were better than all the rest. Well, now I work for Vendor B….and this time I really mean it…we are the best….until I change jobs again.

In 2004, Guy Kawaski gave a lecture at Stanford on hiring effective people, this is the best three minutes you will spend today, click here for the video.

For Those About to Powerpoint, We Salute You

When we posted our question on www.linkedin.com about the worst sales cliche’s, we received a fairly decent number of responses that made their way into our Twelve Days of Sales Cliche’s diddy.

One of the responses inspired this post.

From Tim, a good friend to TSW,

Famous last words of a Sales Guy

“…so I’m going to just blow through a few of these and then we’ll get right to the demo.”

Are you guys trained to say that? Because everyone says it…right before they dive into 30-45 minutes of slides!