Great sales managers have always understood the power of Walking the Floor… being a physical presence in the office by walking from workstation to workstation. These managers understood that looking in someone’s eyes and getting a sense of their mood and energy was vital. It told them I’m here, I see you, and I’m paying attention. It’s the time that a hidden concern could emerge or a spontaneous coaching opportunity arise. So how do we walk the floor today when we’re all on different floors in different dwellings in different cities? How does each of us reinvent and extend our presence to show our employees that I’m here, I see you, and I’m paying attention? I have ideas.
For the next several weeks, I’ll be devoting The Drift to supporting our disrupted community of work-from-home executives. I hope you’ll take the time to comment and share. None of us is alone.
When you…
Suddenly everything’s different.
The conferences that we used to alternately ask for and grumble about are being rescheduled. The offices in which we claimed we just couldn’t get any work done or ever…
When I lead sales workshops, I challenge teams to diagnose a potential client problem or issue and then prescribe a solution to the client using a single sheet of paper: show them graphically how you would arrange your products and capabilities to solve the problem. Sometimes these charts look like funnels or customer journeys or timelines. But almost without exception, there’s never an arrow or loop that suggests what happens next. If you haven’t thought through how your products will help the client in year two, why would they ever buy them in year one?
Given the information-density and the significant IQ averages in our business, I suppose it’s understandable that there would be some ambivalence about saying “I’m in Sales!” Indeed, if you look at the business cards of those who are clearly in sales, you’d never know it. From business development to client partnerships to strategic account lead, we’re clearly going to great lengths to avoid the S-word. When it comes to what we actually say we’re doing, the linguistic gymnastics gets even more impressive. We don’t say were going in to sell, or ask for money or persuade the customer to buy our stuff. No, we fall back on three verbs that I call The Killer E’s: Educate, Evangelize and Entertain. If you’re a sales manager or CRO, start listening for these verbs: they’re a pretty good sign that your seller isn’t going in with a clear purpose.
Last week in this space I offered the hope that publishers, advertisers, agencies, platforms and ad tech companies would make better choices now that the much-abused Cookie was being taken out of service.…
Pssst... Hey... Cookies are going away. Pass it on...
OK, so maybe this has been the longest goodbye since BREXIT. But now, given the announcement by Google that Cookies will be made obsolete on the Chrome…
Because we can all use a laugh, I'm re-sharing one of the most popular Drifts I've ever posted. Feel free to add your own examples of "Things No Customer Has Ever Said." And have a great day.
"I just wish…
I decided to give myself a New Year's gift: the control of my days and bigger measures of satisfaction, productivity and closure. I'm calling the idea Working Forward. It's perhaps a little bit scientific, but mostly it's just highly logical and intentional. But why Working Forward? It's because most of us go at things in the wrong order. We meander into our days by wading into a swamp of email. We lock into a reactive posture that we never recover from. We delay getting important stuff done until we're tired and worn out - and it's too late. Our days bleed into our evenings and we're never fully committed to the task - or the person - in front of us. I believe we deserve better.
Failing to make the sale is acceptable. Failing to ask for the sale, the price or the terms is not. You may be right about how the customer will react, but go out and get me that 'no.' The act of making your case and putting an opportunity or a challenge in front of a customer creates a new dynamic and good things can fall out. Perhaps they start to actually negotiate and tell you where their boundaries are. Or maybe you end up finding another opportunity, or another path to the sale.
Business leaders and people managers are looking for a new code as well. They're looking to unlock engagement, loyalty and determination in employees who've come to expect never-ending growth, a regular cycle of paradigm shifts, constant promotion and ultimate wealth. How do we build truly great teams and organizations to last? Our past approaches to career growth, diversity and lifestyle support was never built to code... and it cannot continue to stand. If we're to define what it means to build a satisfying, meaningful career in our profession over the decades ahead, we better start now.
As noted by the title of this post, today is Giving Tuesday -- the nobler offspring of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Among the many worthy options that will reach your inbox today, I hope you'll consider…
