At a client workshop yesterday in New York I wrote three words on the whiteboard that served as a great backdrop and challenge for the day:
Qualified?
Necessary?
Vital?
Think of this as a hierarchy or scale. As you reach out to or meet with customers, what exactly do you think you’re establishing with your claims and charts and numbers and diagrams? I’d posit that the vast majority of sellers spend an overwhelming share of their time and energy on qualification.
Our audience matches your target consumer.
Our reach is really big.
Our technology really works.
We measure things the way you do.
Past customers have had success with us. Just look at our case studies!
I call this “credentialing” and it only tells the customer we’re another qualified option for you to consider. But customers today aren't looking for more qualified options. This is probably why they don't return your emails and ghost you after that chummy lunch-and-learn.
Set aside for a moment the possibility of establishing why your company or technology is vital; This would imply you are truly a must-buy … that the customer will literally fail without you. It may be true situationally, but it’s rare. Let’s focus the rest of this post instead on a more answerable but often-overlooked question:
Are you necessary?
To establish necessity means that you fill a very specific need in completing or enhancing the customer’s current plan. That you address a very clear gap in their technology or strategy, a gap that is costing them time, money, competitive advantage or all three. That by paying $2 to add your services to the mix they will see a return of $20 – and that you’ll be able to show the math on how you plan to deliver on that promise.
To be necessary means stating all this very specifically and very early. In our training work we focus on a concept called the Diagnosis by asking the question, why does this customer truly need the help of your company right now? No bullshit, no spin, no posturing. Just real reflection and business empathy. You write out the problem that you are prepared to help solve, the gap you are prepared to help fill. You make it the second slide of your presentation. You make it the subject and opening lines of your email. It’s the unsolved problem from which you work backward.
Everything begins with the asking and answering of this question. Everything that matters.
To do less is to simply keep showing up as another qualified option. And there’s no future in that.
Original artwork by Eric Sands.
The belief and the feelings of confidence and well-being don't precede the action... they are brought on by the action. Sales reps don't do better work because they are more confident. They are more confident because they do better work.
Most of us in sales are running over-programmed sales calls in which every pause, every quiet second, is something to be filled and patched over like so many cracks in a leaky boat. We believe that there is just so much to say and explain that to waste even a second means perhaps missing the one point or feature that might create the magic moment. But it's a fool's errand: the magic moments were there all along... we just talked over them. Those empty seconds of silence are actually filled with anticipation, consideration, curiosity. They are the wellsprings of customer collaboration and commitment to the idea. But as the seller you have to do more than just listen. You have to program these white space moments into your sales calls.
Gallup has done years of research on employee engagement, and it's not what you think. The majority of employees are actually not engaged with their companies or their teams. Engaged employees talk about their team using the word we, and talk about their work at the company in future tense. Engagement is not something you hire; it's something you - the manager - creates.
Whether you're a CRO, a regional manager, a vertical category lead or even a project captain, there are some immediate, tangible and highly effective moves to be made (e.g. Manage the Moments, Don't Scrimp on the Inspiration). Team You won't just happen. It takes work and discipline. But it's your most impactful - and controllable - driver of success.
Here are a few ideas and themes to get your motor going and shake off the cold of Internet Marketing Winter... Expect Nothing. Blame No One. Do Something. You are the one you've been waiting for. There are a million mopes out there who will only ever be a little better than the worst break they've had. Overcoming adversity and being better than your circumstances starts with a positive choice. Make that choice now and start acting on it.
Digital media and marketing are exponentially more complex and layered, and sales success is more interdependent than ever before. MVP 3.0 gets the award today because she's able to lead others to excellence. He can sit at the middle of a project and organize, inspire and reward those around him. She makes her teammates better even as she navigates them toward success for the client - a client who has infinitely more choices but is likely to be spending more with fewer vendors. Don't just make the numbers...make them work for the client and for us. Margin matters and so do our people. Make them both better.
Among the sales teams I work with, the list of symptoms is remarkably consistent: long, unstable sales cycles; buyers going radio silent after receiving proposals; small deal sizes; low close rates; too…
As a manager, I believe one of your greatest callings is re-framing situations and market conditions for your sellers and returning them to a centered, productive mindset. In confusing times, that's not easy. OK, it's never easy. In both private manager coaching and management workshops, I tend to elevate one truly vital piece of advice. Without it, all of your logic, strategy and motivation will end up going nowhere. It goes like this: Pay close attention to the very first thing you say. Spit back answers all day and you create dependent followers. Push the responsibility back to them - put the authority where the information is - and you empower confident leaders. Every one of us wants to have great conversations with our employees and team members. And we will. But only if we start them the right way.
At yesterday's IAB Annual Leadership Meeting in Phoenix, Chairman/CEO Randall Rothenberg doubled down (again) on the direct brand economy and how it's flipping marketing models and gutting sacred cows…
Yes, it sucks if the company's recent pivot and reorg means you're now doing a job you don't like quite as much. And yes, it's lousy that your firm has gotten a big haircut in its valuation. But no, this is not the beginning of the end. People Matter. Sure, great technology might win you some deals and make your company more valuable to investors and acquirers. But the dirty little secret is that smart people paying attention to a quality process still matter. A lot. Our customers are working with the lowest headcounts and brain-counts they've ever experienced. Care enough and focus on the right things and you'll earn far more than a spot on the plan... you'll become an in-sourced department and you'll be bulletproof. Default to Action. Every one of us has a finite amount of attention and energy. Spend it worrying about your competitors or watching stock prices and industry headlines and see where it gets you. Expect nothing...blame no one...do something. You can't control the outcome but you can control your own behavior and choices. And feel great about the work you do...every day.
Somewhere out there this morning, a seller has already been awake for hours. She's staring at a number - her sales goal for the next several months. Her company has a solid product, not a dominant one. Her…
Whether you sell digital media advertising, online marketing programs, multichannel marketing or a sophisticated ad tech solution, one thing's for sure: there's not an action, a word or a minute to waste. Welcome to the age of intentional selling. Living intentionally has been a long-held concept in self-help programs and books. It means getting in really close touch with why you're doing what you're doing, choosing what you're choosing. It's past time for those of us in this industry - and likely many others - to bring intentionality to the strategy and practice of sales.