
The excuses businesses make for not asking for help – The Gollum gambit “my precious, my precious”

I keep hearing this sort of refrain, increasingly expressed by business folk, exacerbated,perhaps, by almost universal frustration with increasing levels of ‘noise over signal’ in social media, email and phone communication.
I hear, “how hard is it to be polite”, “he never called back”, “they just hung up”.
I hear of the frustration generated by the faceless mass of cold callers who, upon realising that they’re not getting anywhere hang up leaving a sense of real and palpable anger at this commodity approach to us. Increasingly, worryingly, I also hear such frustration around B2B interactions. This reaction is entirely human, we don’t respond well to bad manners, manners are a necessary social device to reduce friction, improve communication and enable the building of relationships. And you know how strongly I feel about the power of relationships in the B2B complex sales space.
But there’s a very real sales opportunity being missed here, let me tell you a brief story and see if it resonates.
I noticed a couple of occasions when the same chap looked at my linked-in profile, I didn’t recognise him or his company, let’s call it LeedForensics for the sake of discretion. You might not be surprised that, a few days later an email dropped into my mailbox, from this same chap, explaining that he’d looked at our website and thought that his company and their product might help us generate opportunities by using their visitor analytics to identify and pursue hitherto unknown and unidentified visitors to our website. OK, not something that interested me, but I appreciated the fact that he’d obviously done some research, crafted a tailored email and ensured at least an approximate match between their tools and our business profile. So I didn’t just ignore his missive, I wrote a reply and said that I didn’t see a match at this time, I bothered to explain at a broad level how we currently generate opportunities and I thanked him for his interest.
Had I been him I’d have thought of a number of possible responses to that…
Maybe, “Can I explore a little more how you do generate business Steve, I’m always eager to learn?” Result- the dialogue continues, I’ve won business after six years of that sort of occasional interchange.
Or maybe “Sorry to hear that, let’s do the Linked-in thing and keep in touch?” Result, if I agree, the dialogue continues.
Or possibly, “You’re a pro, (flattery) could you take a moment to give me some more detailed feedback on why our proposition didn’t appeal to you?” Result, the dialogue continues.
At the very least, how about “Just a quick thank you for responding”? Result, the door to future dialogue isn’t closed, and he has started to create positive awareness of himself and his proposition.
But no, what he did was nothing, the B2B equivalent of the cold-call hang-up, blowing the research and effort put in so far and creating a negative impression with a potential customer, a recommender, a professional and keen networker, a sales coach to large influential businesses and occasionally a highly critical business blogger and opinion expresser.
What harm could that do?
Sales management should be gladiatorial but not in the way one might immediately assume…
We’ve all, to a greater or lesser extent been conditioned by the macho culture of ‘salesman’ indeed I know of alleged ‘sales coaches’ who use the classic “always be closing” clip from Glengarry Glen Ross as coaching material, which is rather scary. However the fact is that, once upon a time, a thick skin, overweening ambition, a monstrous ego and a flagrant disregard for ethical behaviour were indeed the pre-conditions for sales success.
I still meet many sales managers who see reviewing an opportunity, the pipeline or an account plan as an exercise in ego reinforcement, a battle to establish and reinforce dominance, ‘mano a mano’.
This, inevitably, leads to an approach from the sales folk, either of obsessive and defensive over-presentation, mendacity, deceit and sandbagging or, for some, a full-on testosterone-fuelled session of mortal combat. As our gladiatorial chums would have put it “morituri te salutant*”. Now I’m pretty convinced that there are really relevant lessons to be learned for Sales managers and directors in the excellent work of Ridley Scott, Russel Crowe and their movie Gladiator, but those lessons are definitely not about the inherent manliness of single combat, or indeed tiger slaying.
For me the defining moment for ex-General Maximus Decimus Meridius was when he led his fellow gladiators to success in the arena by organising them as a team, assigning roles, setting out a plan, and getting them to take responsibility for aiding and abetting each other, that kind of approach to sales leadership is still a rare find in many organisations, partly down to the rewards structure (if you’re each rewarded solely on individual success, co-operation and sharing can be financially harmful) and that’s partly the result of persistent cultural “you’re on your own” prejudices.
How do we change that? Well, I’m glad you asked.
We’ve found, over the years, that reviewing one deal, one opportunity, one account as a structured and managed team exercise can bring real unity to a team, players start to get involved, to see the value, to identify how each can benefit from another’s experience, knowledge and insight. It always results in a better approach to the deal, a set of outcomes to move things forward, identification of a some “Aha!” moments.
It’s a start, to working better, and for many sales teams, the sense of relief is palpable. And once they’ve all seen the value delivered it can then be managed to become ‘the way we do things here’.
So is it time for salesmen, saleswomen, sales managers, pre-sales, account teams and sales directors to start declaring, “I am Spartacus”?
Always
Ave emptor qui sunt vendere salutant*
(*feel free to correct my lousy latin)
Websites, they’re still important, pundits opine that we’re seeing the death of the traditional homepage, that social media are now effectively the route for people to find our inspirational content but it’s rare these days that we arrive at a business meeting without our prospect having a pretty good idea of who we are, what we do, where we sit and they’ll have formed that opinion based on our web presence.
It’s tempting, as social media becomes the focus of marketing fashion to treat the classic website as an online brochure, a project for the intern or a must-have that just needs maintenance. But we’d suggest that’s not a good idea.
It’s very easy to create a website “they” say, and “they’re” right.
It’s easy to pop into WordPress and grab a template and add some words,cobbled together from your latest brochure, to stick a couple of images up, to make something that looks ok, and so very, many folk do just that.
I’m not advocating spending a fortune on the highly skilled HTML buffs in the pay of the multitude of increasing desperate web agencies, I am however pointing out the pitfalls, three in all, of this DIY approach.
1. There are people who find spelling errors, poor grammar and a casual approach to the language a turn-off, they might be potential customers, but you’ll never know that they’ve discovered a split infinitive, and they’ve split.
2. Content is increasingly the lure that brings people to your website,to any website, they’re looking for something of value and you’re looking to give them something of value, something fresh, they’re not enthused by that three-year-old case study or your turgid white paper explaining your thinking of last year that the cloud is a no-go area for smart businesses.So you have to keep it fresh, current and valuable, and that takes time, effort and a quality approach to content production.
3. Same old, Same old. Few of us are lucky enough to be gifted creative thinkers, no matter what our mum had stuck on the fridge, we’re not as good as specialists and we’re not keeping up to speed with the latest developments in user involvement and retention.
I’m not saying that using Wordpress or Blogger as your weapon of choice is wrong, au contraire, there’s a lot of functionality built in, not least in terms of search engine optimisation but I do advocate a couple of things:
Firstly, involving an objective creative eye, a third party, a good graphic designer to spend a few days making it look good.
Secondly, if you’re not one of those unfortunates who can’t read past a misplaced colon: find a professional proofreader or gifted pedant and ask them to review your words.
I’m not advocating sticking lipstick on a pig, I am saying, quality matters, and it’s often worth investing in those who can ensure that you present yourself, your business, your clients and the work you do for them, in the best possible light.
I’m now going to sit back and see how many errors the internet grammar police can find in this epistle and the Adara websites, fair enough, bring it on.
Perhaps one of the more positive aspects of the recession (there I said it) is that many companies are now finally biting the bullet and thinking seriously about what it is they sell and how they sell it.
In good times it’s easier to succeed with a product-led sale, setting out your stall and letting customers buy from you. In tough times, buyers are scarce, investment is limited, no-one buys ‘nice to have’ and this can easily lead to commoditisation and loss of control as the initiative moves from supply to demand.
The term “solutions” has certainly lost much of it’s meaning with just about everyone using it for just about everything but that doesn’t negate the fact that there is, for many, the opportunity to regain control of their destiny by changing focus from, “what we’ve always sold” to “solving a real customer need”.
Sure, Apple has become the most highly valued company in the world by developing and marketing products that entice customers to queue up and buy. Which is nice, but what works in the B2C world does not always apply in the high value, B2B marketplace where most of us trade; increasingly we’re competing on financial value delivered not bells and whistles. Few have the luxury of a “killer app” that will sweep all before it, the new battleground is customer intimacy, it’s about knowing your customer and meeting his needs better than your competitor.
If you’re still following a product-centric strategy it’s probably reactive, few businesses can afford to create demand, so, you’re dependent upon your customer to work out what they need, and then buy it, hopefully from you. But business today is faster moving and rarely that clear-cut, there may be many different ways to solve a problem and if a competitor gets in there first you can get locked out.
The glib answer, (and we hear it all the time), is “to become more customer intimate” but that’s a concept that’s rarely explored or understood to the level that can generate the much needed change of mindset. It’s not a trivial challenge, it requires getting to understand customers better than anyone else and then doing something for them that helps them in a unique way, something they’ll value. But, if you can do this, if you can develop a relationship where they’ll trust you to help solve their problems you’ll get back in control and can start being proactive in developing business.
The steps needed to make this happen are blindingly obvious, there’s a general agreement on what they are, they’re just really, really difficult to do in practise:
Working with many companies making this transition we’ve found three areas that are most challenging.
Firstly, taking the time to do steps 1 and 2 in an honest, dispassionate manner. It requires activity that’s completely divorced from “business as usual”, some clear thinking, an open mind and a structure to get a result. Invariably objective facilitation is required.
Secondly, producing the tools that marketing and sales will need to take this new proposition to market in a consistent, compelling manner, and make sure it gets heard. Not easy, being customer centric is a different mindset and creativity is required to get above the noise of a busy marketplace.
Finally, the customer facing team have to learn to build interest, ask questions and, hardest of all, listen. It’s the opposite of doing a “demo” at the first meeting, it’s about building confidence by having meaningful business discussions with top management. Not all sales people can do it, and those that can usually need time and support.
If these are some of the challenges you face then we should be talking, getting it right sooner rather than later can have a dramatic effect on the bottom line…
As the “Sales Pipeline Engineers” that’s what we’re all about.
“When the promise is clear,the price gets easy..”
Jim Rohn
I’ve enjoyed a couple of client conversations recently which triggered a thought, a thought about three of the most powerful, and scary, words in the sales process.
I don’t know!
The first conversation was around the lack of trust that can be generated if there is a perception of glibness. I explored this with my chum, my client who pointed out that, generally, in our day to day conversations, we’re rarely in possession of all the facts, we’re rarely fully briefed on all the possible direction that a free ranging conversation might take and we’re therefore attuned to the occasional, or indeed frequent, “I don’t know”.
Now, as proper selling conversations inevitably, (and thankfully) tend to be real conversations about business issues rather than scripted pitches for a product or service the absence of doubt, pause or admitted ignorance doesn’t ring true.
If there’s one thing we know about conversational selling it’s that ringing true, perceived integrity is absolutely paramount in establishing trust, building relationships, maintaining relationships and selling stuff that helps to people who need it.
The second chat with a different chum, another client, identified that a lack of knowledge, of the detail, of the dates, the numbers or the right person to speak to gave intelligent salesfolk pursuing selling conversations the opportunity to re-connect, or to get the prospect to search out some information.
In a selling conversation it really doesn’t matter who doesn’t know, the strength comes from agreeing who will find out. We really like it when a prospect takes an action, it says they’re engaged, helping us both work to a result, not just sitting there waiting to be impressed.
So if you don’t know, that might just be a good thing,
Yes, no, maybe? You tell me, to be honest, I don’t know.
Spring has arrived, the talk is more optimistic, the outlook is gradually getting better; many businesses are recruiting to build their sales teams, although every penny is still being watched. New recruits are a major investment, expensive to find and to tempt aboard. Which makes it all the more odd that so many managers adopt such a cavalier attitude to new hires once they come on board.
Recruitment is tough; there may be many candidates but finding the one that’s exactly right for your role, for your team, takes time, care and usually, a willingness to spend on the right help.
The total cost should include, not only the head-hunter or agency fees but also admin, interviewing, testing; then factor in the management time taken and the cost of getting them up to speed while they’re unproductive. All in all it’s an eye-watering sum.
You’d think that most mangers would carefully tend this important investment but that’s sadly not often the case. Managers frequently adopt a brutal “sink or swim” approach to new sales people; they’re left to their own devices, which may or may not be enough to meet expectations.
Perhaps it’s the assumption that so much has been paid for experience and a proven track record that management expect the magic to just happen. Let’s be charitable and suggest it’s that they’re really, really busy.
The reality is that there is an unacceptably high failure rate; this “you’re on your own” approach clearly doesn’t work in practise. According to Chris Neale, who heads up the Sales Division of Computer Futures “at least 50% of sales managers suffer from ‘buyers remorse’ a couple of months after a new recruit has started”.
Worse, for an amazing one in three sales appointments, outright failure is the outcome. We’ve spoken of the monetary cost of this failure, but what’s the morale hit? And surely the most distressing figure is the opportunity cost, losing what could have been, should have been, a productive member of the sales team for six to twelve months.
It doesn’t need to happen, you probably didn’t make a recruiting mistake. As is so often the case in any relationship it’s a matter of attending to the fundamentals. Realistic objectives and adequate support are critical but most important is investing the management time to make sure they stay on track and motivated during a challenging time.
Success breeds success and engineering some small wins early on can have a disproportionate effect on motivation and the ability to quickly come up to speed; it just takes management commitment, management time and a bit of management effort.
Next time you add a new member to the team don’t consider the task of recruitment to be over once they’re aboard.
Only when they’ve met that first set of targets can you sit back and reflect on a job well done.