As sellers, we’re continually told to sell value and to let our prospects know about all of our value-added services. After all, that’s how we’re going to win the sales. Right?
Not necessarily. Value is relative. It’s in the eye of the beholder. So much depends on how the decision makers you’re dealing with perceive “value.” And even then, selling “value” may be totally ineffective – or not enough to make the difference.
To be successful in today’s business environment, you may need
to become invaluable to your customers.
Basically customers can be segmented into three different types based on their perceptions of value and what you can do to increase your sales effectiveness when working with them.
Commodity Buyers
These buyers know exactly what they want and how to use it. They don’t need sellers to explain the details. Commodity buyers typically value:
Low costs. They don’t want to pay any more than necessary. To be successful with these buyers, companies need to pull as many costs as they can out of their supply chain.
No hassles. Make it simple, simple, simple to do business with your company. Give them an 800 number, send quick quotes, or allow easy online ordering and they’re happy.
We’re all commodity buyers at times. When I order things like contact lenses and office supplies, I just want good pricing and fast service. As a seller, there’s little you can do to create value or sell “value add.” I really don’t care. It’s up to your company to make it cheaper, simpler to order, delivered to my door and with easy returns if I need to send it back.
Strategic Partners
These people are looking far beyond the scope of your products or services. They want a strategic partnership. They’re looking at how to best leverage their organization’s core competencies in combination with another company’s core competencies. These buyers value:
Intimate and strategic relationships between multiple levels within both organizations.
Mutual investments in joint projects.
Merging of systems to accomplish more than either organization could do alone.
Working with Strategic Partner buyers requires a major corporate commitment and is far beyond the scope of any one seller. If your company isn’t capable or willing to do this, these buyers aren’t interested in working with you.
By yourself, you can’t create the value they need. But if your company chooses to do this, you and your firm will become absolutely invaluable.
“I Need to Make a Sound Decision” Buyer
These buyers are either spending a lot of money on a decision or they don’t know everything there is to know about what they’re buying. Typically their decision process is complex, involves multiple people and takes place over an extended period of time.
If corporate decision makers are seriously considering your product or service, they assume it meets their basic requirements and that your organization is reputable. Having a decent offering gets you in the game, but does not typically provide enough value to win the business.
In fact, with these these buyers, the seller creates the value by what they personally bring to the relationship. These buyers value sellers who:
Help them understand their problems in greater depth.
Add additional insights into the challenges they face.
Share relevant information regarding “best practices.”
Develop unique, innovative approaches to resolving their business issues.
Keep them up-to-date on trends in the industry and how others are addressing them.
Help them find ways around the obstacles they’re encountering, and
Propose new ways to do more with the same investment.
Becoming an Invaluable Resource
What makes a seller invaluable? The ability to contribute so much more with each and every customer interaction – so much so that they can’t imagine doing business without you.
Let me give you an example. Say your company handles direct mailing programs, a fairly non-differentiated service offering.
Here are some ways that you, as the seller could become invaluable to your customers. You could:
Share ideas about other company’s direct mail programs – what works, what doesn’t.
Help them find ways to increase the results of their existing direct mail programs.
Show them how to reduce the overall costs of the program while maintaining its effectiveness and integrity.
Let them know what their competitors are doing.
Develop ways to increase the quality of their database.
If you keep thinking, you can come up with even more ways to become invaluable such as:
Working collaboratively with related vendors (i.e. agencies, telemarketing firms) to smooth out the hand-offs.
Helping them establish important criteria for their vendor selection process that they currently may not be aware of.
Proposing ideas for new programs to help them achieve their desired marketing results.
Acting as an advocate within your own organization on issues impacting the customer.
Suggesting ways to improve the work flow between all companies and internal departments working on the project.
To become invaluable, you must bring more to the relationship than just your standard product or service. What you want to create is a situation where corporate decision makers can’t live without your ideas, insights, and knowledge.
Becoming invaluable doesn’t just “happen.” You need to invest in yourself. Learn more about your customer’s business. Figure out how to help them improve it. Be an idea generator. Become an expert in your field. It takes a real commitment on your part.
Only the best make that commitment. But it truly sets them apart from everyone else and literally makes them invaluable.
Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She’s a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings, kick-off events and professional conferences. For timely and provocative sales advice, visit www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com
Every once in a while, I read something that a so-called sales expert says that really ticks me off. The other night it happened again. I was doing a quick scan of the latest issue of a popular magazine when suddenly I came across a whole slew of idiocy in just one article.
Here’s just a taste of this lunacy …
“In sales, the results are in the rejections.”
“Every time a contact results in a rejection, your salespeople can view the rejection as making money.”
“The secret is for each salesperson to realize how much rejection is necessary for success.’”
“Sales managers must coach their teams to embrace rejection.”
This is the stupidest advice you could ever get. Think about it. Can you ever imagine yourself saying this:
“Hallelujah! I’ve made 66 calls today and actually connected with 24 people. But of that number, 23 of them were total failures. Those decision makers blew me off as fast as they could. But one person asked me to sent a brochure, so it was really a great day. With all those rejections, I’m well on my way to success.”
Let me tell you why it’s even stupider than you might think.
Guess what happens if you embrace rejection as a part of the job and quickly move on to make the next call. You’re doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over.
What do I recommend? In my opinion, a rejection is a failure. It’s a sales call that did not result in a desirable outcome. If you want to get better at selling, it is imperative to analyze your failures to determine if a different approach could have yielded a better outcome.
There is NO other way to improve in this profession.
To be successful, you must take a serious look at all aspects of the interaction that were within your control. This includes:
Your word choices.
How you positioned your company.
The sequence of what you said.
How much you said: too little, too much.
Your tone, pace and sound.
Each one of these can be changed and potentially yield an improved outcome. So where do you start? I suggest you pay close attention to:
The specific obstacles you encounter.
What are your prospects saying: too high price, too expensive, currently satisfied? All these are indicators that you need to rethink your approach.
When you encounter these obstacles.
Take a look at what you said just prior to hearing the objection. Most likely the words preceding the client’s comments are key offenders.
The key point is that rejection is data. Simply data. It can be analyzed to determine trends, frequency, and even specific sales behaviors. When you think about it this way, you can experiment with various approaches.
You can simulate conditions by listening to your phone calls from your buyer’s perspective. You can get input from colleagues to see if what you say would sound interesting if they were your prospect. You can check with other sellers to see what strategies they use.
Stop listening to those sales gurus who tell you to “embrace rejection.” They’re spouting old-style selling techniques that won’t get you in the door of major corporations. They don’t have a clue what it takes to succeed in today’s marketplace.
Get smart and start analyzing your rejection. Look at it as a puzzle that needs solving. You may not know what it takes right now to crack into those corporate accounts, but you certainly have the ability to figure it out.
Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She’s a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings, kick-off events and professional conferences. For timely and provocative sales advice, visit www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com.
Of course, you don’t mean to do that! But the truth is that it often happens without you even thinking out it.
Case in point: You’ve just learned all about your new product or service offering. Tons of details. All its selling points. You’re so excited & can’t wait to share what you’ve learned with your prospects.
And when you finally get into a meeting, what comes out?
“We’ve just introduced a new complete system (methodology/process) that’s guaranteed to provide fully integrated communications for all your technology and non-technology needs as well as provide significant return on your investment with an ROI of only 9 months.”
Blather! I know you’re thinking you sound impressive, but from a prospect’s perspective it’s downright intimidating. Their eyes slowly glaze over and before long, you’ve lost them.
To be a successful communicator, you need to talk like a normal human being.
Here’s an interesting tidbit that supports this premise: A language monitoring serviced analyzed the recent VP debate. Palin spoke at a 9.5 grade level, while Biden spoke at an 7.8 grade level. (Full article here.)
Both candidates are focused on connecting with voters, not impressing them. I have no doubt that they could have easily spoken at a much higher grade level – which would have meant bigger words, longer sentences and more complex sentence construction.
However, they chose not to do that. They wanted to relate to us.
If we’re focused on impressing prospects with our vast knowledge, we’ll lose them. They’ll feel stupid. They won’t open up. They won’t ask questions.
And we won’t get the business!
Question for you: Have you ever caught yourself trying to impress customers? What happened? Were you able to recover?
Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She’s a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings, kick-off events and professional conferences. For timely and provocative sales advice, visit www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com
The use of voicemail has become so pervasive these past few years that sometimes you wonder if you’ll ever talk to another human being again.
Frustrating as it may be, over time you begin to accept it as the new norm. You expect to get voicemail and in a perverse sort of way may even relish it. It enables you to make that check on your “to do” list, showing you tried to get in but once again had no luck.
And admit it … leaving a message is a whole lot easier than talking to a person who says they have no need, throws objections in your path or slams the phone down on you.
In fact, the prevalence of voicemail can lull you into a sense of complacency. So much so, that you’re entirely unprepared for that rare moment in time when your prospect absent-mindedly picks up the phone.
Mind you, they would never answer it if they thought a seller was on the other end of the line. They’re likely right in the middle of a meeting and expecting a call from someone else.
Suddenly, instead of leaving your well-prepared voicemail message, you’re on the spot to say something intelligent and compelling. If you’re like most people, those kind of words don’t flow naturally from your mouth – especially when you’re under pressure.
When I was writing my book, one of my clients was actually working through it in real time, giving me immediate feedback on the strategies, processes and tips in it.
She had a great laugh at my expense when she read about my own major blooper when the vice president of sales actually answered the phone. I totally lost my cool.
My value proposition evaporated into thin air. I stumbled over my words, talked a mile a minute and blurted out this rambling, non-focused spiel about what my company did. It was horrible – totally unbecoming of someone in my position. In fact, I was embarrassed to be me.
I got off the phone as soon as I could before I dug myself into an even deeper hole. My only saving grace was that he probably wouldn’t remember who I was.
Alyssa thought that was really, really funny – that is, until the day it happened to her. She’d prepared this great voicemail script for a prospect with whom she was trying to get an appointment.
She was all set to leave her message at the beep, but it never came. Instead, Mr. Big answered the phone. Immediately Alyssa felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her brain locked and she couldn’t think of a thing to say.
On the other end of the line, Mr. Big was saying, “Hello, hello. Is somebody there?”
“Yes,” she finally said. “This is Alyssa. I’m with Anonymous Software Firm.”
“What do you want?” he said curtly.
“We specialize in (self-serving words to describe her offering). I’d like to talk with you about your sales automation system and how our software can help you improve it.”
He cut her short. “We already have that covered. I’m in the middle of a meeting and have to go.”
End of call. He hung up.
So what will you say after your prospect says, “Hello?” Have you thought of it? Does it flow out of your mouth as easily as your voicemail? Or, are you getting ready to dig your own grave?
Here are several tips that will help you avoid sounding like a blooming idiot.
1. Keep it simple. After you say your name, it helps if the next sentence you say is the same for both your voicemail and an actual conversation. That way your brain won’t freeze.
2. Focus on business. Corporate decision makers hate peppy, enthusiastic people who can’t wait to share things about their product or service.
3. Develop a provocative question. You want to engage the decision maker in conversation as quickly as you can.
4. Check to see if they’re busy right then and there. If they’re distracted, you’re wasting your breath.
5. Don’t focus on being nice. Instead, focus on being a business professional that has something valuable to say.
Most of all, plan ahead. You know how seldom someone actually picks up their phone. This is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Make sure you put your best foot forward.
Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She’s a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings, kick-off events and professional conferences. For timely and provocative sales advice, visit www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com
He’d frightened me to death with his automatic weapon and ferocious look. “There’s a problem with your passport” he alleged with a fierce voice and in broken English he continued. “You must come with me”
The next 30 minutes were spent in fear, trepidation and anxiety as I awaited my fate. You see I was leaving Iran following a sales speaking engagement and little did I know there was a problem with my Visa which is not a good habit to get into.
My traveling companion, Sandro, was clear of passport control and was making his way to the departure lounge but I was being kept in a windowless room whilst police and army scrutinised my passport and kept passing it from one important looking person to another.
“You cannot leave Iran – you must stay” the very official man said to me. He had a massive smile and was covered in stripes and insignia on his uniform to indicate he was a man of an elevated position. “You are in my country illegally” And he was quiet correct as it happened and just doing his job.
By this point, I was beyond rescue. However I began thinking it might be OK to live in Iran full time as it’s such a fabulous country. But think of Claire and my three smiling children waving to me at the airport. My daughter without a Daddy. How terrible.
But living in Iran full-time did sound pleasant. I could make a honest living training and speaking, pick up Farsi, get a chic apartment in the exclusive north of Tehran after all I had made some really good friends in the last week and we could party every night…..
No, I came to my senses. No I must get home to my family. They need me. “Please Sir, can you explain the problem with my Visa?” I grovelled at the official. I.d been taught to grovel at an early age and it usually worked.
“It says on the Visa that you can be in my country for 5 days…but you have been here for 6 days.”
Talk about detail and yes, I’d goofed big time. Hugely…what a mistake to make. And I promised myself to always attend to detail in the future. Never lose your attention to detail– it could take you away from your family.
In sales and coaching, we do have to concentrate on the detail and it’s plainly not everyone’s “cup of tea”. Contracts, marketing brochures, sales plans, sales meeting preparation, stocking your brief case ready for meetings, knowing the benefits of products, checklists for training courses, planning probing questions to reveal client problems, emailing actions, quarterly objectives….the list goes on.
Some people prefer to focus on the big picture and detest detail but others enjoy wallowing in the small print. But my lesson from Iran was to check the detail more often and if you don’t want to then hire or delegate someone to do it for you.
When they finally let me go through passport control I was the most thankful man on this planet. And I won’t make the same mistake again.
Paul Archer is an international sales speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK. He specializes in rapport selling and rapport coaching and can ignite his audiences large or small. For more information on Paul and his training courses, visitwww.archertraining.co.uk or his sales blog at www.paularcher.com
In the movie Jerry Maguire, when Tom Cruise is in the midst of his proposal to Dorothy, she stops him with, “You had me at hello.” Every seller dreams of hearing those exact same words when they approach corporate decision makers.
Unfortunately, the opposite usually occurs. Instead of capturing their prospect’s attention, most sellers create resistance with their opening remarks and blow the opportunity.
Why do bad things like that happen to good people?
In short, weak value propositions.
If you’re running into trouble cracking into corporate accounts, most likely the root cause is your failure to clearly articulate the business outcomes that customers realize from using your products, services or solutions.
A couple weeks ago, I did a new exercise while training a group of sellers. In small groups, they rated common value propositions that sellers could use when prospecting for new customers.
Using a 1-10 (tops) scale, they evaluated value propositions such as these on their effectiveness in initiating change from the status quo:
__ We offer one-stop shopping for all your (fill in the blank) needs.
__ We’re the industry leader in (fill in the blank) and have been
recognized for our exceptional (fill in the blank).
__ We specialize in ( fill in the blank) and work with well-known
clients such as Microsoft, Best Buy and Kraft.
After serious discussion amongst the sellers, these value propositions received scores between 4-6. Their rationale? They were nice benefit statements about the company, but not quite as punchy as they could have been.
Since my book, Selling to Big Companies, was required reading prior to the session, I assumed these sellers would ace this exercise. Not so! In fact, they were way off.
The truth is that all the above value propositions really deserve a score of one. Not four. Not six. Just a measly score of one.
“C’mon, Jill,” you might be saying. “How can that be? They’re not horrible statements. They’re nice.”
Yes, they are nice. I’ll give you that. But they’re grossly ineffective and that’s why they rated so poorly.
Capturing the Decision Maker’s Attention
While those commonly used value propositions listed above might be important at some point in the decision process, they’re totally and utterly worthless when prospecting.
When it comes to capturing a decision maker’s attention, here’s what you need to think about:
Strong value propositions pique curiosity and entice. When prospects hear them, they want to learn more.
Strong value propositions create a stark contrast from the status quo. When prospects hear them, they’re willing to consider making a change.
Consider this: If you were on the other end of the phone and a seller called with this message, what would your impression be?
“Eric. Jill Konrath calling from Selling to Big Companies. We offer one-stop shopping for all your sales training needs – everything from lead generation to closing. We use state-of-the-art methodologies to ensure our training sticks.”
Does it entice you? Not one iota. Does it get you to consider switching sales training vendors? Not likely. Does it make you want to invest lots of money that’s currently allocated elsewhere? Not on your life.
Statements about your company and what it does are NOT value propositions. Period. They are not value propositions.
If you want to get decision makers “at hello”, you need to clearly articulate the results the customers can expect from using your product, service or solution. That’s results, spelled R-E-S-U-L-T-S.
For example, a few months ago I trained the national accounts team of a well-known media company. All sellers identified one large corporate client with whom they wanted to set up a meeting.
As a result of the workshop, 87% of the sales force landed an appointment with their targeted account.
Those outcomes are unheard of in my business. Virtually every Vice President of Sales will want to learn more.
That’s the power of a strong value proposition. Even decision makers who weren’t considering a change will think it’s worth their time to find out about the sellers offering.
If you really want to “get them at hello,” then make sure you:
Talk results.
Decision makers don’t care about your products or services. They only care about the results they’ll see. Stress that and you’ll catch their attention. Omit those results and you’ve lost them.
Get real.
Refer to actual client successes and include measures or statistics. Success stories from other companies in their industry are especially compelling. By giving specific examples, you really pique their curiosity.
Test your message.
After you’ve planned what to say, ask, “If I were the decision maker, would this message entice me? Would it make me want to spend an hour of my valuable time with this person?”
If your answer isn’t a resounding yes, rework and revise your message till it is enticing. Don’t leave it to chance. Don’t hope that it will work. Your job is to make it so compelling that your decision makers “get it at hello.”
Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She’s a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings, kick-off events and professional conferences. For timely and provocative sales advice, visit www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com
The next time you have a customer who is objecting to your price for your product or service, here’s a little quotation that’ll remind you how business works.
“It is unwise to pay too much, but it is unwise to pay too little. When you pay too much you lose a little money and that is all, but when you pay too little you sometimes lose everything, because the thing that you have bought isn’t capable of doing the thing which it was bought to do.”
“The common law of business balance prohibits you from paying a little and receiving a lot – it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder it would be as well to add something for the risk you run, and if you can so that you can afford to buy something better.”
John Ruskin 1819 – 1900
Paul Archer is an international sales speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK. He specializes in rapport selling and rapport coaching and can ignite his audiences large or small. For more information on Paul and his training courses, visitwww.archertraining.co.uk or his sales blog at www.paularcher.com
Calling Don Diggerman was always painful. Much as I wanted to do business with his company, I dreaded talking to him. I’d sit at my desk, staring at the phone, trying to figure out how I could avoid dealing with that man.
But it was just wishful thinking. The decision rested on Don’s shoulders and unless I won him over, one of my competitors would get the order.
When I couldn’t delay any longer, I’d close my eyes, take a long deep breath, and then slowly exhale. Over and over, perhaps twenty times or more. To the casual observer, it might have looked like I was meditating in the middle of the office. In reality, I was calming myself down before I called him.
You’re probably wondering what was so awful about this man that caused me to go through all those gyrations. Was he abusive, ornery, or downright mean? Was he sneaky, manipulative or slimy?
No, this man was not an ogre. He was the nicest man in the whole wide world. Kind. Gracious. Warm. Everyone loved him – even me.
It was just that talking to him required a tremendous effort on my part. You see, Don was the slowest talker I’ve ever met.
When I’d catch him on the phone, I’d say something like, “Don, Jill Konrath calling.”
“Oooooh, Jiiiiiilll,” he’d say ever so slowly. “Howwwww niiiiiiiiice of youuuuuuu to caaaaaall. Weeeeeee’ve beeeeeeeen taaaaalking abooooout commmmming in for a deeeemooonstraaation, buuuuuut caaaaan’t deeeeeciiiiiiiide if Tuuuuuuuesdaaaaay or Thurrrrrsdaaaaay is beeeeeettttter.”
It took him forever to say anything – and it drove me up a wall. But he never knew, because I’d respond, “Donnnn. Caaaaaaaan weeeeee doooooo it onnnnnnn Thurrrrrsdaaaaay? It’s beeeetter for meeeeeee.”
Our entire conversation went at that speed – on purpose. If I’d talked to him normally, I would have scared him away. My goal-oriented behavior was totally out of synch with his laid-back, slow-paced manner.
Because I recognized this, I made a conscious decision to relate to Don in a manner that made him feel comfortable. Maintaining this calm demeanor was certainly not one bit relaxing for me though.
But, it wasn’t about me. It was about my customer. I was treating him the way he wanted to be treated. And that’s a good thing.
Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She’s a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings, kick-off events and professional conferences. For timely and provocative sales advice, visit www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com
I’m sure you’re making more prospecting calls at the moment, just like everyone else, so I’m guessing that you’re coming across barriers in getting to talk to your prospective customers.
If that barrier is a “Personal Assistant who’s trained to stop you in your tracks, here’s a neat little tip that just might get you put through.
A UCLA survey showed that on the telephone a massive 84% of the message and meaning
is derived purely from your voice. This is a well known fact and was substantiated by Albert Mehrabian in the 1970′s.
I’m suggesting that you sound important so you can get through the gatekeeper.
Important people have deeper voices and say things in shorter sentences. Their tone of voice falls at the end of each sentence to accentuate their importance and they leave lots of pauses.
And most people when faced with someone who sounds ever so important will put you through without hesitation. Try it, it works and is also fun.
Paul Archer is an international sales speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK. He specializes in rapport selling and rapport coaching and can ignite his audiences large or small. For more information on Paul and his training courses, visitwww.archertraining.co.uk or his sales blog at www.paularcher.com
When I hung up the phone, I was in a state of shock. I’d just agreed to do something that was vital to my business growth, yet totally unreasonable to accomplish in only 90 days. To top it off – I had no extra time in my already over-flowing schedule.
It all started when leadership coach Caitlin Miller invited me to participate in the Breakthrough Game. When it came time to identify my goal, she insisted that I select one that was the “other side of possible.”
So, with a great deal of angst and a bit of excitement, I committed to increase my database by 50% in three months.
Was I crazy? Perhaps. But trying to pull this off in such a short timeframe was a challenge I couldn’t resist.
The Failure of Incrementalism
Most of us are used to dealing with incremental goals. Our quota goes up 15% each year. We decide that we’d like to earn 10% more money.
We’d want to increase our closing ratio by 5%.
These small increases keep us thinking and acting small. We commit to making one extra call each day. We focus on working harder. Perhaps we even think about working smarter.
But the reality of it is, incremental goals feel like a burden. They don’t inspire us to greater heights. Mostly, they just wear us down as we face a never-ending cycle of doing more, more, more.
The Real Secret to Success
When we set unreachable goals that require us to stretch beyond what we think we’re capable of achieving, we’re forced to consider new options.
Take my situation: It took me seven years to build by database to its current size. Now I needed to increase it by 50% in a totally unrealistic timeframe. Clearly, my normal modus operandi wouldn’t work.
New strategies were needed – ones that I’d never considered before. I had to think differently about this challenge.
I started by asking new questions:
How could I double my database virtually overnight?
Where could I find a critical mass of people who’d want to receive my newsletter?
What partnerships could I put together?
What resources did I have at my disposal?
If I had all the money in the world, what would I do?
What would Steve Jobs do if he were given this challenge?
You see, your brain cannot resist an unanswered question. It goes to work connecting ideas and tidbits of information to create new options for you. It operates on hyper-alert as it goes about the day, searching for possible solutions from what it observes, reads or hears.
New ideas start to pop up- ones you may never have considered before.
Some will be good. Others will be lousy or off-the-wall, but they may be just what you need to spark the next great idea.
The Clock Starts Ticking
When you give yourself an unreachable goal with an unrealistic deadline, you also need to plot out a plan. Personally, I divided my 90 days into three one-month segments.
In the first 30 days, I focused on exploring the challenge. I actively searched for ideas that I could implement. I challenged myself to find solutions that wouldn’t push me to the brink, were easy to implement and low cost.
I spent the next 30 days, creating some lead generation tools as well as modifying my website. And, the final 30 days were allotted for implementation.
Did I achieve my goal? Not quite. I only grew my database by 25% in those 90 days, but that in itself was an unachievable goals. I was totally elated with these results – especially since I abandoned the project in the final three weeks in order to meet my publisher’s deadline for my newest book, SNAP Selling.
I Double Dare You
Now that I’ve told you my story, it’s your turn. What kind of unreachable goal can you set for yourself in the upcoming 90 days?
It has to be something that you’d really like to achieve – and, as Caitlin Miller says, “is on the other side of possible.” You have to feel a little bit scared to tackle it, but it excites you too.
How about increasing your hot prospects by 50% in the next three months? Perhaps it’s landing five new appointments with big companies in your area? Maybe it’s pulling together an educational event for your prospects and getting 35 people to attend?
Think about it! I double dare you to take this challenge. And 90 days from now, I’d like to hear what you accomplished!
Jill Konrath, sales strategist and bestselling author of Selling to Big Companies and SNAP Selling, is a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings, kick-off events and professional conferences.
For more articles like this, visit www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com. Sign up for the newsletter and get a BONUS Sales Call Planning Guide.
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