Whale Hunting with Barbara Weaver Smith

Obviously, all of the people on the boat need to be trained and need to rehearse before the team goes before a client.  That's the topic of tomorrow's blog.

Do you engage subject matter experts in your complex sales?  How does that work for you?  We would love to have examples, questions, and comments.

• they are open-ended, inviting a discussion, not a short answer
• they are objective, requesting specific data and examples rather than speculation
• they are historical, seeking to learn about past behavior as a prediction of future behavior
• they are non-combative, inviting a thoughtful response rather than a defense
• they are narrative, asking the listener to tell a story
• they are process-oriented, focused on learning a sequence of steps in the decision-making

I recommend that you devote time with your team to practice framing questions and improving them.  Start with the standard questions that you ask in your sales process.  Then use the tactics above to revise them to get better answers.  Here are some examples:

Original:  "Who is the decision-maker in this process?"
Revised:  "Can you tell me all of the people or departments who will be affected by your purchase decision?

Original:  How will you make your purchase decision?
Revised:  Will you help me sketch out the steps your typical buying process?

Original:  Why do you want to change suppliers?
Revised:  The last time you changed suppliers, what were the reasons that motivated your team to make a change?

You get the idea--frame your question in a way to get more detail, a more thoughtful response, a sense of their decision-making process and history, a story or context of what is motivating their sales discussion with your company.
 
We would love to have examples of your favorite questions!  Your comments welcome.

• who will be impacted by your decision?
• will you introduce us to them, bring them to the table?
• who are the people upline to whom you will present your decision/recommendations?
• how can we help you present our solution internally?  What materials, formats, or meetings do you need?
• what are some reasons that this project may stall even if you are prepared to move forward?
• how can we help you mitigate those potential pitfalls?

If you are lucky enough to meet the polar bear in person, be sure to put your Founder/Owner/CEO at the table.  An important reason that big companies sometimes choose to hire small companies is that they know they will have control and attention.  Reinforce that selling point at every opportunity.

Small companies and those small companies with designations as women-owned or minority-owned or disadvantaged businesses  have huge opportunities to sell big deals to big companies that dwarf them.  To gain that business, you need to become very savvy about locating the real decision-maker--the polar bear.

Are you hungry to grow your business fast?  Do you have a sales process strategy designed to help you identify the polar bear every time?  Do you have a polar bear story to share with our readers?

I would love to hear from you about how your small/midsize company is landing large accounts and what is your experience with the polar bear.

The biggest lesson in whale hunting is this:  it's not about YOU!  When you and your team learn to think like the buyers are thinking, your success will improve exponentially and your business will grow rapidly.

YOU tend to think about your solutions, products, and services and how--in your mind--the big customers will gain amazing advantage by doing business with you.  THEY tend to think about what can go wrong, how they could make a mistake, and what would be the worst consequences of choosing you.

So, you have to learn to think like a whale.  And the whales are afraid of you!  Imagine the many buyers who will be involved in a big-company decision.  The procurement team, many of the end users, HR, Accounting/Finance, Legal, IT, Manufacturing, Shipping, Service and Support--a considerable list that varies according to your particular products and services.  A big team, nonetheless.  And the safest decision this team can make is to buy from another big company with a well-known reputation, a national or international brand, and a stable financial history--in other words, a company just like themselves.

YOU know that you can provide more flexibility, agility, innovation, speed, personal attention, and control--among other advantages--but they will never choose you as long as their fears linger.

To think like a whale?  Figure out everything about you that could be scary in sales and delivery.  Imagine what about small business or women or minority business or entrepreneurs or midsize or privately held companies that might scare them.  Think about your location, reputation, brand visibility, growth history, capital access etc. -- and then figure out how to present your company and your team as a capable, professional, sophisticated player.  THEN you can sell your advantages. 

The sales development strategy for whale hunters is to first alleviate fears, then promote advantages, and finally close with both.

• ease of transition--how many things will NOT change if they hire you
• short term ROI--what benefits can they expect to realize in the first few months that will make the buyers' team look good
• safety factors--what qualities of your company are persuasive that you are solid, predictable, stable, and financially sound
• how much your company and the whale company have in common re: sales and implementation processes, standards, systems etc.

Smaller companies tend to lead with their benefits and advantages in sales presentations.  Whale buyers have a hard time attending to your advantages until they know more about your safety factors.  So whether you are disclosing in an RFP, and/or presenting yourself as a certified women business enterprise or minority business enterprise or a  small business enterprise, your sales and business development team needs a good roadmap for what to disclose, and when, in order to win new business from whales.

• do you have budget for the work we are proposing?
• have you ever done business with a company as [small, unknown] as us?
• when will you make your decision?
• is it possible you will select a provider that is not the lowest bidder?
• are you the ultimate decision maker?

Now, you can't necessarily ask the questions bluntly--you may get answers that are not entirely true and you may offend the person who has been willing to talk with you.  So here are some ways to translate those questions:

• where does the budget reside for this project?  when is that budget awarded?
• the last time you did business with a small company like us, what kind of experience did you have
• can you help me understand the steps in your process of selecting a vendor?
• the last tie you bought from a vendor who was not the lowest bidder, how did you arrive at that decision?
• who are the people who will be impacted by your decision?  will you introduce my team to them?

Ask your hard questions early and often in order to improve your business development process.   You have nothing to lose.  If the odds are stacked against you at the beginning, you want to be devoting your efforts to a more likely prospect.  Help you team learn how to maneuver the 2-Card Questions!

• totally under control
• unruffled
• sophisticated in dealing with large customers
• process-driven
• safe, reliable, and long-lasting
• larger and safer than your peers

Ask your team to study how a big company presents itself to the outside world, from answering phones to website to collateral materials.  Then emulate as many of those tactics as you can.  Soon your "aperture of perception" will be excellent and you will be able to broaden its width and depth to reveal more of the great tings about your products and services.

Do you have a story to share about how you mad your company appear bigger, smarter, or more solid than you really felt?  Please comment!

The Whale Hunters Process doesn't include "cold calling."  Let's face it: you are not going to land a new deal, ten to twenty times your average deal, by placing a phone call to the prospective buyer.  That is an outmoded, old-fashioned, small-minded method of sales.  It is not a strategic business development method.

So what would you do instead?

At this point in your Whale Hunting process, you have a great deal of information about a list of companies on your Whale Chart.  Part of that information consists of the names and titles of key executives.  Now's the time to put that knowledge to work in your network.

First, have your Scouts conduct deep Internet searches on all of the key execs that they've identified.  Include Google searches, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook.

Next, bring your team to the table to find connections in professional associations, philanthropic boards, community interests and alumni associations.  Look for connections between your target whales and your current clients.

Set Google alerts on key executives to bring forward news about their activities.

You will find a connection.

Do you have an example of a six-degrees connection?  We'd love to hear it!

I've posted about the target filter and how to use the target filter to get an initial list of potential whale customers.  Once you have a list [Whale Chart], your scouts should go to work to learn all about them.

If this process intimidates you, just think about how it would intimidate your competitors who are not practicing the Whale Hunters Process.  Like all things Whale Hunting, this feature is deliberate process, not magic.

Here's what you need:  

• Whale Chart
• Scout
• Librarian

Your Scout can be an internal marketing team person, admin person, sales support person.
or intern (including intern team).  I recommend that you team up with your local college or university to create a student-generated project that  accomplishes your research needs while offering the student team a real-world project.  If that scenario doesn't work for you, it remains true that a university librarian or public librarian can guide your search.

Your goal is to determine key facts about the target companies so that you can double-check them against your target filter.  Step One of that process is to use standard online research tools.  Step Two is to use Internet search strategies, including the company's website, to flesh out the public information.  Step Three is to use social media resources to research not only the company but its key executives in areas of interest to you.

BIG NOTE HERE:  Do not pay for data at this point!  Once you have found all of the free information that's available, you can evaluate whether there is proprietary industry information that might be worth purchasing.  Sometimes there is.  But NEVER start there.

Many small to midsize companies are afraid of research; therefore they shun it.  If you build a serious research process into your sales process, you will be light years ahead of your competitors.  When you approach a company knowing a great deal about them and knowing why they are a perfect fit for you, it will be apparent to them, and they will respect you for your research activities.

Do you have a whale hunting research story?  We'd love to hear it!

As a whale hunter, your business growth depends on selling much bigger deals to much bigger customers--customers that you have identified and targeted, not customers who accidentally come through your door.  The big key to that advantage is your learning about those whales and their company.

Your scouts need to prepare thorough dossiers focused on your target filter criteria.  But it doesn't stop there!  They need to provide you with names and titles of key executives, then Google those names to find bio information, career history, etc.  For public companies, the scouts should find the SEC filings, especially the 10K Form Management Discussion & Analysis (MD&A) by which company leadership interprets the current status and future directions.

Scouts are also looking for "6 degrees of separation" -- links from your company to key executives at the target company.  Social media--especially LinkedIn and Facebook -- are good sources as well as Google searches to find articles and mentions.  Sometimes the best connection is through a professional or trade association or philanthropic service.

When the scouts do their job well, your harpooner will be fully prepared to make an initial call on the proper person at the prospective whale account.

Now you're almost ready to use it!  First, you should decide whether some categories are more important than the others.  For example, maybe location is critically important to your choice of customers, or the size of the prospective deal, or the nature of your entree into the company.  For whatever reasons, one or more categories might be weighted as twice or three times more important than the others.  We typically score 3 points for an A, 2 points for a B, and 1 point for a C on each category.  If you weight a category at 2x, the A becomes 6 points, the B becomes 4 points, and so on.

But before you score, you need a list of companies that seem to fit your criteria.  Using your target filter as a guide, you will run your requirements against one or more businesses databases to get an initial list of companies that seem to match.  Do some research--the beginning of your scouting process--on your criteria for those companies, and assign them a score according to your Target Filter.  The companies with the highest scores are your best prospects for whale hunting.

Do you use a Target Filter in your sales process?  How is it working for your business development?

• company revenue:  In the "A" category, revenue should exceed $100 million in annual sales; in the "C" category
   
• deal size:  In the "A" category, the potential deal size would exceed $500k; in the "C" category, deal size would be above $100k

Statements:

• brand recognition:  In the "A" category, the statement is high quality internationally known brand; in the "C" category, the statement is high quality brand not yet well known.
   
• growth plan:  In the "A" category, the statement is aggressive growth plan; in the "C" category, the statement is incremental growth plan.

Qualities:

• fiscal soundness:  In the "A" category the quality is exceptional; in the C category the quality is average.
   
• geographic location:  In the "A" category the quality is western U.S.; in the "C" category the quality is international.

Please note that all of the metrics, statements, and qualities will be different for each company and each target filter.   These are YOUR criteria for finding the best sales prospects.

Once you have worked through the metrics with your sales and business development team, you need to test them with past and current customers to be sure they are realistic markers of what is ideal for you.  The discussion--even argument--around metrics is healthy and will lead to new understandings.

The metrics may change over time.  Make them part of your strategic planning process to ensure regular review and updating.

And above all, once you've determined metrics--manage to them!  If a prospect or a prospective deal does not meet your criteria, walk away! 

This week is the book launch of Overcomers, Inc., a collection of essays by people who have overcome various kinds of obstacles and gleaned lessons from the process.  Not all of the lessons are business lessons, many are life lessons; nevertheless, there is a lot to learn from this book for business owners, executives, and sales people.  Photos below are Lynne Klippel and Christine Kloser, publishers, and partners in Love Your Life Publishing.  The excerpt by Christine is from her chapter about closing down her business, a decision that many business owners have had to consider in the last year or so. 

Saying Good-bye to a Business I Loved
Christine Kloser

Little did I know at the time I went through this that the choice I finally made to shut down the business was the very opening that's led to the success I'm experiencing in my business today. The most important thing I learned through this journey is that everything truly does happen for a reason. And it's up to me to look for the deeper meaning in my experiences and to be open to the gifts and the lessons that are sometimes wrapped in sadness and pain.

So, I invite you now to take a look at your life. First, allow yourself to notice if you're doing something (or not doing something) because you don't want to let other people down. If you can relate to this in your own life, take some time to journal about it to discover the gift that is trying to reveal itself to you.

Second, if you find yourself in a business situation where you feel like you've come to the end of a path... trust the saying that, "When one door closes, another door opens." This was certainly true for me, and I know that if you're going through a similar "letting go" in your business, that it's true for you, too. One door never closes unless another door is simultaneously opening. So, look for the openings and you'll be amazed at the opportunities just waiting for you to notice them. 

From Overcomers, Inc.; True Stories of Hope, Courage and Inspiration. To get your own copy and receive dozens of bonus gifts go to http://www.overcomersbook.com/booklaunch

The Whale Hunters believe that companies should decide deliberately which large companies they want to do business with and are well-suited to serve.  Rather than sending a message to the entire market and waiting for leads, whale hunting helps you develop a list of companies that you can research, follow, and learn how to approach.  This work begins with developing a Target Filter, a set of criteria for your ideal customers.  Download a free copy of this Whale Hunting tool.

The first step in building your Target Filter is to determine the categories of your criteria--not the metrics (they come next) but the criteria themselves.  That is, categories like

• Size of the company
• Geographic Location
• Annual Revenue
• Incumbent Provider of What We Sell
• Reputation
• Financial Stability
• Leadership Team
• Source of our Lead
• Budget for our Product/Service

Every whale hunting company will have a different set of categories that are important to you.  Sit down with your leadership team and a whiteboard to define the categories that matter to you.  Argue about them!  Test them against your current or past customers.  Then get ready to set target metrics as the basis for your research.

Learn more about building a Target filter in Whale Hunting: Land Big Sales and Transform Your Company.

First, find your river that flows "with the ocean." 

• What are the key attributes that all prospective clients would expect from a supplier in your industry?  Those constitute "the ocean."
• What are 2 or 3 of those attributes at which your company excels?

Next, find your river that flows "against the ocean."

• What are your extraordinary differentiators?
• What do you do well that your competitors can't or won't do?
• How do you exceed expectations in remarkable ways? 

We recommend that your team work together on this exercise, poring over your website and marketing materials and those of your key competitors.  Often, you will be surprised at the capabilities you discover that you have not been promoting!

Join The Whale Hunters beta Community and download our Rivers in the Ocean article, located in the Strategy Collection of the Resource Library.

I would love to hear key distinctions that you have identified for your company that help you sell big deals to whales--post here please!

• everyone believes that they are responsible for business development
   
• work habits reinforce speed of decision-making and action
   
  • at every level people are empowered to make good decisions
  • there are good tools for fast collaboration without busy work
  • leaders set the example of fast-growth habits  
    
• reward and recognition foster efficient, effective collaborative behaviors
   
• resources are allocated fairly to support new work required by new sales

Are you ready for a period of accelerated growth?

For more ideas on this topic, join The Whale Hunters online community and explore the Culture Collection of resources.

• have a clearly defined process and follow it
• involve everyone, with clearly delineated roles
• manage risk through relentless preparation
• teach the process and roles to everyone, all the time
• understand that the hunt is how we survive and thrive
• have reverence for the whales and treat them with respect

The photo above illustrates an "Inuksuk" -- a massive stone structure that the Inuit raised all over their barren land to guide the way or to mark the location of people or supplies.  Clearly they had tremendous work processes to accomplish almost unbelievable feats of power.  Is everyone in your company thinking like the Inuit?