I mentioned earlier that my husband and I are buying a house.  Since we bought a new house with an unfinished back yard, we also went shopping for a swimming pool.

Now if you have followed the housing market at all, you may know that Arizona is still the second hardest-hit market in the country (behind Nevada)  as measured by existing homes that are “under water” on their mortgages.  To say that home sales over the past few years have been slow is a grave understatement.  So it’s got to be true that pool sales have been stagnant and that pool-building companies have been hurting for business.

We talked to four pool builders, each recommended by our builder or a friend.  We met with each of them before we read any online reviews so we could keep an open mind.  In each case we told them that we were comparison shopping for bids (which I’m sure a pool builder would expect given the size of the investment). 

Two of the four had invested in “Pool Studio” software, which enables the salesperson to design your pool digitally within the exact dimensions of your own back yard.  They had a great advantage in that within the day we had multiple views of a draft design and complete pricing information.  That was the first differentiator.  Second was how quickly they set an appointment for us to come back and willingness to work with us on design options.  We’ve never bought a pool before so we appreciated a lot of help from the salesperson.  Finally, there was a sense of trust communicated by everyone we met from the company that we actually chose.  It’s a second-generation family business operated by two brothers.  For our second appointment, the owners came out to greet us and chat.  They have invested in an immaculate showroom with two outdoor pools illustrating differences between and geometric and freeform pool design, so they can show you how things look “for real” as well as in the design.

Our salesman had already been to our house (we have not moved in yet) to inspect the yard and offer more suggestions.  He spent three more hours making improvements to the design without really raising the cost.  Before he would accept a down payment, he wanted to meet us at the house to show us how much space the pool would take up and make sure we were satisfied with our decision.  He told us which decisions could wait and which finishing touches could be delayed if necessary.  The walk-through (by the way on a weekend) led us to make a couple more changes, and we received new design pictures before Monday morning.

We are going to close on the house August 30th, and the company we chose intends to be ready to begin building our pool on September 1!

Once we made our decision (within a week from our first visit to a pool builder) we notifed the others that we had signed a contract and thanked them for their assistance.

We received one gracious follow-up note thanking us for the opportunity to be considered and wishing us well.  But we received two very inappropriate responses, as follows:

“I must say I’m disappointed because I really didn’t show you what we have to offer. I measured the property and gave you a tour of our facility. I guess I was not aware of your timeframe which is totally my fault for not asking. You obviously have your reasons as to why you made your decision before I could provide a design and price. I’m anxious to see who you’re building with so I will keep a close eye on the permit report.”

Aside from that being mildly threatening, this owner is clueless about how his competition is operating.  They asked our timeframe in the first interview and delivered accordingly.  Our salesman did not let any time lapse between meeting us and delivering us a draft pool design and a price.

The second surprising response was from a salesman who, on the day we visited, said it was too hot to be outdoors so invited us to explore the sample pools by ourselves, without any kind of guided tour!  When thanking him for his assistance, we said price was a differentiator.  Here’s the response we got:

“I know I was a day late in getting the pool price to you, but likewise I did design your pool and get it to you on the same day.  You had the opportunity to meet me so you know from my age that I am not a neophyte in the pool industry. In fact I have successfully sold over 35 million dollars in pool sales in the past 14 years, and never has anyone beat my price  for the same pool.   I will send you a $200.00 gift certificate that you can use or purchase of chemicals or other items of your choice if you will forward me a copy of the itemized breakdown for your pool.”

Once again it’s all about him and nothing about us.  No “thank you,” no “I appreciate the chance to bid,” just an insulting insinuation that we are too stupid to know what we are buying and an inappropriate request that we give him a competitor’s detailed pricing.  He went on to complain that we didn’t give him a chance to improve his bid, which is the same argument we got from a Honda salesman last year–after we bought a Toyota!

So, these sales people think there are no consequences for how they handle rejection of their offer.  But the internet is full of review sites–Yahoo reviews, Yelp, etc.–and like other buyers, we consulted those sites before we made our final decision.  Everyone can post reviews about companies we chose NOT to do business with as well.

I think how you handle yourself when you lose a sale is just as important as when you win.  A gracious, professional stance builds your reputation; a grudging whine confirms that we were right not to choose you.

How do you handle rejection in your sales process?

Today we’re pulling this August 2010 post from our archives. Enjoy!

For a long time, I’ve been exhorting clients to be certain that the sales team is selling what the operations or implementation team plans to deliver.  In the past couple of weeks, The Whale Hunters team has been on the receiving end of that potential mismatch, which compels me to write about it again.  Here’s some context that may resonate with you as a seller (and possibly even as a buyer)!

The Setting:    Your company sells a product with a service, or a service with a product, or a customizable service or product or both.  I have seen this issue surface repeatedly in software companies, professional services companies, and advertising/marketing agencies, to name a few.

The Sale:  Let’s take software as an example.  Your company provides an enterprise software solution that requires considerable integration into your customers’ existing systems.  Your project management/account management/customer service teams believe that you are selling a product that is basically one size fits all, although it could be customized with some bells and whistles–later–when all of the initial  installation stuff is done and the system is up and running.

The Snag:  Your sales team has fallen in love with the bells and whistles.  Rather than sell the boring one-size-fits-all product, they are selling the customizable parts.  Whatever the buyers say they would like to have, the sales team promises.  In fact, the sales team leads with the extras, not the basics.

So now you are stuck.  You’ve made this sale.  The sales team celebrates.  The customer is excited about their purchase and ready for implementation.  And your implementation team is . . . . oh my goodness . . . appalled.  “We can’t do that!”  or “We don’t do this!” or “We’re just not ready for that!”

As I said, this circumstance has been brought home to me in the past few weeks.  The Whale Hunters has been working on a major build of a new website that incorporates a content management system.  We decided to go with a product geared towards educational institutions rather than corporate solutions, having been assured that the product was completely customizable.

But once the sales team handed off to the implementation team, the bubble burst.  We heard, “We can’t do that” and “They shouldn’t have told you we could do that” and “It would cost a lot more for us to do that.”  And we didn’t hear nearly soon enough about some serious deal-breaker issues that they cannot resolve.

So it’s been a very painful reminder to me that your customer is going to be very, very unhappy if just from the get-go your delivery team begins to say “they shouldn’t have promised . . . . . whatever.”

If your company has ever been in the position of a disconnect between sales and operations or implementation areas, it’s time to correct that problem now.  If you land a large account with that kind of mis-match, they can cost you a lot of money, make your employees miserable, and quite literally force you out of business if the deal is big enough to get their serious attention.

So, if you’re not positive that both sides of your house know how to collaborate on a complex sale, it’s definitely time for them to learn.

Has your company ever been in this kind of trouble?  How did you handle it?

Today’s post it brought to us by our Indiana partner, Chad Root, President of Spearhead Sales & Marketing. 

It was 1995.  I was sitting at my parent’s kitchen table talking with my brother.  We were both only a couple of years into our careers.  My brother was an engineer for a decent sized automotive supplier.  I was a “Sales Engineer” for a small packaging company.  I’ll never forget it.

He said, “You’ll never sell to me!”

I said, “Why not.”

He said, “Because I won’t answer your phone calls (pre-email days you know).”

Back in 1995, smiling and dialing was expected.  A sales person was supposed to get names from trade shows, Thomas Register, Harris, etc.  Then they were supposed to start calling.  I swear, salespeople taught buyers to not answer the phone.  I honestly believe bad sales tactics had a lot to do with the internet boom.  Buyers desperately wanted a way to get product information without a pushy salesperson.

So our conversation continued…

I said, “Well, you buy a lot of product and equipment for your company, right?”

He said with zeal, “Yeah! $10mil a year.”

I said, “Well then it’s my job to be there when you’re shopping so that you buy from me.”

He didn’t know what to say.  And, hence the golden rule:

We don’t sell things.  People buy things.  Our job is to help them make a sound buying decision.

So how do you do that?  Does showing up at the lobby of a company once a month, calling every three weeks, emailing “just checking in”, or dropping off literature do the trick?  No.  In addition to these worn out tactics, here are three tips to you avoid the Sales Graveyard:

1)      Is your job customer service or sales?  I’ve seen a ton of salespeople become swallowed up in the day-to-day because they would rather be customer service than go out into the marketplace and make new things happen.  Seriously, do your job and let the other people on your team do theirs.

2)      Take personal responsibility to represent the company you are selling for.  Salespeople are still trying to play the game of middleman so they can have “job security”.  This doesn’t work.  In fact, the best way to secure your job is to build reputation and rapport between the customer and your company; not just you.

3)      Identify your target client’s buying signals then offer education, tools, training and insights to help them through their buying process.  How do you know if you’re doing a good job?  Hang these resources in front of your target buyers and let them grab onto what they see as helpful.  Not only will you be seen as a professional, the buyers will be coming to you instead of you forcing yourself on them.

The Whale Hunters program offers insights, tools and training to help you, and your teammates (throughout your company), practice these important principles.

Chad Root is a Certified Consultant for The Whale Hunters and President of Spearhead Sales & Marketing.  Click here for more on Chad Root.  Spearhead, in collaboration with TaigMarks and Effect Web, provides sales & marketing consulting, branding, advertising/PR and web marketing services.

Today’s Guest Blogger is Joseph Olewitz, Founder and CEO of 22^nd Story Strategies, Inc. Joseph is well known for his mastery of Revenue Growth in Relationship Sales, Marketing & Business Development using best practices in pitches, messaging, and team building. Joseph shares his years of experience winning large professional services deals in the agency and consulting world on his Intentional Growth™ blog. His original post for The Whale Hunters on “Big Deals in Professional Services” can be read here.

Many managers (whether in small, mid-sized or large businesses) who survived the very difficult last few years are working hard to come back strong. You may currently be: restructuring, hiring new talent, revitalizing your marketing plan, becoming more creative with staff resources and how best to maximize them, all while making the best of technology from the Internet to mobile to social media and various data analytics tools.

My advice if you would like to transcend the competitive landscape is to think about Intentional Growth™ and create a plan to establish, highlight, and promote how you are unique as you grow into the future. The critical word here is “grow” and the focus of this post is how your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) will support and fuel that growth.

Here are the basics:

1. Think about this truth: Every business doesn’t need to grow. The current marketplace presents an opportunity to improve profitability without growth. For example, you could get rid of troublesome or unprofitable customers and products, laser-focus your product or service for efficiency, re-define your ideal target customer, or increase prices.
2. Understand where you are now and where you want to go. Complete a clear strategy statement that is based on a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and includes measurable short and long-term goals, establishing and promoting your added-value offering. Be clear about why you’re in business. For money? Fun? Your child’s education? To keep busy? What’s your reason? Anything is OK – just be clear and specific.

3. Establish and promote your USP. Then if you are still convinced you need to grow, focus on re-defining your “remarkable benefit.” The best example I’ve ever found to explain the concept of USP is FedEx whose business was built on the shoulders of their USP: “If it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight.” Think about that statement:

• As the customer you understand the value offered and can easily make a decision whether to buy
• As an employee you know exactly what’s expected of you (there’s a frequently told story about a remote FedEx manager who made a unilateral decision to charter a helicopter to complete a promised delivery.)
• As a manager you have a serious guideline by which to make decisions
• And all the other services that came afterwards were consistent with their USP (including 2-day, 3-day, early morning, and even the decision to buy Kinko’s).

Keep it simple, and keep moving forward. The best USP won’t help if you don’t back it up with all the other actions that create a successful business. And all businesses should be doing this more regularly – it’s part of annual/quarterly strategic planning.

As an example of developing a successful USP and a plan to launch it, I recently worked with a client whose business was already hugely successful. The challenges they faced, included that adding new clients would present operational challenges so we first re-visited their desires. We discussed: did they want to sell the business and retire? How would they like to grow and why? We conducted a ruthless whiteboard SWOT exercise. We named and analyzed the competition. We reviewed carefully the present and past client successes and failures. We described the ideal target client. We built measurable KPI metrics. Then we spent significant time crafting a USP statement that clearly identified the USP as a value they would bring to anyone that hired them. And last, but by no means least, we created a sales and marketing plan that establishes them as the clear leader in delivering on that USP.

The NY agency Beeby Clark+Meyler has a brand integration case studydescribing how they articulated a USP for Gas South. As a customer, are you confused about how gas services are priced? Would you more easily buy from someone who cleared it up for you? Their campaign was called the “Clear Price Promise (just another way Gas South helps you get comfortable).” Simple, eh? Sometimes the USP defines clear, simple messaging about an otherwise complicated offer externally focused on the buyers’ needs.

So, what’s your USP? If you’re stuck saying “everyone in my business offers the same services – there’s nothing unique” then you are missing the opportunity to differentiate. Uniqueness is, by definition, rare and coming up with unique features described as benefits can be very difficult. Actually, you already know best what your USP should be – just work at defining it.

I’m not so single minded as to suggest that creating or re-defining your USP statement is a panacea. Of course there are many other things to do to improve your business…but don’t even think about any other steps to increase your sales until you complete steps 1-3 above.

Please share your growth and USP success stories for the benefit of others by commenting on this post.

Today we’re excited to feature our marketing intern, Ginger Whitesell as our guest blogger. Ginger shares with us her first whale hunt! Thanks for contributing Ginger!

When I entered my junior year at Arizona State University, the last thing I thought I’d be doing was starting an entrepreneurial venture. But, when a friend of mine, Tyler Eltringham, came up with an idea, OneShot, and needed someone to help him execute it, I was eager to help apply my skills as a marketing and sustainability major and move forward with this endeavor.

What exactly is this project? OneShot is a nonprofit organization that seeks to provide meningococcal meningitis vaccines to college students living in dormitories and university housing, while also addressing the global issue at hand. For every single vaccination administered stateside, OneShot will donate a vaccine to the meningitis belt of Africa. OneShot hopes to prevent the preventable by providing vaccines and educating the public on the importance of getting vaccinated.

Our concept was huge, with an impact spanning across continents, and we needed an initial source of funding equally as large to help jumpstart our project. We determined that we needed our investor to be as vested in Arizona State University as we were, and that it needed to desire an impact and growth as significant as we were hoping for. So, what was our whale? The ASU Innovation Challenge, a competitive grant program in its second year at ASU that invited undergraduate and graduate students alike to submit their ideas for innovation. Winners were awarded up to $10,000 to implement their innovative ideas, and they were chosen based off of a two-round series. The first comprised a proposal that outlined the innovation, impact and implementation of the idea. If a group made it past the first round of selection, they were then required to present their ideas to a panel of judges, justifying in just five minutes why their proposal deserved funding. We knew that this whale was the perfect chance for OneShot to prove itself to the local community, and that if we didn’t go after it now, it would be a while before another opportunity came along.

Before composing our proposal, we examined our whale, the ASU Innovation Challenge, and its criteria in selecting a candidate worthy of its funds. We were on the hunt, keen to show that OneShot was the answer that the ASU Innovation Challenge was looking for, and we sought ways to connect our concept to its ideals. With this in mind, we composed a business proposal that was perfectly tailored to the ASU Innovation Challenge’s needs, giving no doubt that our goals were in line with one other. The hours of fine tuning and attention to detail in our paper paid off when we successfully made it past the first round of judgments, and our initial success became a catalyst in putting forth a large effort to create a memorable presentation.  This too, became a commitment to not only explain our idea, but to do so in a way that would make the ASU Innovation Challenge see that OneShot was an investment worth making. Each member of our five-person team wrote a script that addressed a different facet of our organization and how it related to the ASU Innovation Challenge’s needs.

The day of our big elevator pitch came and we presented fiercely within the five minutes we were allocated, hitting hard on the points that coincided with what our whale wanted.  Although we were confident that we put our best effort forth, we did not receive any feedback in that moment and would not know until the announcement ceremony if it were enough.  The award ceremony two days later could not come soon enough, and the OneShot team gathered to await their decision.

The ASU Innovation Challenge ceremony was a conglomerate of anxious ASU entrepreneurial-minded students, ASU deans and officials and outstanding members of the local community. The room was alive with excitement and anticipation as the winners were announced one by one, along with the monetary value of their award. I, along with the rest of the OneShot executive team, sat on the edge of my seat, eager to hear whether our efforts in this whale hunt had been successful, whether we had the funds to move our organization forward. Finally, OneShot’s name was announced, and we exploded out of our seats to shake the hands of our benefactors and join the other winners lined up on one side of the room. As we congratulated one another on a job well done, we glanced down at the certificate stating the value of our reward. OneShot received $10,000! Another rush of exhilaration flooded through our bodies as we realized that we finally had our whale, and with it the support of ASU.

The past few months have been a whirl of excitement, hard work and organization as OneShot really defines itself and creates a foundation for success. We are determined to make a positive impact on the ASU community and the world, and are excited to continue to prove ourselves to the ASU Innovation Challenge.

Recently all of you out in the blogosphere have been finding us via the search term “business development tactics.” Curiosity hasn’t killed this cat yet, so I did my own search to see how we stack up against the competition.

I’m happy to report, you have a lot of good options out there. Surprisingly relevant information. One blog post by Larry Bodine (who focuses on biz dev for law firms) gives you this list of ranked activities from a survey:

1. 1. Visiting clients – 61%
2. Organizational involvement – 12%
3. Other – 10%
4. Firm-sponsored seminars – 9%
5. Speeches – 3%
6. Newsletter – 3%
7. Website – 2%
8. Bylined articles – 0%

Peter Darling ranks highest today for the search term “business development tactics” and he’s got a great post on white boarding. No, not water boarding your prospects. White boarding (i.e. high school algebra classroom). This visual demonstration takes the conversation from “selling” to problem solving.

Anne Scarlett writes about a topic very familiar to whale hunters… a content strategy! The article gives great step-by-step instructions on engaging technical people in writing content to drive business development. Our Founder, Barbara Weaver Smith has written on this topic quite a bit lately. I’d encourage you to also review her articles here.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find our very own Loretta Love Huff ranking for the same term. An avid blogger, we’re proud that Loretta’s blog show cases such great info for small business owners. Check out her articles on business development.

That’s more or less a summary of the good stuff on page one of Google. We’re in there, too, of course, for Barbara’s post on 5 Business Development Tactics That Don’t Change.

Thanks to all of those experts sharing their knowledge with the world! For those of you like me who are always looking for new ideas and research on sales strategy… search on my friends!

Today I’d like to draw your attention to our latest case study. We’re very proud of the work done by Anita Grantham (one of our Phoenix Certified Partners), Rudy Kolich and the team at Jokake. They were able to implement The Whale Hunters Process™ and win the largest contract in their firms history. It’s a remarkable story for many reason chief among them being Jokake’s geographic location and industry during this economic climate.

Construction companies in particular were feeling the pressure in the economic recession, and Jokake Construction was no exception. As construction opportunities became more and more limited and competition between companies intensified, Jokake realized the need to strategize and land a big client. After researching best methods on how to market and sell, Jokake Construction moved forward with a “unique business solution” that, as former Director of Healthcare remarks, “went right to the heart of everything” – The Whale Hunters Process™.  Learn how The Whale Hunters enabled Jokake to land a $40 million target client.

At the start each consulting engagement, the first piece of our process covered with clients is called the Brand Promise Audit. The goal of the exercise is to determine what parts of your brand promise are truly unique. We often find that the majority of brand promises fall into average or above average categories.

We’ve realized over time that this exercise builds the connection between marketing and sales. Basically, what you’re projected out into the market is the first step to your sales process. Now, we understand friction exists in most organizations between sales and marketing. For more on that, check out Barbara’s recent blog post, Why Sales and Marketing Can’t Get Along.

I’m a huge fan of TED Talks. This talk given by Seth Godin about what it means to be truly remarkable is no exception. It speaks to the heart of the brand audit discussion we have so often with our clients. So, plug in those headphones and take a listen! Think about how the first steps to your whale hunt are affected by the messages you put into market. Does your company have a purple cow?

A special thanks to @tcspears for sharing it with me.

I’ve always loved this quote by Jim Collins, “If you have more than 3 priorities then you don’t have any.”

For today’s small business owners, it’s more important than ever. How many hats do you wear? Too often the day-to-day of small business gets in the way of big strategic moves. I bet you could use a little more simplicity. The Whale Hunters Process™ is all about defined goals, roles, and outcomes. We teach companies how to create a clear plan for business development. Why is clarity so important?

I’m always a fan of finding data supporting simple business strategies. According to a recent survey by Booz & Co., you and your five hats are not alone. Many executives need to adhere to the no-more-than-three-priorities rule. Here are some of the results from the 1,800 executives who completed the Coherence Profiler (to take it yourself, click here):

• Half of the executives (50%) consider setting a clear and differentiating strategy a significant challenge.
• In fact, most executives (52%) do not feel their company’s strategy will lead to success. Only 21% say their company has a right to win in all the markets in which it competes.
• Most executives (81%) say growth initiatives lead to waste, at least some of the time.
• The vast majority of executives (82%) say functional departments in their companies get competing demands from different business units.

Whoa! That sounds stressful to me! If you’re squirming in your chair, it probably sounds familiar to you. For the rest of the results, read on.  It’s important to note the perspectives on growth and alignment of internal resources towards corporate goals. We understand these hurdles and teach companies how to clearly articulate goals, invest the whole company in them, and align all functional teams. As the Booz & Co. report shows above, fewer goals has the potential to drive higher revenue growth.

A company too busy to bring on new clients or develop a laser-focused business development strategy is doomed to failure. For more on the symptoms of unfocused, stretched-too-thin organizations, read The Village is TOO Busy for Whales.

How many goals does your company have for 2011? More than 3?

noun, verb, -plined, -plin ing. -noun 1.training to act in accordance with rules; drill: military discipline. 2. activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill;

Discipline can mean a lot of things. As it relates to business development, it means self-control, orderly conduct. I love discipline because it’s all about efficiency and laser focus. You can apply it to achieving any goals. Here we’re specifically talking about sales.

I’m a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell and loved his book, Outliers. In the book he describes the 10,000 Hour Rule. Malcolm believes that the key to outrageous success in any field is practicing simple tasks for 10,000 hours. That means that if you work on sales calls, emails, and asking questions for 40 hours per week it will take you a solid 5+ years to be outrageously successful. That’s discipline to an extreme. Malcolm describes how the best of the best achieved success by spending at least three hours a day for a decade mastering one’s chosen field. It’s an enduring commitment to excellence.

In a more day-to-day sense, discipline means have crystal clear priorities and learning to say “no.” We train teams on The Whale Hunters Process, using our Target Filter tool to discipline their sales targets. It’s a tool to help teams say “no” to prospects or opportunities outside the best fit for their company. And it’s critical to whale hunting! You must have a system that narrows the scope of your sales efforts. Chris Conrey and Matt Simpson defined it on Twitter the other day in their own words.

*We are in no way advocating the use of a sniper rifle on prospects.

Use whatever metaphors or analogies you like, The Whale Hunters Process teaches discipline. It’s easy to say and not so easy to do. How often have you been distracted with a shiny-object-sales-opportunity? Teams or individuals in sales need discipline to be successful. The courage to say “no,” be strategic, and commit to excellence through practice. That dis-uh-plin is what divides hope from the real deal. This quote below says it all.

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. -Jim Rohn

What would you pay to sit down for coffee with the Chief Procurement Officer of Coca Cola and learn about how they buy? If you’re trying to sell to Coca Cola, you’d probably pay a pretty penny. What would he likely tell you? “Be Different,” said Ken Carty in this 2010 article by Inc. Magazine.  His other basic advice? Get in early. Do your homework. Follow the process. Want more insider info on how to sell to big corporations? Here are interviews with the purchasing departments of six mega corporations published by Inc. Magazine.

• How to Sell to UPS
• How to Sell to Intuit
• How to Sell to Valero Energy
• How to Sell to Northrop Grumman
• How to Sell to Dell
• How to Sell to The Bama Companies

And if you are the visual, quick-study type, you can watch a slideshow with highlights from the interviews here. Even if you’re not trying to sell into these mega-corporations, I highly recommend you read these reports. I’m compiling them all here for your ease of access. All companies are different, but some purchasing pearls of wisdom apply across the board.

We were recently at a client training talking about big purchasing goofs. An honest account manager stood up and told us about trying to sell to DHL. When the DHL team came to visit the office, the firs thing they saw was a stack of FedEx boxes on the receptionist’s desk. He said they immediately turned around and walked out. Big oops!  That’s the advice in the UPS article. Know the likes and dislikes of the company you’re trying to sell. Think through every step.

Another point that The Whale Hunters stress is to look at your own company through a buyer’s eyes. Paula Marshall, CEO of The Bama Companies, advises small businesses to have a good website. She explains that an unprofessional website can leave a bad first impression. And we all know you never get a second chance…you get the idea.

In order to sell to Valero, they like to see you’ve done your research. If you’ve completed the scouting phase of whale hunting, this won’t be a problem. We teach companies how to thoroughly research their prospects before even starting a big pitch. Otherwise, you may miss the minimum requirements Valero has for all vendors regardless of size.

I’ve tried to pull some main points for you here, but I encourage you to read all the articles. If you’d like to hear how to sell to Sears, register for Pier9 Premium. To learn more about purchasing at big companies, check out our interview called The View from Purchasing.  In order to sell to the biggest companies, you first need to know how they buy!

Implementing  comprehensive change is hard, even when you know you need it.  It’s really hard when it changes they way your company brings in revenue. As I’m finding with many small businesses, however, sometimes the implementation isn’t as difficult as just getting started. Sometimes just having an idea heard is as hard as doing the work. Even worse is when no one admits there’s a problem! In order for The Whale Hunters Process™ to work, both leadership and employees need to buy in to the program. In order for everyone to be on the same page, it can take some convincing.

We’ve been advising a lot of companies lately about jump-starting their strategic growth coming out of this recession. Many business leaders agree that they need a more strategic plan for sales, but they stop short of action. What we’re finding is they have personal or internal hurdles that keep them from action, decision, or even letting their ideas be heard!  In a recent podcast, Anne Morriss, from the Concire Leadership Institute, explained that sometimes acting like a great leader actually gets in the way of being a great leader. The need to look smart, the need to be decisive, gets in the way of rigorous decision-making. Has this happened to you? Or as the podcast asks, “What’s holding you back?”

Maybe it’s not the leadership that needs to overcome hurdles to implement change, maybe it’s more broad. Often we’ve found that culture is a critical factor in an organization’s ability to implement strategy or even be open to progressive ideas. In a fantastic article about building world-class culture, Pierre Beaudoin, CEO of Bombardier shares his experiences on getting buy-in and involving the entire company in cultural transformation. It’s very relevant to small business owners today, because as the economy slowed many of the problems within organizations came to the surface,  and now they need to be fixed.

The same was true for Bombardier. Everyone in the company knew they had a problem but couldn’t identify it. Bombardier was No. 1 in engineering and manufacturing, but as Beaudoin pointed out, “the customer doesn’t really care about the hardware; he cares about his flight.” They also struggled with silos and a management team that avoided talking about real issue.  They wanted to keep being No. 1 in manufacturing instead of changing to best serve their ultimate customers. Beaudoin says, “A culture change takes a little bit more time up front, but, once it starts moving, then it moves even faster because more people are engaged.”

Fortunately, Beaudoin was able to identify the problems within his company and work with the employees to gain buy-in and set goals moving forward. If you’re trying to implement change, sometimes your team may not even see that a problem exists. For this I turned to John Kotter who explains his See, Feel, and Change process for getting others within an organization to recognize an issue. Basically, if you want to get heard don’t just focus on logic and facts, but on how real people suffer from or are otherwise impacted by a problem. You can read more on his process here.

Take a look around. Is your internal culture standing in the way of a higher level of success? Do you need to get out of the way of each other? Or as a key decision maker, are you playing a part instead of doing what’s right? How are you and your company living in a place of “business as usual?” Cultural transformation takes time, but first fresh ideas need to be  evaluated and everyone needs to engage. As Beaudoin states in the interview, “We didn’t get it done rapidly; you don’t change a culture rapidly.”

In order to succeed as a young entrepreneur, it’s all about community. I joined a former startup venture with the credo: My most valuable asset is my network. And it was this value that drove the greatest successes of that entrepreneurial adventure.

My team and I always joked that what we lacked in age, we more than made up for in drive. For our collegiate team, the ambitious and hungry (literally) entrepreneur stereotype fit. In numerical order our ages were 25, 24, 23, and 22. Our CEO was 22 years old at the time. So clearly, it wasn’t hard to pinpoint a very significant whale fear—our youth.

“Youth is a disease, and the only cure is experience” – Arizona State’s Wide Receiver Coach Eric Yarber

This quote was a Tweet-turned-blog debate in which I argued that youth is an asset. Especially in today’s workforce where 3 or 4 generations co-exist, experience can mean lines on a resume, years in an industry, number/size of clients, etc. When I first read this quote, I immediately thought in terms of an ability to generate desired results. Can you be a young professional and generate the same results as a 25-year veteran? Yes. No. Maybe.

Living in both corporate and entrepreneurial environments, I see how young people with inexperience can be tremendous assets. They often provide a fresh perspective and new energy to problem solving.

In that business we talked a lot about how it’s not what you know, it’s your ability to find what you need to know. With access to the right websites, e-books, professors, mentors, friends, and networks,  a young person today has certain advantages over other professionals who have yet to embrace the “collective knowledge” lifestyle.

And it was exactly that lifestyle and mindset (knowing we needed the support of a village) that protected us against whale fears. My top goal upon joining the startup was forming an Advisory Board. I knew from my experience interning with an angel fund group, that a strong advisory board would comfort any investor who doubted our business acumen and ability to execute.

So, in the early months of our startup, our whales were certain advisory board members.

Without knowing it at the time, we started right where any good whale hunter begins, with the target filter. Our team spent an entire Saturday afternoon brainstorming and categorizing the industries, experience, and behavioral qualities that we needed on the advisory board. As the V. P. of Business Development, I took that rough sketch of a target filter and began scouting.

I tapped into my own network first. Then I looked through lists of the most respected companies in the Phoenix valley. I had compiled lists of award-winning CEOs and notable venture capitalists. Based on our original target filter, I ended up with a list of about 15 whales.

For our team, the next phases of knowing the whale, seeking, setting the harpoon, and riding the whale took about eight months. We were ultimately very successful at pitching our startup mostly because we had all the right people in our boat and learned to leverage the expertise of all the members in our village to support and guide our journey. We may have been young, but, we possessed the No. 1 trait of any good whale hunter – we were hungry!

For a long time, I’ve been exhorting clients to be certain that the sales team is selling what the operations or implementation team plans to deliver.  In the past couple of weeks, The Whale Hunters team has been on the receiving end of that potential mismatch, which compels me to write about it again.  Here’s some context that may resonate with you as a seller (and possibly even as a buyer)!

The Setting:    Your company sells a product with a service, or a service with a product, or a customizable service or product or both.  I have seen this issue surface repeatedly in software companies, professional services companies, and advertising/marketing agencies, to name a few.

The Sale:  Let’s take software as an example.  Your company provides an enterprise software solution that requires considerable integration into your customers’ existing systems.  Your project management/account management/customer service teams believe that you are selling a product that is basically one size fits all, although it could be customized with some bells and whistles–later–when all of the initial  installation stuff is done and the system is up and running.

The Snag:  Your sales team has fallen in love with the bells and whistles.  Rather than sell the boring one-size-fits-all product, they are selling the customizable parts.  Whatever the buyers say they would like to have, the sales team promises.  In fact, the sales team leads with the extras, not the basics.

So now you are stuck.  You’ve made this sale.  The sales team celebrates.  The customer is excited about their purchase and ready for implementation.  And your implementation team is . . . . oh my goodness . . . appalled.  “We can’t do that!”  or “We don’t do this!” or “We’re just not ready for that!”

As I said, this circumstance has been brought home to me in the past few weeks.  The Whale Hunters has been working on a major build of a new website that incorporates a content management system.  We decided to go with a product geared towards educational institutions rather than corporate solutions, having been assured that the product was completely customizable.

But once the sales team handed off to the implementation team, the bubble burst.  We heard, “We can’t do that” and “They shouldn’t have told you we could do that” and “It would cost a lot more for us to do that.”  And we didn’t hear nearly soon enough about some serious deal-breaker issues that they cannot resolve.

So it’s been a very painful reminder to me that your customer is going to be very, very unhappy if just from the get-go your delivery team begins to say “they shouldn’t have promised . . . . . whatever.”

If your company has ever been in the position of a disconnect between sales and operations or implementation areas, it’s time to correct that problem now.  If you land a large account with that kind of mis-match, they can cost you a lot of money, make your employees miserable, and quite literally force you out of business if the deal is big enough to get their serious attention.

So, if you’re not positive that both sides of your house know how to collaborate on a complex sale, it’s definitely time for them to learn.

Has your company ever been in this kind of trouble?  How did you handle it?

So first of all, my congratulations to them on a stellar achievement!

The Sitewire team has been implementing The Whale Hunters Process(tm) since the latter part of 2007.  In 2009, even in a wretched economy, they grew their business by 20%.  Overall in the last three years they have grown by 94%.  They have been able to bring at least fifteen whale accounts on board, which has totally transformed their business, and they have been positioned to add highly talented leadership and employees to their team while competitors were laying off.

Second, in case you are not yet aware, the Sitewire team has been so successful with Whale Hunting that they have become key investment and operating partners with The Whale Hunters.  Margie Traylor is now CEO of The Whale Hunters LLC.

Please join me in a tip of the hat to my friends and partners–congratulations for work well done!

The Whale Hunters has just introduced a new video featuring some of our chapter members, who talk about how The Whale Hunters Process is impacing their business development and how their local chapter is supporting them in implementation and deal coaching.  If you are considering joining a chapter or just want to know more, I invite you to watch.

Our local Chapter Chairs are now recruiting members in Denver, Detroit/Ann Arbor, Indianapolis, Naples, St. Louis, Phoenix, and Tampa.  More cities are coming on board weekly; let us know if you are interested.

Click here for more information on a Whale Hunters Chapter.

Today I encourage you to read Margie Traylor’s story of how Whale Hunting transformed her company, Sitewire Marketspace Solutions, an interactive marketing agency located in Tempe, Arizona.

Sitewire was a ten-year old company that had hit a plateau in its growth.  Sales were flat, there was a mismatch between the company’s increasing capabilities and the needs of its client base, and extended efforts were not producing results.  If you are experiencing any of these circumstances, you’ll enjoy reading about the Sitewire transformation through The Whale Hunters methodology.

Here’s our newest video, featuring whale hunters in Phoenix.  Clients, executives, entrepreneurs, business development professionals talk about their experiences learning and implementing The Whale Hunters Process for landing bigger sales with bigger customers.

Indiana University announced yesterday the biggest technology transfer deal in its history: the sale of Angel Learning to Blackboard for $100 million.

This is a great example of what I define as a “whale hunt” that starts out as a collaborative project rather than a sale, per se.  Here’s briefly how it happened.  A professor and student team at IUPUI (Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis) developed a technology named OnCourse to enable faculty to provide online courses and other learning experiences.  That system enabled IU to become one of the national leaders in online courses and degree programs. 

As part of the university’s technology transfer programs–designed to commercialize promising inventions by university faculty through university/industry collaborations–Angel Learning was founded less than 10 years ago.  It was nurtured in the university’s first incubator in Bloomington, IN, and currently resides at the Emerging Technology Center that houses the Indiana University Research and Technology Corporation in Indianapolis.

Indiana University stands to gain $23 million from the sale, funds that will be reinvested in research and commercial development or promising technologies invented by its faculty.

I was very fortunate to have a role in this story along the way.  In 2001, Bill Plater, who was then Vice Chancellor for Academics and Dean of the Faculties at IUPUI, engaged my company Smith Weaver Smith to guide a faculty team to create a 10-year educational technology plan for the campus.  We involved faculty from many campus departments to participate in collaborative planning sessions, and we invited industry leaders and training coordinators to bring their perspective to the faculty’s ideas.  A major component of the resulting plan was the recommendation to continue investing in the fledgling OnCourse technology to support teaching and learning.

Whale Hunting is sometimes much bigger than a sale or a business development opportunity.  This is community and economic development from the ground up, involving not just one company but a community of educators, business development specialists, industry leaders, end users, and researchers.  It is complex.  It is collaborative.  It requires that people with very different skill sets and perspectives learn how to understand one another and undertake a common goal.  It works when supported by great process and planning and a commitment to long-term investment.

Congratulations to IU and the IUPUI team for getting this right.  This has been a big week for technology in Indiana–Exact Target’s $70 million funding and IU’s $100 million sale!

You know, the more time I spend with customers the more I learn about how to improve The Whale Hunters business development processes and training.  It’s the constant real-world, real-market testing that proves the concepts. 

And prospective clients always ask me, what is your evidence that the process works?  Have you ever worked with a company like ours?  What has happened to your clients as a result of implementing the Whale Hunters process and culture? 

To that end, in March we conducted a series of video-captured interviews with several clients in Phoenix.  Text-based transcripts of these interviews are now available on our website, with video montages soon to come.

I think you’ll find them inspirational and motivational!  True, they’re about the Whale Hunters process, and they are clients of ours.  But more important, you’ll read a series of stories about small business success as a consequence of deliberately deciding to become whale hunters!

Click through to access these stories here.  And many thanks to AIR Marketing, Terralever, and Sitewire for taking the time to describe how whale hunting is influencing their growth paterns.

We’d love to hear your whale hunting story, in print or audio!  I invite you to respond.

I heard Deborah Bateman from National Bank of Arizona speak at the NAWBO/Score conference in Phoenix.  Deborach is Executive Vice President responsible for sales and marketing at the bank.  She talked about a new business women group she had formed.  It’s a great example of a whale hunt!

Deborah founded the Womens Financial Group, a group of women at the bank who she is mentoring and grooming for leadership positions.  They wanted to recruit a high-powered advisory board of women from key industries in their area.   Here’s how they approached this need:

1.  Determined the list of industries that they would target (chart the waters)

2.  Decide who were the most influential women in each of those industries (target filter)

3.  Choose one women in each category to invite. (whale chart)

4.  Invite them to become part of the advisory board (harpoon)

They invited 12 women; every one of the 12 accepted!

Here’s the thing–they didn’t limit their list to people they knew or people who were customers of the bank.  They identified who would be the most powerful board members.

Whale hunting isn’t always a sale, but it’s always a big deal!

Last week I presented a whale hunting orientation seminar at Arizona State’s Sky Song  Innovation Center in Scottsdale.  It had an interesting twist–the first presenter was my client Margie Traylor of Sitewire, who talked about her company’s growth as a result of whale hunting.  Then after my presentation, we heard from one of the whales that Sitewire landed.  Greg Chapman, now of SkyMall, was the head of Sears’ catalog division when he hired Sitewire Interactive Marketing, a small company, to help him achieve his vision of a totally new approach to online sales and marketing for Sears.  So from the whale’s perspective, Greg talked about why he chose Sitewire and gave advice to other small businesses who want to work with whales.  Some points he made:

• Bring a big idea — something totally focused on your well-thought out analysis of the whale’s current business.
• Understand how his day worked at Sears–7 am to 7 pm with no more than an hour a day to return calls and emails.  Get acquainted with his admin assistant, be patient with his response time, follow up appropriately.
• Assist your whale buyer in making the inside sale to the buyer’s table. Prepare him/her to justify the expense.
• If you don’t have a sophisticated financial analyst on your team, hire one.  Be well-prepared to demonstrate a detailed, specific ROI and to discuss it intelligently.
• Understand that the whale is a bureaucracy–after the buyer agrees to the deal, you probably face 60-90 days or more of contract details.  Build that expectation into your cash flow.
• Heed what The Whale Hunters say about selling to whales (thanks Greg!).

What have you learned from your whales?

Videos of the Whale Hunting Women presetations are online.  Here’s Indiana Lt. Governor Becky Skillman who talked about how important business women are to Indiana’s business climate.  One of her biggest whale hunts for Indiana was saving 5000 jobs at the Crane naval base.

Brooke Green related stories of her sales experiences and whale hunting journey and how she has grown in confidence by allowing herself to be scared.

I told the whale hunting story, about how the Inuit people hunted whales–engaging everyone in their village–and connected that to modern business with an emphasis on women.  The point is that women in business as well as education and community endeavors are natural whale hunters! Barbara Weaver Smith’s video.

Women (and men) who attended the seminar talked on camera about the program and how it related to business women and women owned business, and especially to small business.  It’s all about not being too comfortable!