Dan Waldschmidt

I’m happy to welcome today’s guest blogger. Speaker, writer, strategist, Dan Waldschmidt is at war with conventional business strategy.  His Edgy Conversations© have turned hundreds of companies into rock-star businesses and the Wall Street Journal calls his blog one of the” Top 7 sales blogs” anywhere in the world.  He’s on a mission to empower millions of high-performers all over the globe.  For more information about Waldschmidt Partners Intl, go to www.EdgyConversations.com or call at 202-630-6730. Thanks Dan, for joining The Whale Hunters again!

You’ve been there before.

The phone rings — breaking you out of your concentration. You’ve been focused on a complex task. Trying to solve a problem that has stumped you for hours.

As the phone rings a second time, your hand moves from your mouse to the edge of the phone, ready to pick up the handset. Your eyes glance at the name showing on the screen. You pause for a second.

As the phone rings a third time, you realize that have just a second to make a decision. Do you take the call or do you get back to solving the hard problem that you have been working on all morning?

That’s reality.

You’re just on the other side of the call. You’re the one interrupting customers. Jolting them out of their concentration as they try to solve serious problems that have them confused and frustrated.

Your call only adds to that confusion.

But it also adds some clarity.

Your client only has a few seconds to make a gut-level decision about your value to them. That’s it. There’s no time for complex arguments or for them to scan your latest white paper.

In a few seconds, every thing that you have ever done for them pops to the forefront of their decision-making ability. It’s raw and gritty. It might make you uncomfortable. But it’s the most honest of business relationships. There is a decision — do they take your call or do they shrug you off?

They know the truth.

Do you provide value to them or do they know that you’re calling to “just check in on them” — probably peddling another technology solution that’s close to the one they already bought from you last year. Sure you might be calling to ask them to hang out with you for a beer or to grab a quick lunch, but they know that that’s all part of your plan to extract more money out of them. To close more deals.

And in a second or two it’s all becomes clear. You can’t fake it. You have to live it. The ringing phone demands a solution.

Which brings us to the point of this discussion.

You can’t provide value when you need to get results.

By then, it is too late.

The opportunity to create lasting memories is over. You have to start caring right now — even when it seems like you don’t really need to care.

The truth is, you’ve never needed to care any more than you do right now. Right now is all you have. There is no tomorrow unless you start caring today.

• There are no phone calls.

• There are no e-mail exchanges.

• There is no extra revenue.

It doesn’t work.

Nothing works until you start loving the people that you do business with.

If there’s one thing that we’ve all learned in the last half decade of economic decline around the world, it is that people are frail and hurting beings. We’ve learned that we’re a little more fallible than we thought we were before. We’ve realized that destruction and utter chaos is a possibility. Sometimes an inevitability.

Which is why the conversation needs to change from value and solutions and service to something much more powerful. To something much more potent.

Discussions with your clients needs to be about the gritty, personal side of life. You don’t need to be corny but you do need to be caring. This isn’t about passive aggression or manipulation; it’s about a heart-felt interpretation of life and the people doing business in that life.

To grow you have to love people.

Economic patterns come and go. Businesses will fall and they grow.

Most of that will never be in your control, ever — no more than you can cause the sun to shine or the rain to fall.

You are helpless when it comes to cosmic change. But you can change your own attitude about those you do business with. You can give a hand up instead of looking for a handout. You can be genuine instead of going for the jugular. You can love and care and cry instead of twisting and cajoling and pressuring.

The decision is yours.

As the phone rings, your business intentions stand naked before the judgments of your customer. No excuses. No explanations. Only the value you’ve created stands to persuade your client to pick up the phone and hear you out.

When you give as a strategy. When you give with intention. When you give more than people deserve to get, you create a relationship that drives your client to engage with you. They’re still busy, still frustrated, but willing to hear you out. Willing to give you a chance.

Because you’ve given them much more already.

Chris Conrey

This month we are featuring ways to grow new business with your current best accounts. Today’s guest post comes from Chris Conrey,  CEO of Post Modern Sales .  Follow @conrey and learn more about Chris on LinkedIn. Thanks Chris!

You’ve got big accounts, big ones that fund more than their fair share of your revenue, or with more of your reputation at stake than you’d like to admit. But often the ones that are most important are the ones that lock you up the most and keep you up at night. Here are 6 things you’re doing right now that you can stop and stop worrying about.

1. You lower your rate – You worry so much about losing this client that the moment they mention your rate at all, you drop it down to a much lower level than your other clients, often lower than you should. This kills you in two ways; obviously you make less money, but you also are devaluing your product. You’re setting a price that you shouldn’t because you’d rather take that pain than face the confrontation of charging what you should.  Solution – Hold firm on your rate for all of your clients, regardless of size or fear. It will make your life easier when you have to deal with billing, and you’ll show confidence and that you value your own product.
2. You let them take liberties – If you aren’t bending over backwards lowering their rate, you’re giving them special treatment that makes you run around in circles with faster than usual deadlines, more flexibility than usual, different payment terms, and a willingness to push yourself beyond your usual limits. Solution – much like the price problem above, you’re in desperate need of building your confidence. Believe it or not, many clients will respect a little bit of pushback on crazy demands.
3. You take them for granted – You’ve had this account for so long and they’ve been on your books for so long that you’re just used to sending the invoice. And yet you’re not providing the same world-changing service that they saw when you first started. Eventually they realize this and you’re suddenly one key account down.
4. You don’t call for the close – This is more often for the key account you’re working on and haven’t sealed yet. You get awestruck and treat them like rockstars and your heroes instead of like your prospect and potential client. Much like an autograph-seeking teen at a Jusin Beiber concert you find yourself tongue tied and unable to get your message out, so you lose the deal to someone who remembers they are there to close to deal.
5. You sugar coat bad news – This one is common amongst salespeople regardless of how key the account is, but you’ll be way more afraid to put the bad news right on the table for your best clients. Knowing how much they contribute to your company’s bottom line (and your paycheck) makes it more likely that you are going to soften the blow. This leads to all sorts of problems later when they realize how bad it was and you didn’t tell them.
6. You let them hold you back – Your company is changing directions or shifting away from some services but you have this one big account who still wants it. So you keep doing it just for this one client, which holds the whole company back out of desire to win this big deal. This leads to your company doing sub-par work, and ultimately your reputation being tarnished when you don’t back up what you’re selling.

The common thread here is fear. Have confidence in your abilities and your team, and put a little backbone up. This will only strengthen things for you in the long run and allow for true growth.

For 2012, we’re planning a “theme of the month” approach on the blog.  January’s theme is new business with your best current accounts.  I’ve lined up a great list of guest bloggers to help explore this topic, starting today.

Please welcome Dave Cooke (@SalesCooke), CEO of Strategic Resource Group and an expert on how to grow key accounts.  Thanks for kicking off 2012 for us Dave!

The definition of business success is growth.  Increasing revenue drives most sales organizations.  However, there are two aspects of the growth formula that are often underlooked; or, at least, underemphasized– client retention and business development in existing accounts.

The most efficient channel for increases or improvements to profitable revenues is maintaining the business relationships you have and leveraging those relationships to offer and deliver more.

Your best customers are your most efficient channel for new business opportunities.  Yet, many organizations struggle to create and discover these opportunities.  For the most part it is because they have become so proficient at being satisfied with the existing relationship that they fail to understand or recognize how to
expand and build on it. 

The first place I would look for revenue expansion is with my best, favorite and most trusted clients.  Note, I would not be walking in simply trying to “sell them more,” I
would be working at discovering how I can become a better resource to them and what else I may be able to provide to improve or enhance their business.  Accomplishing this requires a focused strategic commitment to enhancing the relationship.

There are four steps to applying a business development strategy in your existing and key accounts:

1. Build a team and expand your contact base:
   Sales professionals are very proficient at knowing who their key contact
   is in an account.  Their traditional approach is to strengthen that single point of contact relationship to the fullest.  In a revenue expansion strategy
   that is not enough.  Instead of having a lot of connections over several companies, an effective business development strategy requires multiple connections throughout the organization at multiple contact points.  A single point of contact or a single contact point from your organization puts all relationships at risk. A strong business development strategy requires that your organization is connected into your key clients at multiple levels with multiple relationships sources, i.e. your CEO/Owner, VP of Sales, VP of Marketing, or Director of Customer Service, etc. having developed and leveraged relationships in your key accounts at similar valued levels.  Multiple relationships, at various organizational and functional levels, through varied contact points offer your organizational broader information, influence and insight.  This is a very powerful strategic tool.
2. Assign a knowledge holder for your key accounts: You can utilize a CRM to manage data and information; however, like a reporter, every key account requires a knowledge holder.  That knowledge holder is responsible for sharing the news of every single conversation with all others leveraging and developing relationships in that key account.  Sharing the information in a timely manner enables the team to make prompt strategic moves in that account and enables the team to be more engaged and proactive to news, information, and opportunity.
3. Create a metric and meeting rhythm for the team: Being on a key account team means nothing if people do not know their roles or accountabilities.  Every team member has accountabilities to the rest of the team for their role in building and expanding their relationship base in a key account.  They are also accountable for gathering and sharing information to the team in a timely manner through the “knowledge holder.” As a result, I would encourage everyone to establish a metric for “new relationships” and “impactful conversations” that is a measurable accountability tool.  Also, even if it is only a fifteen minute weekly huddle, all key account teams must connect, communicate, collaborate and strategize on a regular basis.
4. Pay attention to discover and create opportunity: You cannot create opportunity in an existing account just because it is a good idea – nobody cares what you want to accomplish or “sell”.  However,as you expand your relationship base within an account and become a more influential valued resource, the potential for the team to discover and create new business opportunities is enhanced significantly.  This is the value of a multi-faceted “deep and wide” business development strategy. More conversations, with more people, with diverse perspectives, opinions and needs provide a fantastic opportunity to add value.  The fundamental component of this strategy is found in creating a focused, disciplined, and intelligent process with a long-term commitment to its execution and development.

Businesses that grow best, grow intentionally.  Intention is the focused, disciplined, and
strategic application of a business development process that works.  The above business development process works best in your key accounts because you already have a valued relationship with them, you already have access to their team, and they already value what you are providing them.  To take this relationship to another level requires the commitment of a team, the productive gathering and sharing of information, and the ability to nimbly and deftly execute a timely growth strategy.  Nothing is more productive than growing within an existing account – the trick is coordinating the resources in order to accomplish it.

We’re up to #9 on my list of The Top Ten Ways You Can Lose . . . Even When You’re the Best.

And the 9th way to lose is:  Your team is complacent.

You’ve been so good for so long that your team expects that it will always be business as usual. You’re not scanning the market, not tracking old and new competitors, not learning every day about what’s going on in the lives of your customers.

Many growing companies are actually making a market, not taking a share of an existing market.  The more innovative and unusual your service or product, the more you are focused on a niche, the fewer your competitors, the more likely it is that you will experience a short-term success that you can’t sustain.

If you have been successful in bringing a new product or service (or product/service mix) to market, sooner or later other prospective competitors are going to challenge your dominance.  You will have painfully created a market–first persuading customers that your service is a great idea and then persuading them to buy from you.  When you hit a critical mass of customers, you will undoubtedly attract competitors.

Where will they come from?  Some will be new companies mimicking your business model.  Others will be diversified companies observing an opportunity that they’d missed.  Still others will be companies that have been very good at producing something that’s no longer valued in the market, and they are looking for a new thing that they can be good at.

There are ways to combat this tendency.  Here are a few:

• Conduct a Brand Promise Audit.  [This one-hour recorded how-to webinar is available to registered members of the Pier9 Premium resource site].  Review the marketing messages of your company and those of your competitors.  Revise your promises as required.
• Talk with your customers–those that you sold and those that you lost.  Be certain you understand what it is that people value about you and what it is that turns them away.
• Engage your team in bringing ideas and information forward.  The more individual employees who are engaging in social media platforms and knowledge bases, the more current your knowledge will be about trends that may not have even reached the “trend” stage yet.  Encourage your team to look for potential threats as well as opportunities.

Whenever you hold the position of “the best” for a period of time, you become vulnerable to many kinds of attacks.  You can’t afford for your team to become complacent about your #1 position.

I’m up to #6 of my Ten Ways to Lose . . . Even When You’re the Best.  Here’s one that I see far too often: You are out of touch with your changing market.

This problem reminds me of the grand dame who was at the height of fashion during her early and middle years.  Today, however, 20+ years later, she is still sporting the same hairdo, the same clothes, the same make-up, shoes, handbag, jewelry–and she has become a “fashion police” candidate. She was the best–in her day–but the fashion market changed immensely and she failed to change with it.

For her, of course, it hardly matters.  She’s happy, and she’s not selling anything.  But for you, failure to recognize and adapt to market changes can be fatal.

How long have you been “the best”in your market?   What are your competitors doing to catch up with you or to overcome your advantage? Is there anything you are missing? When you stop thinking like an underdog and behave like the best in field, unless you are constantly vigilant  you can miss minor and even major signs that your marketplace needs and priorities are changing.

One circumstance you’ll encounter is that as you get bigger deals with bigger customers you attract an entirely new level of competition.  Often they are more sophisticated and experienced at the new market level than you are, and frequently they’ll pull out all the stops to prove that to a prospect that they’ve chosen to fight over.  It’s like being a business fashionista in Tampa and wearing your favorite outfit to Manhattan.  Fashion police! No offense to Tampa, but you’re safest in black in a New York board room.

Market changes are constant.  Your customers want different things, or they want things delivered in different ways, or they want to engage with you differently.  They want more, or they want less.  You need to be continually vigilant about what matters to them and how you can update your fashion to remain in style.  Ask them.  Bring on a customer advisory board.  Go out and visit, not to sell something but simply to listen.  They will tell you what you need to know.

What’s changing in your market?  What are you doing about it?

On my list of 10 ways to lose (even when you’re the best), reason #2 is “Your story is too complex.”

Complexity in the sales story is a common flaw of young companies as they are growing.  You’re afraid to turn away any business, so you try to do almost anything that any prospect wants you to do.  Big mistake!  First off, it doesn’t work, and it will cost you money and anguish before you finally learn that hard lesson.  But also, it confuses your customers, making them afraid to buy from you, and leaving them unable to make a case for you to others who sit at the Buyers’ Table.  Large companies also fall into this trap as they add more products, services, and divisions.  Without careful management, these decisions dilute your brand and frighten your prospective customers.

A couple of examples.  One variation of this theme is the company that can do many things well, but these things are incompatible for various reasons.  Some time ago I worked with an early stage software development company that had a software product to feed data to a mobile handheld device, before this became commonplace.  This product could be used to develop and play digital games.  It could teach repairmen to fix office machines on site.  And it could help early responders find people who had been trapped in rubble from some natural disaster.  All interesting applications, for sure.  But the people who buy lifesaving equipment are a little freaked to buy it from gamers, and many prospects were worried about how much time, energy, and service would be devoted to their solution as opposed to the others which they didn’t want or need.  Too confusing.

Another variation is overkill in the marketing materials.  Several companies in the education industry have this problem; they offer so many reasons that their solution is the right one that school officials and school boards become overwhelmed.  What is the primary purpose, the primary benefit to the schools?  Cost savings?  Teacher support?  Better learning?  Improved assessment?  Up-to-date technology? Engagement with parents? Administrative services?  In some cases all of these benefits accrue to the buyers, but it’s a rare buying group that can comprehend it.  They need a simple story about a few salient points.

Two ways to help solve the complexity problem:

1. Simplify your business.  Make some hard decisions about your core business and target market.  Learn to say no to opportunities that don’t fit your Target Filter.  If you have several equally important lines of business, sell some off or market them through a strategic alliance.  Don’t allow your customers to be confused about who you are and what you do.
2. Simplify your story.  If you have a well-defined product or service that is by nature complex or solves multiple problems, work hard to craft a clear and simple message.  Remember that old five-paragraph theme you learned in Freshman Comp:  an introduction, three main points, and a conclusion.  Learn from your current customers what are the benefits they most value, and use that knowledge to keep it simple.

Have you ever had to simplify your story?  How did you do it?

Today’s guest post comes from Bill Caskey, founder of Caskey Training in Indianapolis.  (thanks Bill!) I’ll remind you that Bill is my guest for this week’s Expert Series call–Wednesday, October 19, at 9 am Pacific time–12 noon Eastern.  You won’t want to miss this one about how to turn small inputs into big outputs–improve your sales with minimal effort.  As always, this is a free call.  Register here!

Since we’re going to be talking about SUPER LEVERAGE in our call this week, I thought I would tell you a quick story.

Recently, I was asked to go to Barbados and spent a few days with a time-share sales team. “Whoa!” I can hear you squirming.  “Why would you spend time with that group…time share? Come on. You can do better than that!”

Well, not so quick.

You must not have heard me. I said BARBADOS! It was lovely and they were great. The  interesting thing was the property owner committed to himself early-on that he was not going to SELL the way other time-shares sold. He hasn’t. And he has prospered. Greatly.

But even though he never hires other time-share sellers (he prefers to hire good communicators and good character), there still is a tendency to “back-slide” into the vulture strategy (that most time-share companies seem to teach).

What They Miss

Think about it. A potential prospect walks into a time-share sales office and what typically happens? The amateur seller pounces on them and takes them through that manipulative, secret, coercive sales process. Until finally the buyer escapes—vying never to be hooked into that again.

But They Didn’t Need To Do All Of That

It just doesn’t have to be like that. One piece of counsel I gave to my client last week was “Let them tell you why they’re there.”  Relax. Don’t pounce. Just sit back and have a human-to-human conversation about their goals, their dreams, their preferences and what brought them into the office. Use the momentum of ‘coming into the office’ to your advantage.

Let them buy.

Stop getting ‘up in their stuff trying’ to sell them. Yes, you will have to inform them of the advantages. Yes, you may have to take them through some process. And yes, you will be asking them to make a decision. But no, you do not have to manipulate and coerce.

So what’s the lesson? The asset is a customer walks into your office. How much more of an asset do you want? So don’t blow it by getting in the way. Leverage that asset by being a human being with them. Be present. Give them freedom. Don’t take it away.

In our call, we’ll talk about a host of other mistakes sales organizations make in their effort to pursue business…and some ideas on SUPER LEVERAGE ideas.

Bill Caskey

I’m looking forward to this month’s Expert Series call, when I’ll interview Bill Caskey, founder of Caskey Training, on the topic of getting more sales results with less effort.

Bill will be talking about his take on a medical concept known as “Minimal Effective Dose,” which means the best dosage for a prescription is the least amount of the drug that will get the desired result.  He’s used that as a metaphor for sales–figuring out the least amount of effort that is required to get your desired results.

Bill calls it “super leverage,” and that’s what we’ll be talking about.

I often interview people whom I’ve never met, and that is always fun and often surprising.  But in this case, I’ve known Bill Caskey for quite a few years, and I have great admiration for him, his work, and the Caskey team.  So I can add a personal endorsement for this teleconference!

Please join us October 19, 9 am Pacific, 10 am Mountain, 11 am Central, 12 noon Eastern for this free teleconference.  Register here.

Today’s guest post is from Chad Root, President of Spearhead Marketing and Certified Partner of The Whale Hunters.

The biggest sales mistake I’ve seen is failure to invest in branding, advertising, public relations and web technology.

For companies that have historically been heavily invested in sales salaries, commissions or one-off trade-shows, proper marketing investment may require divesting in sales in order to invest in marketing.  Otherwise, marketing will always be seen an additional expense because it wasn’t in last year’s budget.

It becomes very clear that marketing has a higher return on investment for certain stages of business development than sales when you break down the desired outcomes:

B2B organizations should all desire an increase in each of the steps in this cycle.  So what is the best way to go about it?

Best Practice #1:  Get help with branding.

Does your company have a unified brand or do your individual salespeople have their own brands?  When you’re responsible for growing a business and not just your own commissions, clearly organizational success should be the goal.  Is this a sales challenge or a marketing challenge?  It’s a marketing challenge, yet many companies turn this over to salespeople.  Getting outside help on branding makes sense for many reasons.  One, it’s easier for others to compare you to your competition when they have an outside perspective.  Two, it’s not likely that you have the level of technical and creative talent on staff to pull off successful corporate identity, advertising, public relationships and web marketing initiatives.  Even very large companies with in-house agencies go outside for inspiration, innovation and specialized execution.  For more on this topic, view our SM-art Sales & Marketing introduction video.

Best Practice #2: Sales needs to be involved in nurturing new leads that come in through marketing channels.

Great sales people have both empathy and ego.  When it’s comes to ego, it can sometimes get in the way of nurturing new leads.  Attention salespeople: Set your ego aside just enough that you can be grateful that new leads are coming in the door.  Keep in mind, the lead will not be ready to buy today. Give marketing some direction on how to best nurture the lead along and make personal contact with the lead when the timing is right.

Best Practice #3: Encourage new ideas and creative ways to utilize marketing tools in the sales process. 

“How-to” videos, demonstration kits, online assessments, photo scrapbooks for project management, etc. These are all “marketing investments” that can have a huge impact on how many leads make it into the sales pipeline.

Best Practice #4: Teach your sales people to be Sales Professionals.

Sales pro’s are hard to find.  Just because you can cook, doesn’t make you a
chef.  We recommend The Whale Hunters because it’s centered on organizational success and will teach a salesperson how to be a valuable leader in their company and industry.

With a certified Whale Hunter running point, your business development cycle of closing sales  in your pipeline, maximizing lifetime client value and developing referrals will be a natural way of doing business.  Keep in mind, these steps also need marketing support.

For more on this topic, read Why Can’t Sales and Marketing Get Along?

For help creating a balanced sales and marketing budget to meet your company’s growth objectives while maximizing return on sales and marketing investment, contact Chad Root at Spearhead Sales & Marketing.

Spearhead Sales & Marketing
223 S. Main St.
Elkhart, IN 46516
574-294-6900
www.spearheadsalesmarketing.com
croot@spearheadsalesmarketing.com
Twitter:@chadroot

Today’s post comes from Dr. Michael Franz, a Whale Hunters Certified Consultant from Munich, Germany.  Michael’s company is Michael Franz & Partner: High Probability Selling.  Follow him on Twitter @michaelfranz.

Whale Hunting is a great strategy to grow your company fast. But even fast-growing companies make on average 80% of their revenue from existing clients. So it’s much more important to keep existing whales than to hunt for new ones. How do you find out if there is a high probability that existing whales will work with you next year, too? By asking all your existing customers the ultimate question: 

 How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague? 

According to Fred Reichheld, author of The Ultimate Question, the customers’ responses to this question determine the future of your business. This simple question reveals whether your current customers are promotors of your business. And measuring the responses regularly keeps your employees accountable for treating your customers right. 

 Are your clients really satisfied?

Do you believe that your clients are satisfied, even highly satisfied? You are probably wrong. Bain & Company recently surveyed 362 firms. 80% believe they deliver a “superior experience” to customers. Than Bain asked their customers and discovered that only 8% are really delivering. This ten-to-one ratio suggests a huge misconception about client satisfaction.

 Why good harvesting is so important!

In Whale Hunting one of the most important steps is landing and celebrating the whale. There are two sides to this. One is that when you land the job, you deliver what you promised. And second is that you take care of the people at your client. That you establish a strong personal and strategic relationship with the client people. Both actions together produce highly satisfied clients that will buy again and that will promote you to other clients. 

 So, what will your clients answer to the ultimate question?

Hello and good morning to our awesome community of whale hunters! Today I want to do something different. We’ve had such overwhelming feedback and responses to our June blog posts, I wanted to recap the favorites for you. We really do appreciate the growing number of comments and Twitter action. These five posts got people talking and sharing their experiences/perspectives with us! All good stuff! So, here they are! The Top 5 June (which is more or less over) blog posts (in case you missed them). Enjoy!

5. Sales Should Not Be a Dirty Word by Lindsay Bayuk

There’s a friction in the land of sales between “old school” sales and current sales thought leaders. I’ve had many conversations lately about common perceptions about sales; I figured I’d write about it. There’s this perception out there that sales is a dirty word, a dirty profession. Are you picturing a used car salesman? I thought so. Read on…

4. Whale Hunting Before I Knew What It Was by Chad Root

When I started in “sales”, I didn’t want the word sales in my title.  In 1993, I graduated from Architecture school and took a job as “Sales Engineer” for a custom returnable packaging company.  Yes – I was responsible for selling, but I never really saw myself as a salesperson.  I saw myself more as a “figure out a way to solve customer problems in a way that my company could make money” person.  This became especially true as I grew in responsibility to become a business manager and owner of my own businesses. Read on…

3. Five Proven Ways to Generate B2B Leads with Social Media by Barbara Weaver Smith

Generating high-quality leads that fit your Target Filter requires strategic efforts.  If you randomly “market” your company, you may create leads, but they typically won’t be the kind you want.  Today’s post is about Tactic #3 from my article Ten Tactics to Drive B2B Sales with Social Media:  Learn how to use social media to generate high quality leads. Read on…

2. People Buy from People They Like by Lindsay Bayuk

We believe that this old adage is for the most part true, but not quite so simple. Really, is anything ever that so simple? The more I thought about this saying, the more I realized that it fits quite nicely with what we teach to small businesses. Read more on what’s most important to establishing successful relationships.

1. Five Key Elements of an Initial Sales Call by Barbara Weaver Smith

Here are five key points to consider in preparation to make your initial call on a prospective customer.   No, they’re not about putting brochures in a folder or loading up the power point! Read on…

What was your favorite and why? We’d love to hear from you!

Let’s talk about being hungry. You want this. You want to be successful. Grow your company. Close that deal. Are you motivated? Yes. Inspired? If you’re like most entrepreneurs, some days are better than others. Many entrepreneurs work so hard for so long, soon the “spirit” part of their entrepreneurial spirit is gone. In order to keep it real, sometimes you need a break (hard to admit for workoholics, I know). Just a breather. Renew the sense of purpose with which you started this endeavor. Even taking the smallest moment to get re-energized will help you bring more to the table in your conversations, partnerships and strategy.

I’ve compiled a list of must-watch videos for your viewing pleasure. Get your inspiration on! Do it!

What inspires you? – 30 Second MBA from Fast Company

How Great Leaders Inspire Action – Simon Sinek, TEDTalks

No Excuses – Matt Scott for Nike

The 99% Experience: Insights in Putting Your Ideas into Actions

A special shout out to Tyler Hurst for finding inspiration with The Whale Hunters. Do you have a video or quote that gets you charged up and ready to tackle the day? Share it with us below!

I published this post 2 years ago and resurrected & modified it based on more recent experiences.

We had a great whale hunting session working with the Asia/Pacific sales team of an international company. This company specializes in “spend management.”  They help their customers significantly reduce their purchasing costs for many goods and services.

In the course of the workshop, this team reached a very interesting and unexpected insight about their most promising business deals, which was this:

We are not closing the proposals that demonstrate the very best ROI for our prospects. In fact, on our very best proposals, where we believe we can have the biggest positive impact for our customers, we are only closing 20%.  

How would we explain that apparent anomaly? Something’s going on that they don’t understand.

From a logical standpoint, the solution they offer in these best-of-class cases is a slam-dunk no brainer for the client. Yet after they present these proposals, the whales stall, ask for more time to consider, postpone their decision.  They back off from the whole deal.  In whale hunting terms, the whale is afraid of something or perhaps many somethings.

If you’re making great cost-savings proposals that your prospects are not buying, here are some underlying reasons that you might consider.  I’ve also suggested “fear busters,” ways to alleviate each of the fears:

• Your proposal sounds “too good to be true.” The whale is afraid you cannot or will not make good on your promise.  [This fear is alleviated by customer testimonials.]
• The whale does not fully understand how you will go about achieving this benefit and is afraid that your solution may cause unforeseen problems with their employees or vendors. [This fear is alleviated by process maps and illustrations to demonstrate the simplicity of your implementation.]
• The whale is afraid of making a mistake, leaving it with an untried system or process or solution or product which might produce a short-term gain but will soon become obsolete and dysfunctional.  [This fear is alleviated by white papers, case studies, and customer testimonials.]
• The whale is afraid that your solution is better suited for a different kind of enterprise than the whale’s.  [This fear is alleviated by multiple case studies from different industries and by a clear process illustration that is not industry-specific.]
• The whale does not need “the best” solution and the potential disruption that its implementation might cause–it only needs a “good enough” solution.  [This fear is alleviated by evidence of your solution's simplicy and elegance.]
• The whale has other pains, problems, and opportunities that are more urgent or more important than the issue you propose to solve.  [This fear is alleviated with conversation and empathy.]

If you ever experience this kind resistance in your sales process, work with your team to brainstorm all of the possible explanations for the whale’s resistance. Even better, talk to the whales that have resisted your proposal and find out why.  You may be amazed at the reasons you did not anticipate.

And once you better understand the fears, work hard to identify “fear busters” that you can put on the table to alleviate those fears.  I invite you to download our “whale fears” and “fear busters” worksheets to guide your team in figuring out how you are scaring the whales and how you can overcome their fears.

There’s a friction in the land of sales between “old school” sales and current sales thought leaders. I’ve had many conversations lately about common perceptions about sales; I figured I’d write about it. There’s this perception out there that sales is a dirty word, a dirty profession. Are you picturing a used car salesman? I thought so.

The whole reason that our company is called The Whale Hunters is because of the metaphor we use to teach our process.  The purpose for the Inuit people hunting whales is that one whale would feed the village for an entire year. Similarly, a large client, an increase in revenue can “feed” or grow a small business.

We teach that sales is not dirty, it’s part of how/why companies exist! Sales and selling is how mutually beneficial relationships are created, products and services exchanged. Maybe we need to remove the word sales and just talk about the function? Business Development? Client Development?

Within the sales community, especially within B2B, exists a loud conversation about gratitude, excellence, trust, communication, and relationship building. It’s not about swindling clients or just hitting your quota. Among the true sale experts, there’s actual quite a backlash against that old mentality. Not only that, those philosophies/tactics are not successful!

I recently participated in an Integrity Selling training. The first conversation we had was about selling values. In particular, I was drawn to this one particular value statement:

“Ethics and values contribute more to sales success than do techniques or strategies.”

You’re most likely going to find unsavory individuals in any profession. Sales is no exception. Just know there are many true professionals working to change the perception of sales from the used car salesman. From Google’s Ten Things:

“You can make money without doing evil.”

Not all sales people are scum of the earth. They do the work for businesses to thrive, create jobs, build connections and grow. So, if you’re in sales (or whatever you do), don’t be evil. And if you’re not in sales, please don’t be too quick to judge. There are a lot of sales professionals out there doing great work!

You’re in for a treat with The Whale Hunters tomorrow (Wednesday May 18) when you join our free Expert Series call with guest expert Gary S. Hart, owner of the SalesDuJour blogsite and salesman/sales manager/sales coach par excellance!

Last month I interviewed Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies and SNAP Selling about how to get in the door to big company buyers.  We are following up that call with the next important step:  once you’re in that door, what do you need to do in order to stay there?

Gary Hart believes that “every day is National Sales Day,” and his philosophy of large account sales is a perfect fit with The Whale Hunters Process™.  We’ll talk about how to prepare for your first meeting and how to ensure that your first meeting leads to further meetings and productive next steps.  Gary’s wise, practical advice will help you and your team up the ante on your large account sales success.  He’ll talk about “unselling” and how to ask the right questions.  The primary focus is on how to create a positive experience for the buyer that moves you forward in a relationship with the prospect and his or her company.

Our teleconference is scheduled for Wednesday, May 18, at 9am Pacific, 10am Mountain, 11am Central and 12 noon Eastern times.  There is no charge for the call, but you need to register!  More information and registration information here.

I hope you’ll join us!

I can’t tell you how many owners and CEOs I talk to who are looking for a rock star with a rolodex to save their sales.  But today’s complex B2B sales require thoughtful, analytic team players who can put ego aside and involve their company’s subject matter experts in the sales process.

Recently Gart Hart of SalesDuJour wrote a great blog post about what he calls the next iteration of sales:  E2E (eye to eye).  His post is about how buyers want salespeople to stay behind the keyboard and not enter their space!  This is an excellent analysis of today’s buyers, and I heartily recommend it.  Gary’s point is that buyers do not want to get their information from sellers.  They would prefer to “disintermediate” and get their information directly from your website (or someone else’s), social media sites, product review sites, and the like.

However, this is not the end of sales!  It’s simply another changing circumstance that’s been going on for a long time.  Gary Hart talks about the importance of “E2E” contact with buyers—that’s “eye to eye.”  But E2E contact is harder than ever to achieve.

So let me offer a suggestion.  In a large company considering a large deal, there are many buyers—many people who will influence the ultimate decision.  Although they are not thrilled with talking to a sales rep, they do want to meet their counterparts at your company, your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).  Teaching your SMEs how to participate in the sales process, and teaching your sales professionals how to orchestrate a team sale, will give you a huge advantage and lots of E2E time.

The Whale Hunters offers several free, downloadable tools  to help you teach your team, including the Buyers’ Table Tool (how to identify and understand all of the buyers) and Power Your Boat (how to prepare SMEs to participate in an E2E experience with the buyers.  Pier9 registration (basic membership) is required to access these materials.

Also on this topic is our article Elvis is Dead, about the rock star salesperson, archived in The Whale Hunters Pier9 community (registration is required).  You’ll find it in the section labeled Articles about Sales and the Sales Process.  The article describes the characteristics you should look for in a great salesperson who would lead a sales team effectively.

The world of large account sales continues to change and will continue to do so.  You gain credibility and E2E time with buyers when you educate and prepare your team as active participants.  Email me Barbara (at) thewhalehunters dot com if you’d like some help!

Today’s guest post is by Larry Smith, Partner in The Whale Hunters, and CEO of GreenLyne, Inc.  Thanks for posting, Larry!

As the owner of a new start-up company that creates software to make manufacturing plant floors paperless, I have used The Whale Hunters Process™ to identify potential clients who can benefit from our product.  Our basic goal in scouting is to eliminate many potential whales as early as possible.  Since whale hunting is expensive, the sooner the potential whale is removed from the hunt, the fewer resources we have to spend in investigating and researching it. Here are my top five tips to implement your scouting process:

1.   Start with a strong Target Filter.  We began by creating a target filter that would identify clients who would benefit the most from our product.  In our “A” category are manufacturing plants in the Midwest that are privately owned, with annual revenue between $5m and $10m, that are focusing on lean manufacturing, and run 3 shifts.  We can easily research the location, ownership, and revenue.  The other criteria are located as we build dossiers.

2.  Use manta.com for an initial screening. We begin our scouting by going to the free service manta.com .Here are the steps that I used:
 

• At the bottom of the first page, under “Find US Companies by Category”, I clicked on  Manufacturing.  That choice leads to a second page with multiple search options.
• Next I clicked on the state that I wanted to research (I started with Illinois)
• Under the company revenues tab, I checked all boxes from $5m to $100m.
• There is another place to check off “privately owned.”
• That gave me a list of 102 manufacturing companies to research

Because 102 is too many, we refined the revenue criteria to $10m or higher, which yielded 54 companies. 

3.   Be explicit about dossier categories. Next we build short dossiers for these companies–just enough information to score the target filter.  The categories come directly from your Target Filter, plus routine contact information, website, and names of key contacts.

4.  Build a strong relationship with a university or public library.  In my opinion, it is important for you to have built a relationship with a good public or university library.  They will have access to free databases that allow you to investigate deeper into the companies that are potential clients.  I work closely with a university, and my next step is to go to online Lexis Nexis to see what additional information I can find.  Typically, I can find more specific information regarding annual revenues, senior staff, and current news and other information regarding the company.  After I have completed this portion of my research, I go to the company website to see what else I can learn there.  I then google the name of the company and their executives to see what I can learn from the internet.  Any relevant information such as court cases, big news, or any information about the executives is important.  If you get stuck in researching privately held companies, a librarian can help you.  Typically you can engage in a live internet chat with a reference librarian.

1.  Be active on LinkedIn.   LinkedIn is also an important component of the research because it can assist us in finding  a list of contacts–names and titles of people that we need to meet. And once we identify key contacts, we need to find an introduction to them.  If you and other employees in your company build good contact lists on LinkedIn, you will be able to find warm introductions to your key contacts.

If you follow my five tips for your initial scouting process, in no time you will have a Whale Chart of excellent prospects, with key contacts identified, and a way to get in the door.

Today’s post is brought to us by Rosemary DiDio Brehm, our certified partner in Florida! Thanks Rosemary!

The other day, I was busily working on a proposal (a big pitch to a key prospect) when my phone rang and the caller asked if he could speak to the person in my company who is in charge of administrative services. As an independent consultant, I am indeed the person “in charge” of administration services….and accounting services, and cleaning services, and IT services, and ALL the other services. I usually DO all those services myself, so I definitely wasn’t seeking what he was selling.

Interestingly, if I received this call a year ago, I would have politely listened for a minute; politely replied that I am not in need of his services; and politely ended the call.  But I am not the same solopreneur sitting at my desk writing proposals as I was a year ago. Now, I am a partner with The Whale Hunters.  I saw his call as a missed opportunity for him.  I am not his prospect and his call to me kept him from connecting with someone who really could be a client and possibly a “whale-sized” client.

As he was very professionally, and sincerely, going through his ‘script”, the one word that flashed in my mind was PREPARATION. Yes, he was prepared for this phone call. Yes, he might have been prepared for the next step ( … if we ever got there).  However, from my experience helping clients strategically grow their business, I believe he was  unprepared to be truly successful.

So whether you are making those “BIG” pitches, or those “INTRO” pitches that get you closer to the big ones, here are some preparation suggestions.

• Prepare to pitch to the RIGHT TARGET. “Don’t date for the sake of doing something on a Saturday night.” Figure out who you should be calling on and don’t waste your time with anyone else. Use The Whale Hunter’s Target Filter and do the work to figure it out.
• Prepare to LEARN EVERYTHING about your prospect. This is hugely important.  After you think you know everything about who you are pitching to, go back and learn more. You can never scout too much here.  Have a “what –do- you- know –about- this- whale meeting”. Don’t forget to go back to look at the prospect’s history.  Dig deep.
• Prepare to LISTEN and ask good questions at every point –scripts do not get you heard, understanding exactly what your prospect needs get you heard. Create a “book of power questions” and share with your team.
• Prepare your team and Practice for every interaction – Fully align with everyone on your Whale Hunting Team.  One of my clients has designated Power Boats established for the different industry segments they serve. They are prepared to launch a boat quickly and collaboratively whenever their scouts give them the signal.
• Prepare to follow UP and Follow through – don’t drop the ball during the last part of the pitch. Sweat the small stuff here.  If the US Postal Service asks you for a written proposal, don’t send it via UPS. A successfully executed Whale Hunt means you and your team nailed every bit of your preparation work.

Oh, and about that telephone pitch from my cold-caller…. I just happened to turn his pitch into my pitch by sharing how I wasn’t his ideal client, BUT… I just so  happen to have a training coming up and I would be happy to help him figure out how to make his calls count.

Rosemary DiDio Brehm, CPF is Chief Results Officer at turningpoints2results and a Founding Certified Partner with The Whale Hunters. turningpoints2results is a business development consulting firm based in Clearwater, FL that helps business succeed and grow by helping companies target the right clients, shift their process and skills, and grow revenue and profits. Contact Rosemary at rosemary (at) turningpoints2results.com or 727-443-0319.

I wrote this post for B2BBuzz where it appeared 4/15/11.

The idiom to “set your sights on” commonly refers to aiming a gun, getting a target “in your sights” before pulling the trigger.  But in terms of your ideal customer, the image of a sextant makes more sense.  The sextant is the tool that measures the angle between any two objects in order to locate your own position.  So I don’t want to shoot at customers; I want to know where they are and where my company is in relationship to them.

Instead of randomly shooting messages out into the market and waiting for leads to come in, smart companies on a fast-growth path need a way to identify the specific prospective customers that ought to be their best candidates.  What if you could make a list of the companies that are best for you to go after instead of simply following up on leads or cold calling?

Three steps will get you there:  

1. Determine criteria and metrics.

If you want to do bigger deals, what kind of customers do you need?  Where should they be located?  What industries do you serve best?  Which of your product or service offerings should you focus on to grow the size of customer you can attract?

Bring your cross-functional team together to create a list of criteria that matter to you:  customer size, revenue, industry, location, reputation, business structure, need for your services, history of working with companies like yours (or no history of that?)  Start by defining your current best clients—what features do they have in common?  Are there bigger companies that have many of these same features?

When you think you have the right criteria, assign some metrics to those criteria.  For example, if the customer’s revenue is important to you, assign a number or numerical range to the ideal annual revenue size.  Are you best with companies that have $50 million in annual revenues?  Or hundreds of millions? Or do you fit better with much larger companies?  Or smaller ones?  Assign your metrics at three levels:  High, Middle, Low. 

Suppose your absolute ideal is a company between $50 and $100million.  Call that “High.”  What would be your next best size?  Would it be smaller than $50 million or higher than $100 million?  How small is too small to matter?  How big is too hard to handle?  Work through all of your criteria and apply metrics, in each case defining best, second best, and “low as we would go.”  So for example your Low metric would not be simply “less than $25 million.”  Rather it might be $25 million to $10 million.  And if so, you wouldn’t consider a company with less than $10 million in annual revenue even if other metrics looked good.

Don’t kid yourself on the metrics!  You’re trying to define the qualities of an ideal customer, one that you would invest resources to land.  If something smaller or less desirable comes in over the transom, you can still do the work if it’s good work.  But you don’t want to invest much effort in getting that business. 

2. Run your criteria through a business database.

Most public libraries and all university libraries will have access to some version of the major business databases:  Hoover’s,  Lexis Nexis,  Business Source Premier.  So visit your alma mater, befriend your local librarian, or just search for a library online to get access to free data.  Another good place to start is manta.com.  Manta’s company data is not as reliable as the others I’ve mentioned, but it will get you going on key facts and is easy to use.

All of these databases will help you find a list of companies that meet certain of your key criteria:  company size (in revenue and/or employees), structure (public or private), location, and  industry.  You can also learn about location of headquarters and satellite offices for larger companies.

3.  Research the highest-potential prospects.

Once you have a list of companies that meet some of your criteria, you may need to whittle it down to a manageable size.  You are not going to approach all of the companies on your list in the short term.  Rather, you are going to pick some to watch and determine when the time is right.  So, start out with what look like the top 25—because of their location or their size or their industry, for example.  Then learn all you can about them—through their website, the business databases, annual report, SEC filings, social media presence, blogs, and news media.  Be sure to include contact information for key executives that you would want to meet.

Start a digital dossier on each of these companies to record your key criteria and key findings.  Upload it to a shared space so your team can add more information or changes over time.

Finally, work your own network to find an introduction to one of the key executives that you would want to meet, to introduce your company.  I find LinkedIn to be the most productive online resource for that purpose, but you have all of the social media sites at your disposal plus your network of friends, customers, past customers, trade associations, and community groups.  Involve all of your team in finding a warm introduction:  someone will know someone who knows someone.  You will be surprised.

So instead of handing out tchotchkes to whomever shows up at another trade show, set your sights on your ideal customer and go after that one.

Today’s blog post is brought to you by Kelley Robertson of Robertson Training Group in Canada. Thanks for contributing today Kelley!

Navigating and negotiating a standard sale can be challenging at the best of times. However, when you add a team dynamic to the equation, it can be downright frustrating not to mention difficult. Here are a few guidelines to consider when several people on your team are involved in a particular deal.

First and foremost, assign a point person. Someone MUST be in charge and assume the lead role during the entire sales process.  Someone needs to maintain control and act as the liaison between the team and the prospect; otherwise three things can go wrong.

1.     Critical issues may slip through the cracks because no one has their eye on the big picture. However, when one person leads the sale, that individual becomes responsible for managing the details and all aspects of the sales process.

2.     Confusion. Too many people doing too many things usually leads to duplication of efforts and confusion, for both your company and your prospect. One person can coordinate communication and ensure that the right information gets to the right person at the right time.

3.     Loss of information. If too many people are acting individually, it is easy for information to get lost or misplaced.

Establish roles. Does everyone on the team have a specific role and do they know what that role is? It is usually easy to determine the roles based on the requirements of the deal; however, it is essential that all players on the team know exactly how to execute their role. You may have people from finance, IT, logistics, operations, marketing, customer service, etc. If each person’s role is not clarified in the beginning stages of the sales process, it is possible that some people will tread on someone else’s turf or territory.

Part of the role assignment is to determine who will present information. Not everyone can deliver a great presentation and the bigger the deal, the more important the sales presentation becomes. This means checking egos and politics at the door and doing what’s best to ensure a positive outcome for the deal.

Establish clear goals and objectives. Do you know what you want to accomplish at each stage of the sales process? Make sure this is clarified early in the process and as the sale develops and progress.  It sound easy but it’s not uncommon for each person to have their own objective and these goals can clash and conflict with others. For example, IT may want to provide additional support while a finance person is concerned with preventing cost overruns.

Prepare. Prepare. Prepare. This includes briefing the team on a regular basis and keeping everyone informed on the progress. When more than one person is required to visit or present to the prospect, it is critical that you plan your approach. You want to ensure that anyone communicating with the prospect has the necessary background and history so they have the big picture. I strongly suggest that pre-call meetings are conducted prior to ensure that all the details are reviewed.

Rehearse your presentations. This is essential especially if several people will be presenting at one meeting. Multiple person presentations can be tricky to execute and you want your presentation to flow smoothly from start to finish. This also prevents your team from inadvertently presenting conflicting information.

Negotiating a multiple person sale can be challenging but with some forethought you can reduce the chance of someone on your team making mistakes that cost you the deal.

Kelley Robertson helps people master their sales conversations so they can win more business and increase their sales. He does this by conducting sales training workshops and delivering keynote speeches at conferences, sales meetings and other events. Subscribe to Kelley’s newsletter at www.Fearless-Selling.ca Book Kelley for your next event: 905-633-7750 or Kelley@RobertsonTrainingGroup.com.

My post today was first published 4/13/11 at the Blog World Expo blog.

Isn’t thought leader just old biz jargon?  After all, the term’s been knocking around for years, like “headhunter” and “game changer” and “team player.”

But no, for a B2B company today, being known as a thought leader demands your attention.  And fortunately, through social media, becoming a thought leader gets easier for small and midsize companies than ever before.

Here’s how elise.com defined the phrase in 2003:  “What differentiates a thought leader from any other knowledgeable company, is the recognition from the outside world that the company deeply understands its business, the needs of its customers, and the broader marketplace in which it operates.”

Why does that matter?

We’re in an economy where customers try to know everything before they buy.  Customers want to know who you are, what you stand for, whether they like you, whether you are telling the truth, will you deliver, are you trustworthy.  And customers want to know what other customers think about working with you and the quality of your products and services.  And customers want to know if you really know your industry, and whether you can help them make a wise buying decision (even if it’s not to buy from you). And whether you will help them make the transaction transparent or whether you will want to leave them in the dark.

And you know what?  Customers will buy from those companies that are the easiest to know.

How do you become that kind of company?

I presented a webinar to a prospective customer last week, a webinar on what frightens buyers about doing business with small companies.  Since I was presenting to one company, I used abundant examples from their industry.  The CEO said at the end, “You took the time to learn about my company.  Your competitor didn’t do that.”  That’s one way to do it—when you have the opportunity to interact with customers, take the time to understand their business.  Train everyone on your team to do that, all of the time.

But aside from when you’re talking to your customers and prospects directly, how can you earn their attention to you by behaving like a thought leader?

One simple way is to offer industry information on your website—make your site a place to which customers and prospects return for up-to-date knowledge.  Here’s one B2B company that does it well:  Walker Information, offering their online “Knowledge Center” about customer loyalty.  They have five blogs, each written by a company expert.  Their library of eBooks, videos discussions, case studies, and white papers is constantly growing.  The Walker site illustrates the high value of producing content.  Walker expects and empowers employees to be thought leaders, and the company continually produces new content of its own based on deep industry expertise.

Another small company doing a good job of thought leadership on their website is Driving Ambition, in the trucking industry.  They offer a newsletter subscription and an “industry resources” page.  Here’s what they say:  “Driving Ambition is committed to helping our customers stay up-to-date on the latest industry trends. Bookmark this page, and you’ll have easy access to the latest transportation news and information,” followed by a list of associations, websites, industry standards, and other information made more valuable because they have posted it in one place.  Their blog features timely, relevant posts about events, industry news, speakers, reports, issues, and so forth. 

Driving Ambition differs from Walker in that most of their informative web material consists of link, announcements and references rather than new content production. 

The distinction between these two approaches is important; it illustrates that you can demonstrate thought leadership by creating new industry knowledge but also by aggregating and filtering industry information for your customers and prospects.

How you do it depends on choosing a strategy that you can manage, that you can afford, and that will be meaningful to your audience.  Developing a “thought leader” website and embedding a blog that invites interaction is a sensible place to start.

Howard Schultz is everywhere lately promoting his new book Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul. (It also coincides with Starbucks new branding). He’s been in everything from Costco’s magazine to the McKinsey Quarterly. One of the topics he discusses at length is the peril of fast, unchecked growth.  He says that after the tough lessons of the past decade, the company is now focused on “disciplined, profitable growth for the right reasons.” Starbucks has proven that unbridled growth can be a double-edged sword. We train companies to achieve fast growth and I think it’s key to understand that discipline to do it right. We don’t advocate growth for growth’s sake. We want you to stay in business!

Take a few minutes to watch Howard talk about healthy, customer driven growth.

Customer service is the Zappos brand. Their tag line is “Powered by Service.” I also wanted to share with you another video from a CEO-turned-author, Tony Hsieh of Zappos.  I think it’s important keep the growth conversation in check.  The Whale Hunters process is all about smart growth. Each phase of our process is designed to find the best fit, or most mutually beneficial sales opportunities. Even though both of these examples are B2C, the lessons apply just the same to B2B businesses.

What are you doing to focus on best serving your customers? Do you view customer service as a means to drive growth? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Today’s blog post is by one of our Phoenix Certified Partners, Anita Grantham. Anita is EVP of Business Development at Diversified Human Resources. Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us today, Anita!

How many of you have worked for leaders that implement culture based on the last book they have read? If you are lucky, you may get to experience six different cultures during any fiscal year!

Fortunately, The Whale Hunters Process™, when implemented by a leader and his or her team can alleviate this experience for your workforce! How? In my experience, implementing The Whale Hunters Process™ has helped our team build, be clear and save time.

Team Build:  When we created our target filter, we enhanced our communication and had great debate on what characteristics our clients must have to make them a “right” fit for our services. Still today, when implementing the target filter, our group discusses the 5 W’s around the specifics on the client and how to score them in our filter.

Be Clear:  During the harvest stage of our client interaction, our team is clear on what services and products we need to deliver, based on what was promised during the sales process. This is often the toughest part of the sale, making sure the team is clear on what the expectations are of the client and of our internal service team.

Save Time:  By knowing what “whales” we are hunting, our sales team can save time not hunting targets who are not a match for our products or services. We have been able to stream line our sales process to maximize the talents of our sales professionals, helping them focus on the deals they can actually close, not the ones stuck in “hopa-hopa” land! What is “hopa-hopa”? As our Denver President, Patrick Wieland shares, “Hopa-hopa is an emotional connection to a potential sale.” As a professional you believe you can close it, without objectively looking at the facts around what that client actually needs, so we end up hoping the deal will close when realistically it most likely will not.”

Have you had a deal stuck in Hopa Hopa land? What was the result? Create your culture around process, communicate clear expectations for your team and client, and save time by avoiding Hopa Hopa land in using the great tools outlined in Whale Hunting: How to Land Big Sales and Transform Your Company .