Sales Lessons From The Presidential Race

No matter what side you were on, here are a few observations, affirmations and truths, post-election, with respect to selling:

1. Strategy and tactics are equally important.  The purpose of executing tactics in a sales campaign is to drive a well-founded strategy.  Tactics without a strategy is like playing darts with your eyes closed.
2. Message! Not messages, messages, messages.  Decide what you are going to count on to win based upon research—a focused, objective assessment of the sales opportunity.
3. You can successfully change the ground rules even if you temporarily lose ground.
4. The understanding and leverage of political influence is crucial.
5. Messages must be clear, concise and compelling and paint the vision of a better situation for the buyer.  One fumbled message can dilute the impact of a hundred perfect ones.
6. Logic and the facts aren’t the only things buyers consider.
7. Discipline rules.  Seat-of-the-pants doesn’t. 
8. Knowledge of your opponent’s plan to win is vital for devising and refining your own plan.
9. Direct and blatant “bad-mouthing-the-competition” doesn’t generally work. 
10. Never underestimate the underdog.
11. Want to win?  Look the part.
12. Tell the truth before your opponent exaggerates it.
13. Choose the right team.  The salesperson is CEO of their own virtual sales corporation.  Whom they choose to stand next to them and to advise them can make a big difference.
14. Whomever has momentum at the time of close generally wins.  Its very difficult to build momentum just at the right time without a plan.
15. Embrace technology. It permeates pretty much everything most of us do.
16. Go broad and deep into the customer’s organization as appropriate. (Ideally effective marketing will have blazed the trail in advance. See the article How Better Marketing Elected Barack Obama.  Thanks, John Caddell.)  Build consensus where it matters.
17. Don’t lose your composure or violate your own principles.
18. Understand that energy, determination and relentless pursuit of the goal is the fuel that powers the engine.

I’m sure I missed some points.  What would you add to this list?

By the way, Newsweek’s Secrets of the 2008 Campaign has been published on their website.  It looks like a terrific read.  I haven’t tackled it yet, but I definitely will.

Photo:  © Ljupco Smokovski – Fotolia.com

Those RFID Chips in Your Wallet

Earlier this week I finished The Broken Window by Jeffrey Deaver.  This was the first book of his that I’ve read.  The book was so-so, but I was intrigued by how the villain tracked his prey through, among other things, RFID chips attached to credit cards in their wallets.

I received the TechRepublic newsletter today and what’s in it?  A piece about security and RFID.  The article was written by and for techs, but the message is clear.  Our personal security is compromised by those identifying pieces of technology in our pockets. It wouldn’t take someone very much time or money to make malicious use of this technology.  What really got my attention in the article was this:

Between the RFID chips in new US passports and similar measures required by Department of Homeland Security regulations persuant to the Real ID Act of 2005, US citizens could very soon be walking advertisements of their own personal information. Even the crudest uses of such information — just detecting specific classes of people based on the gross RF transponder characteristics of a given nation’s passports, such as detecting the presence of US citizens based on the manner in which data is encoded on passport RFID chips — can lead to significant security problems. It has been suggested, for instance, that a person’s nationality, detected in proximity to an explosive device, could be used to trigger the device.  It’s a simple way for a terrorist to make sure a bomb targets at least one person of a targeted nationality.

If you didn’t click on the YouTube video, here it is again.

Just something else to worry about—like this worldwide financial crisis isn’t enough…

The Sales Enablement Technology Dark Ages: Sales 0.2

As we continue to dig deeper into the capabilities of the leading sales performance improvement companies, we’re not encouraged by some of what we’re seeing in the area of sales enablement technology.

Through recent engagements where our clients evaluated sales training companies, we listened to double-talk, vendor sales reps ducking questions, and a complete lack of understanding of the issues. (No, these people were not running for President.)

Just to give you an idea:

• When asked how he recommends modeling the client’s sales process in Salesforce.com, a vendor replied, “Well, you can use the comment fields…”
   
• Two vendors had absolutely no response, written or verbal, when asked whether they provide a electronic version of their opportunity management form that somehow connects with the client’s CRM system. Another of the exchanges went like this:

Client: “How do we roll up the projected contract values and dates into a forecast?”  

Vendor: “You can use Excel, like our other customers do.”

Client: “How do we get the data into Excel?”

Vendor: “I’ll have to check with the folks back in the office.”

The message here is what all of us have been saying on this blog. Properly deployed sales enablement technology of all types—not just opportunity management—will come increased efficiencies and effectiveness and competitive advantage. If you’re evaluating a sales training company, make sure they not only understand the issues, but have made measurable progress in the right direction.

Having a few e-Learning modules isn’t Sales 2.0.  It’s not even close.

The Front of the Funnel

I had the opportunity to interview Jill Konrath last week for an ESR podcast. (Here is ESR’s list of podcasts.)

Most of the top tier sales training companies have little to say about how to fill the pipeline. They typically focus on sales opportunity and account management. If a company’s marketing department isn’t doing its job, salesreps are left to fend for themselves.

Jill has a real understanding of what it takes to gain access to decision makers. Her approach isn’t anything new, although she does present it in a unique way.

One of Jill’s main points was that the new generation of sales enablement tools can help salespeople achieve the relevance and immediacy required to capture the attention of a busy corporate executive.

There are a number of interesting perspectives found on the TAS Group’s Sales 2.0 Blog