Barbara Weaver Smith - The Whale Hunters

June 13, 2011

Whale Hunting Before I Knew What it Was

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. Here are three lessons I’d like to shar

June 10, 2011

Five Key Elements of an Initial Sales Call

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!

June 8, 2011

Fear Trumps Advantage–Every Time!

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.

June 7, 2011

On Boarding Your New Client Smoothly

The trickiest part of whale hunting for small and midsize companies is to capture your sale: deliver your products and services as promised once you’ve made the sale. Big contracts with big customers are not business as usual for many companies. Smaller companies are often long on energy and enthusiasm but short on operational processes, policies, and rules. And big customers have higher expectations than many of your smaller customers have.

So, how do you bring a new whale on board smoothly?

June 6, 2011

Sales Should Not Be a Dirty Word

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!

June 1, 2011

Can Technology Substitute for Real Customer Knowledge?

I received a very disconcerting email this morning from amazon.com. It was the typical occasional email that amazon.com customers receive, recommending books that I might enjoy.

Amazon, of course, is known for its ability to understand its customers’ taste and to make recommendations on that basis. The entire system is technology-based, not human-based. That is to say, amazon.com doesn’t really know me at all; it creates the illusion of knowing me by crunching data about my browsing and buying habits on its site.

May 29, 2011

Fast Times: What Business Can Learn from the Indy 500

Acceleration. It’s the difference between a 4-cylinder Civic and a V-8 Jag. Both can cruise at highway speeds, but only one can gain more speed while it’s already moving fast. In the business world, the desire to move faster often causes management to exercise more central control. One foot on the gas, one set of hands on the wheel, one eye on the road, and one on the rear view mirror. It’s a one-person show – too risky to share.

May 27, 2011

Reduce the Complexity of a Complex Sale

Our guest post today comes from our Certified Partner in Southern Florida, Barbara Hauser. Thanks, Barbara! I’m in the middle of a deal right now that represents 15x the revenue of my average sale – so I can relate to the sense of overwhelm and anxiety that a situation like this usually produces. I’d like to […]

May 25, 2011

Who is at the RFP Buyers’ Table?

When you are engaged in a complex sales process in which you are meeting face-to-face with the potential buyers, you know how to interpret what The Whale Hunters calls “The Buyers’ Table”–the literal and figurative table around which your team interacts with people from the whale’s team who will influence the final decision of whether or not to buy from your company.

But when you are engaged in responding to an RFP or RFQ, are you still paying as much attention to the buyers?

May 24, 2011

The Pleasant Comfort of Trust

There is nothing more enjoyable than being in comfortable surroundings. In the show Cheers, I am quite certain it wasn’t the just beer that brought Norm to the bar—though it was a nice bonus. Rather, it was the comfort and comradery that he felt at the bar. Norm could be himself and not really give a care. If you remember, the entire group in that bar was extremely open, frank, and much braver within the group than outside of it.

May 20, 2011

My First Whale – Fund Seeking For a College Entrepreneur

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.

May 19, 2011

Coverage Maps – A Tool to Navigate the Complex Sale

Let‘s say you want to get a bigger client. Like a huge international group. And you want to sell something, that is so big, that you have do deal with the board of directors, to get it signed. How do you navigate and align all those people that are involved in the sale?

Whale Hunting Before I Knew What it Was

Five Key Elements of an Initial Sales Call

Fear Trumps Advantage–Every Time!

On Boarding Your New Client Smoothly

Sales Should Not Be a Dirty Word

Can Technology Substitute for Real Customer Knowledge?

Fast Times: What Business Can Learn from the Indy 500

Reduce the Complexity of a Complex Sale

Who is at the RFP Buyers’ Table?

My First Whale – Fund Seeking For a College Entrepreneur

Coverage Maps – A Tool to Navigate the Complex Sale

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