You and your team are making a critical presentation to the buyers representing the company you hope to sign as your next big customer. You’ve been working on this deal for quite a while. They finally invited you to submit a written proposal–and you’ve made the cut! Now you’re in the top two or three […]
I’m writing a series of posts on “10 reasons to rehearse (and how)” focused on preparing to deliver a group presentation for a large account sale. [Introductory post here] In my scenario, your team has been invited to present in person after the prospect has evaluated your proposal or RFP response, but it’s the same even […]
On the Nimble blog: Hunting Whales with Nimble. How I use Nimble to go from CRM to DEALS. Find out more here: http://www.nimble.com/blog/whale-hunting-with-nimble/ Photo credit: Allan Danahar
Occasionally my sales fantasies turn into realities. When it happens, it’s so
easy to be seduced by this low-hanging fruit. Outwardly, I try to appear calm, cool and collected – a true professional. But inside, every inch of my body wants to scream out, “Take me! Take me!”
If your perspective is outbound on the customer, you need to change your viewpoint. See and understand the world from the client’s perspective, internalize what they know, observe, and live everyday and you will have potentially earned the right to express your opinion; or, offer your advice. If you have not earned the right, you are wasting everyone’s time.
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?
Each month we do our Expert Series call focused on growth and sales for small and medium sized businesses. This month, on July 20th at 12pm Eastern, we’re doing our free call with Compendium CEO, Chris Baggott .
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)!
We are all working at a frenetic pace and when we aren’t reaching sales goals, we panic and work from a place of fear, rather than from a place of power. Instead of focusing on the “target” we tend to toss darts all over the board hoping we land anything, anywhere. The result is a lot of tossing and not a lot of points. In reality we are staying in the same place (or losing ground) and not shifting our business forward. In either case, we are expending a lot of energy for little results. This is especially true in going after bigger deals because of the complexities of the sale and the nuances of the buying decision.
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.
Sales in and of itself can often feel confusing. “What can I do to get my foot in the door at this company that I know (based on my research) is a perfect fit for my business offerings when I don’t have any connections there? Why won’t she return my calls to discuss the proposal she requested? Why didn’t they buy when they gave me all the right signals? How could they have possibly selected our biggest competitor when clearly we are the best fit to meet their stated objectives/needs?” I’m sure most of these sound familiar. So rather than sit at your desk ho-hum and ruminate on these questions, recognize these challenges during the sales process as opportunities to INNOVATE.
Courage is such a strong word to use in the business environment but it can be fitting. I recently decided it was time for me to start my own company after working for two wonderful people for 9 years. I know I am not running into burning buildings or facing enemy fire but I do know it took a lot for me to make this leap.
If I am being honest I think deep down I knew I should have left about 3 years ago. But I could always come up with a reason to stay, a reason to let my fear of the unknown, of failing, overcome my desire to take the leap. In the end, while not heroic, it did take courage for me to do what I knew was right.