Comprehenderent tempus – Seize the opportunity

I spend a lot of time with salespeople.  I love sharing my knowledge and experience and I feel like it is my way of giving back.

When I was new to the game of sales, I had a lot of people that helped me out along the way.  Actually, I could really say that about life in general.

I see a trend in some of the sellers I encounter and I wanted to talk about “seizing the opportunity – comprehenderent tempus.”

In the game of sales, we go back to the primitive instinct of being a “hunter/gatherer.”  We search for opportunities and gather “growth” as we move along (hopefully learning and providing value along the way…).

Every now and then, we encounter what I like to refer to as a “Compelling event.”  Now, in nature, they may call this a “freakish event,” where the streams damn up miraculously and fish jump out of the water into your hands or something along those lines.  Or picture fruit on the vine, ripe for picking!

The point is – you have something to sell and your customer has a need and the means to do it making the deal “real and qualified.”  So why do so many deals like this get lost?

Well, here is a trend I am seeing from my view in the cheap seats…
REAL QUALIFIED OPPORTUNITIES DISAPPEAR.  My question is WHY?

Here is what I am finding…

1 – Failure to adequately recognize the compelling event and the expiration date

2 – Failure to prioritize opportunities

3 – Failure to engage the appropriate resources in a timely manner (including communicating the compelling event and expiration date)

4 – Failure to manage the opportunity adequately (recognizes #1 above, but doesn’t manage to the event and expiration date)

All of the first 3 can be fixed with a little effort.  If you fall into the category of #4, you may want to rethink your career.

So how can we do a better job of identifying the compelling event and expiration date?
I call this the new “do you have budget” question (yuck btw).

HOW NOT TO LOSE TO YOURSELF

1 – Failure to recognize Event and Date —- Ask “yourself” – WHY ARE THEY BUYING THIS???  If you can’t answer the question – try the direct approach – “why are you buying this…what’s driving this decision?”  Gain a firm understand of the “Compelling event – ways that the customer can reduce it’s impact (aka – doing nothing becomes an option again) and gain a firm understand on the timeline and decision making process.  I am assuming, by the way, that you have the ability to meet the customers requirements – etc.

EXAMPLES —

Legacy product going end of support (is already end of life end of sale) (ON THIS DATE)

Customer is moving to a new location – and will have a new need in the new location (ON THIS DATE)

Contract or warranty is expiring and needs to be renewed (ON THIS DATE)

New business need (competitive) (must understand the ROI AND the DATE)

2 – Failure to prioritize opportunities – This typically cascades from #1 (my experience) but not always.  Sometimes we just have too much to do some days to work on all of our opportunities.  If this is you – well you’re fortunate.  MY experience has been that I had peaks and valleys in my business.  I would find myself working on BEAR deals (LARGE DEALS) to build my pipeline that would consume a lot of time, but the timeline was sometimes unclear or further out than other deals I was working on.  How can we better handle these?

Build a spreadsheet (simple one) and quantify the size, importance/severity of the compelling event, and lose date.  Rank your opportunities based on the sev of the event and the end date.  This should be your FIRST pass at deal prioritization.

Out task some of your deals.  YES – OUT TASK THEM.  Don’t lose a deal to your ego!!! Find a Jr Rep (hunter) and work a split with them.  COMMUNICATE the Compelling Event and Lose Date to them – and coach and give them guidance.  They will grow, and everyone will profit (you, them and your company).

3 – Failure to engage appropriate resources in a timely manner – having been on both sides of this fence, I think I can speak with authority on this topic.  MANY times I hear sales people complain – “I can’t get access to the resources…”  Let’s do a little sanity check here – did you come to the resources with #1 and #2 above when you tried to engage them?

Having run a large line of business and having incredibly limited resources, I cannot tell you how many times sales people came to me or my team with an URGENT request – had to have it right now – and they couldn’t answer 2 simple questions – COMPELLING EVENT – and DATE. I didn’t even care about the size of the deal.  And I cannot begin to tell you how many of those types of deals that I worked on that we would do the work and NEVER hear ANYTHING back from the sales rep (we had to chase them down) and the deals would never close. Support resources have been BURNED time and time again by burning the midnight oil (while the rep wasn’t) and not seeing or hearing about the payoff.  So before you complain, look above at #1 and #2.  I refer to this as separating the Pros from the Joes.

What if there is NO resource available (legitimately?).  Communicate to your management team (#1 and #2 above) and seek outside attention.  A lot of times we are supporting (and a lot of you reading this in my target audience are Technology Resellers) the manufacture’s products in a deal.  GO TO THEM FOR HELP.  If you have a handle on the deal and it is just a resource constraint issue, communicate and make them a part of your team to win.  I worked for the largest networking company on the planet and I GLADLY helped my business partners in deals when they were able to communicate effectively about the opportunity.  I was even more sympathetic to the fact that their resources were constrained when they should discipline within the deal.

Lastly – Communicate with your customer.  IF you can meet their requirements, have a better solution, are more competitive and TIME is the only constraint, then be open with your customers.  I have found that good customer relationship are built on the foundation of honesty and open communication.  They are people too and have probably suffered from the same constraints.  I have also found that some customer timelines are more outwardly aggressive, and they slip them more than we do.  Sometimes open communication can highlight this and create a symbiotic relationship from the onset.

4 – Failure to manage the opportunity adequately – If you suffer from this, I will refer you to two things.  First – read what color is my parachute.  Chances are, you’re not meant to be in sales if you can’t manage opportunities.  It is a harsh statement, I know.  The bitter truth is that sales is a professional sport.  If you can’t manage deals – then it’s like being a hunter that can’t hunt or a farmer that can’t farm.  Maybe a new field should be in order, especially if you can’t do #s 1-3 from above.

If it’s just a tools issue – or a time management issue – or a focus issue – then discipline yourself into doing the things above.  Take a few little steps to gain better control over managing opportunities – and by all means – don’t lose a deal to yourself.

Be a pro and take the little steps required to be successful.

The art and science of sales is ever evolving.  Sharpen the saw (as Stephen Covey would say) and keep your edge sharp.  Who wants to talk to a dull salesperson anyway?

Happy Selling!
Frank