Five Drills For Business Success

Direct From The Frontlines Of Revenue Bootcamp

By Debbie Depp

So here we are…December 2002. Year-end to one of the worst years in recent memory. Nobody sold anything!

Or did they? Let's see, the economy hasn't come to a complete stop, so somebody must be selling something.

To find out how and why some people are holding their own, if not prospering in this down market, we convened a group of senior sales and marketing professionals at a recent Revenue BootCamp. We wanted to find out what they're doing when it comes to:

• Connecting with the "best" prospects
• Communicating the value proposition
• Improving sales performance and productivity

Our goal was to identify some successful sales and marketing activities that they could take away and employ immediately…and believe me, this savvy group of executives certainly had some great ideas. Now we want to share some of the best with you.

First of all, if our savvy execs were any indication, not everyone is sitting around crying in their tea about the lousy economy. For them the glass is half-full. They know that the best time to invest in a business is when times are tough and competitors have cut way back. These few brave souls are out there plugging away and it shows.

Even more importantly, while our group is investing in their businesses…they're not looking for a quick score. Instead, their goal is to steadily build their core base of business through effective sales and marketing activities. They know that it's the rock-solid business that will prove to be sustainable for years to come.

So let's take a look at 5 key things they're doing in this tough business climate:

1. Targeting fewer prospects
Wow, is this counterintuitive or what? But trust me, it works! As you spread yourself more thinly over a broader range of prospects in more verticals, you lose leverage. It's all about the risk/reward tradeoff. Your prospect isn't thinking of you as a product or service provider, but as the potential career-busting decision. Choose wrongly and they may lose their job. You just lose a sale or a customer. As you focus you reduce their perceived risk.

Put this strategy to work and you'll find that you're uncovering more prospects that want to talk with you. Do it well and you won't miss the quantities. In the 1990s, successful selling was all about playing the numbers…engage with enough prospects and you'd sell something to someone. I call this the "spray-and-pray" methodology! Today it's all about quality. Find more ways to touch your ideal prospect on a regular basis.

2. Connecting their company's solutions to their customers' business drivers
More than ever, customers are looking for trusted advisors rather than product peddlers. If you're selling, you're losing. If you're asking questions and probing for pain, listening to your customers, you have a chance.

Here's a tip - customers don't care about your product. They care about the benefits your product offers them. So stop telling them about your product and start asking them what business issues they're facing…done right, they'll assume that you have a solution to their pain.

3. Testing, testing, testing
Our successful executives take nothing for granted and neither should you. For example, one of our Revenue BootCamp attendees told the group that his company evaluates the performance of the corporate website every quarter.

The result? Over the past year the company has removed lots of extraneous content that was rarely accessed but which cluttered the site. Now the site is easier to use, less costly to maintain, and yielding a measurable improvement in customer service. Less is more.

Remember, when measuring results always do so on a program-by-program basis. Ask yourself the question: "Am I really getting value from my branding campaign, the radio spots, the visibility at the local trade show, the telemarketing or direct mail campaign?"

To ensure you're getting an accurate answer establish a system for tracking the total costs of these programs and their results. Measuring the results will force you to put some good sales processes in place. Sure, selling may be an art, but frame that art with an effective sales process.

4. Giving up the price game
In this difficult economy, our Revenue BootCamp executives aren't sabotaging their long-term success by trying to win deals on the basis of price. Years of experience has taught them that when they win a deal based solely on price they end-up losing in the long-run because they they've positioned themselves as the loss leader. In other words, their prospect was usually just playing them against the competition. Older and wiser, they now let someone else be that sucker.

Few companies can win at the price game…for everyone else it's differentiation or service. And everyone has to play the same game…we've seen too many instances of companies positioning themselves as the "high-value" provider, yet out in the field, their sales force de-values that proposition by bidding at cost (or below) to win the business.

5. Thinking outside the box
In this age of instant complete information, Internet auctions and who knows what else, you have to think about different ways of doing things.

For example, we know of one service company that won a significant contract because they didn't return a prospect's initial email inquiry - they picked up the phone and established a personal link with the prospect.

And one of our BootCamp attendees shared with us his process of holding a lunchtime "trade show" at their client sites…bringing in their engineers to schmooze with their client's engineers. The end result is deeper customer relationships and the identification of new opportunities…with the cost being not much more than a tank of gas.

Can you think of one simple thing you could do today that could make an immediate impact on your company's sales? Then do it.

Good luck out there…and remember, the economy is only as bad as you think it is. Someone has to sell something…so it might as well be you!