March-maddening people strategery and other habits I learned while trying to use Salesforce.com
ummm…. so March sales?
Please stop telling me about your stupid pipeline. I know you have all the answers teed up for me. I don’t give a @#$%…
I’m not your mom or you sales manager so stop pitching me on how incredible your three month selling cycle is. Frankly I don’t care.
I am sure your pipeline is magical.
By the way, can I go back to that word “pipeline”? Of all the major “P” words that play into a selling discussion:
…..Presentation
……….Pitch
……………Practice
………………..Process
…………………….”Pain” points
…………………………Professionalism
……………………………..Poise
There is a word that I don’t often hear — people.
In case you are not quite sure what I am getting at, take a look at your rolodex. It’s all those dudes…
Alas, your sales force automation platform screaming at you in your local web browser doesn’t give a crap either. Sure there are a nice couple of fields there to place in first and last names and maybe a birth date. (oooh…. maybe you can even place in a Twitter name)/
<whatever…..>
But your platform (which by the way, I know your sales manager is stalkerishly addicted to) isn’t the road map to predictably building a kick-ass solution in March right now pre-Christmas.
It’s people… You. Them. Us.
People relate. People object. People buy.
It’s people that we need to focus on.
The mathematics of making sure you maximize your time and attention are givens. I am guessing that if you have read this far that you have mastered the art of engineering your schedule to predict your sales in March.
If that’s not you, go read some of the content that the other blokes on this blog write about (some of these dudes are pretty witty).
Know the formula of prospects to leads to contacts to buyers to repeat customers…
Know it and then increase it. That’s your homework to do.
What I want to inspire you about is your focus on the person.
…..The other side of the sales contract.
……….The line item in your CRM with a price tag attached.
……………The entity “cutting the check” to you when you close the deal.
The person you are trying to seduce with your sweet sales like tale.
Those persons generally:
- Want to be appreciated
- Delight in amusing, witty messaging
- Despise to feel abused
- Want to help others
- Hurt
- Reckon about what’s in it for them
- Will invest in you if you question them to
- Want to believe in something larger than themselves
- Dread change
- Worry about paying the bills
- Want to feel like they make a difference
- Need money to survive
- Live pretty stressed out
- Tend to tell you the truth if you question the right questions
- Lie to protect their own best interests
- Believe in fortune
- Like being appreciated
- Know when you really care
- Choose if they like you pretty quick
- Will give you second chances if you question
And a bunch of other drama that you learned in Sunday School.
Fall in like with people — the people spending money with you preferably — and watch as you close deals quicker than ever.
Forget about your sales numbers in March. Hit your quota by February and take the whole damn month of March off…