Have a "GREAT" 2007

This issue is focused on some things to think about in order to have a great 2007 and consequently a great W2. First a few thoughts on "greatness", then we'll return the focus to sales.

The good news is that greatness is not something people are born with. A super example is Tiger Woods. He was not born a great golfer - he became great. Conversely, that means greatness is something that is attainable by pretty much anyone - no more excuses. So what makes the difference? Brace yourself - the answer is hard work.

Geoffrey Colvin wrote a nice article in Fortune that summarizes the research around what it takes to be great, what "hard" work really means. A few things stand out.

Quantity: Greatness is usually achieved somewhere around the 10,000th hour of practice time. As mentioned above, Tiger wasn't born great. He did, however, start practicing his craft as a toddler. While other kids were playing Nintendo, Tiger was learing how to pitch, cut, draw, and knock down an 8-iron. Given we all have demands on our time, that 10,000 hours usually has to be spread out over years - 10 if you are lucky. Thus, we'd better be practicing in a way that maximizes our return on effort. Leading us to...

Quality: Staying with golf - how does one really get better? Is it by heading to the driving range and zipping through a bucket, hitting five to seven shots per club? Or is it by narrowing your focus, working on a specific aspect of your swing, a specific shot, or a specific problem that needs resolving? Clearly it is the latter. When we become DELIBERATE in our practice, we improve.

Mindset: Given the above two factors, should anyone expect greatness to come after a few weeks of intense training? Of course not. Greatness is achieved over a long term, and the great performers take a long-term approach to the endeavor. By recognizing that greatness will only come with a vast amount of intentional practice, star performers stay focused, put in the time, overcome discouragement, and ultimately reap the huge rewards of greatness.

The application here to sales is not difficult. However, there are a couple items that are worth mentioning - so, here you go...

Assess: How can you possibly know where you need to improve your skills if you do not look critically and frequently at your performance? Monitor your incremental sales stage metrics (calls per appointment, appointments per opportunity, opportunities per down selection, down selection per close, etc.). Use your technology - when was the last time you taped a prospecting call so you could review your pitch? Get input from someone you trust. Proverbs 15:22 says, "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed." Get input!

Practice Constantly: Since you work a fulltime job, taking time to practice is very difficult. So, if becoming great requires practice and you have little time to dedicate to practice, you'd better incorporate practice into your normal work routine. Before calls, meetings, or presentations, decide the aspect of your selling skills on which you want to work, then note how you do. If the activity includes other sales team members, ask one of them to pay attention to that selling skill and give you feedback after the event. There will be plenty of sales execs who will say they cannot do this as it might disrupt their sales effort - to them, I say - enjoy the view from the back of the pack.

On the Hunt: Just like nothing happens for a company until someone sells something, nothing happens for you until you get something into your pipeline. So, how is yours? GREAT? Or, a little thin? Getting new deals into the mix can be one of the hardest facets of your job. Afterall, that initial contact point is the point at which your competition is the steepest. It is you against the world competing for a prospect's time and attention. Once you have identified an opportunity, at least it is you against limited competition. A very solid point of entry in the financial services vertical is around distribution - how your customers reach their customers. Is your company's ability to affect your customers' client touchpoints clear in your head?

Agents clearly drive much of the insurance industry. The ease with which agents write and service business is more and more determining which carriers they elect to do business with. Carriers know this and are defining competitive advantage as the position from which they can attract the best agents. Where does your solution fit in? If this issue is at the forefront of your customers' minds, you'd better know. Carriers are having to balance low cost and high-touch operations. Whether you sell a policy admin system, claims system, SOA solution, or content management solution, you'd better know how it affects sales and service. Same thing if you are in the banking, mortgage, or capital markets verticals. The customer touch points are key and a critical conversation point that will help you get doors open.

Bringing Down your Deal: Another trend in the financial service and insurance verticals is increased product/service homogeneity and company consolidation. With this trend, it is more and more difficult for companies to differentiate themselves in meaningful ways. The old delineation between vendors and partners plays well here - vendors seek to fix problems with solutions the customer already knows about; partners educate customers about new solutions and in doing so, actually add VALUE to the equation. New solution ideas and insightful problem identification require creativity - but it has to be "legitimate" creativity. That is, creativity that adds value to a solution without blowing up the financial model, outstripping resources, or antagonizing your company's strategic direction. For example, a claims software sales exec finding wireless technology, estimation, and body-shop network partners to roll out a state-of-the-art field claims solution is demonstrating legitimate creativity, while one who wants to build the solution from scratch is likely to be off in the weeds.

The point is - if you want to be truly stellar in your performance, it will take legitimate creativity. Think about it, if every prospect solves the same problem in the same way, where does competitive advantage come from? Customers want the ability to be different. Like you, they fear commoditization, and the sales execs who help their customers differentiate are the ones who achieve great things.

While all creativity is determined to some degree by imagination, as a sales executive, your creative value is influenced by a few factors - namely: vision, solution and industry knowledge, and clarity of limitations.

Vision: Do you think about what is coming? Your prospects are. When you can bring educated, well thought out ideas about future business influences and how your solution can address them, prospects see value in that creative approach to selling. (See the web sites noted below.)

Solution AND Industry Knowledge: When sales execs combine deep solution and industry (as in the customer's business) knowledge, they then have the perspective from which to conceive unique solutions that press the edge, debunk assumed limitations, or rewrite standard playbooks. Give Boise State some credit in this area. Few are going to argue that Boise has superior athletes to Oklahoma, but with some understanding of the strengths they possess relative to the typical major college approach to football, Boise State was able to throw enough creative wrinkles at OU to win the game. (Can you see Joe Paterno, Mack Brown, or any other "old school" coach running a Statue of Liberty play?) Understanding your and your customers' landscapes enough to apply legitimate creativity is not easy - there IS an investment. Go back to the point above on Greatness - it takes time and study to recognize ways your solution can be stretched to help your prospects.

Clarity of Limitations: ...as in your company's limitations. Anyone can get so creative that they wind up with a solution that has no grounding in reality. Get clarity from upper management and the delivery group as to how far you can stretch the solution. Determine the partners out there who can fill gaps or add solution elements.

Remember, creativity is about being different to help your customer be different.

"HELPING YOU LEAD THE PACK"
WWW.SALESWOLVES.COM
1-877-3wolves

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