Power Up - Marketing and Selling for Greater Success

What is success?

Although a lot is written and talked about regarding achieving success, when you reflect on the word you realize it is not a single thing to every person nor a single thing to any one person.  Rather it is, for every professional I know, a series of things: achieving a numeric goal within a period of time, attaining a level of proficiency relative to peers, accumulating a level of financial security, ensuring a lifestyle that provides a level of comfort and happiness fro you and your family, etc.

Success is therefore illusory at times since as you achieve the performance level in one area you often have to make compromises allocating resources, time, energy, etc, to attaining the level of your desired performance in other areas.  These "success conflicts" can create a level of frustration for the most  accomplished individual.

How does one maintain the success perspective when, especially if they are a perfectionist, they see shortcomings in their accomplishments during their successes?

One solution to the mental dilemma is to have mental balance on the issues; to realize that one needs to rejoice in their successes and that accomplishing all goals at the same time is not realistic even for the best.  Success is not a single accomplishment during a single time period but rather the accumulation of accomplishments over time.  If one keeps this in mind they will have a more comfortable and appropriate perspective on success allowing the mental capacity to accomplish even more.  

What type of salesperson are you: fisherman or farmer?

I was pondering the frustrations about making a sale and realized that my frustrations stemmed from the same reasons I don't like fishing.  With fishing, which many people love, you do the preparation and head out on your boat and you pick a spot based on hunches.   You cast you line, ideally with a hook and bait on the end, and you wait.  And you wait.  You recast and you wait, and wait.  You don't have any sight into the dank waters where your coveted fish may be - or may not be.  You base your judgment that your fishing spot is a good one based on very incomplete information.  And, when you get to the point of total frustration, or run out of beer, you move on to another spot - after getting more beer. 

The farmer on the other hand still goes through the preparation and plants the seeds and waits and waits for harvest and prays for just the right amount of rain.  However, the farmer is in a better situation.  He can monitor his plantings.  He can tell when the situation calls for weeding or fertilizer or if his field is beyond hope and needs to be plowed under.

The farmer has more control of the outcome than a fisherman.  I liken my efforts to the farmer since I always want to control the situation and the outcome.  If I see weeds growing, i.e. competitors making inroads on my clients/prospects, I can become more proactive, essentially get out the weed killer.  The same goes for motivating my prospects, more water for the plants, or eliminating negatives - applying bug killer.

The farmer analogy is a better one for most sale people I believe since it allows us to be more proactive and take charge by monitoring the fertile fields of opportunities in front of us.  The fisherman salesperson is forced to be in a more passive state.  I hope all of my competitors are fishermen and all of my readers are farmers who are successfully harvesting their well deserved crops.

Companies facing soft markets need strategic selling effort support by management

The holidays have kept me away from my blog but I am now more committed than ever to maintain a flow of good ideas for marketers and those in the selling profession.

My Monday Morning Motivator, sign up on my website 2020marketing.com, addressed in brief a timely issue – will there be a recession and if so how do we respond?  I am reprinting it here as a base for today’s blog.

Let me first wish you a great start to the new year!  It is somewhat exciting to start into a new year and build on the solid results of our previous efforts. 

However, over the holidays it seems every paper and magazine I read raised the question, and fear, of a recession on the horizon.  I am not an economist but I do know, based on past economic cycles, that many businesses create their own recession.  They begin to panic in anticipation of an economic downturn and their very actions create a lack of new business.  They pull back on sales, marketing and training.  They postpone new product introductions, and they hesitate on entering new markets.  Rather than have fear rule the business plan why not redouble our commitments to new business development and let our competitors be the ones who experience a recession.  You may wish to keep in mind the following simple but profound quote:

"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure."

Paulo Coelho, from "The Alchemist", Brazilian writer

I wish you the best and that you have a great 2008 !

Rich

Rich Delaney
President, 20/20 Marketing
Author of "Power Up Your Selling Effectiveness!"
        www.2020marketing.com

Will there be a recession is not the right question for most companies!  At some point in time there will be a recession and, depending on your industry, you are either in one right now or may be able to avoid it this year.  From a marketing and sales perspective the key question is how do I respond to a downturn in my industry?

The companies that respond with a knee-jerk reaction by pulling in their horns and get into a defensive posture will not improve sales or their income.  These type of companies are concerned, and rightly so, about cash flow and surviving.  However, even if they survive in the short run they are doing significant damage to their company for the long run.  Consider the following: good sales people don’t want to work in a defensive environment, customers want to still hear from key vendors and if they don’t it opens the door to competitors, and if the specific industry is in a decline that does not mean that sales are not being made – just that it is a little harder to make the sale. 

The correct response, and difficult one for too many companies, is to redouble their efforts in contacting customers and prospects.  Support your sales force and direct them in more productive activities.  Find out what it will take in terms of special packaging, shorter delivery, improved product, or coop advertising support to maintain and ideally increase sales.  Since sales will be made it becomes imperative that your company be the one that gets the sale and not leave the door open to the competition.  And by keeping your sales force engaged in a productive way you are not going to lose your top producers to the competition.

How often does the advertising budget get cut just at the time when the competition is also cutting their adverting budget?  Would this not be the optimum time to establish a greater awareness in the marketplace for your product?  It is easy to cut budgets without thinking of the long-term consequences.  A strategically minded firm will thoughtfully consider the long-term impact before making short-term budget cuts.  The smart firm will assemble their people and let them know the industry issues and that it will require a more focused effort on selling, doing things right, and finding cost savings.  With the effort spread out in the organization not only does everyone see how they can be a part of the important initiative, but it also provides a better understanding for the tough decisions that need to be made.  Management must be ready to take that bound document labeled The Strategic Plan off the shelf and revamp it. Support of the sales teams to make up for business cycles that create changes in demand is a critical management responsibly.

Strategic sales planning needs to be part of the entire strategic plan as a company goes through tough times.

Is 50% failure?

After I presented a program on a new sales technique to a group the next speaker talked about making a resolution for personal improvement by committing to set one goal – a personal improvement goal, before the meeting ended.  He went on to explain that by writing one’s goals down it increases the success rate.  This is a concept I totally believe works.  At the end of the meeting someone asked the group, a conglomeration of business folks from all different companies and expertise, how many of them had written one personal goal down as the presenter had asked them to do – 50% of them rose their hands.  The presenter was visibly depressed and hung his head in defeat.  The facilitator stayed positive and congratulated the attendees that did have a new written goal and wished them success.

Was 50% a failure?

I like to achieve 100% in whatever I do and often, when falling short of that accomplishment, reflect on what occurred so as to have even better performance in the future.  However, on this day, at this presentation, I felt the presenter did very well in getting such a high follow-through rate.  He had no control over the group.  It was pure persuasion and self-motivation that he was calling on to accomplish his task.  He did not have a lot of time to present his concepts – less than 30minutes.  He was able to move a large percentage of his audience to action in such a short time, a very positive accomplishment I felt.  I fear he pondered on his lack of success and may even conclude that it was not worth the effort to try and convince the group about the value of setting a goal.  I could not disagree more. 

Conclusion:  As we move into the new business year we need to take time to reflect on what positives we have accomplished and what other heights we want to accomplish.  We need to set realistic goals to make progress in moving in that direction.  Too many linger at the foot of the mountain, or hill depending on their goal’s difficulty, and never take a step or think through how to move forward.  By taking an initial step we begin to accomplish mighty things.  And, even if we only can motivate half of our team to make the initial move to our goals, it begins the momentum for others to follow.