Brando Don’t Audition
I’ve been on the road the last two weeks with a number of clients and I have to tell you… the swagger factor out there in the marketplace is low. That’s right: SWAGGER. That quality of confidence that provides patience in the face of stupidity, no-blink nerve when looking into the eyes of challenge and the slight strut of knowing you’re the best. As I’m talking to sales leaders in a variety of industries who are absolute best in class working with top-shelf branded clients, they are still committing these party fouls when approaching new prospects…
Brando Don’t Audition. At some point in your company’s history of performance, serving demanding clients and developing your reputation, your company became good enough to answer this question from a prospect: Are you qualified to do business with me?
“Qualified” means competent and market competitive – in pricing, features and benefits. Which further means that you should have the right to move past the first round (walking in the door). The issue is that prospects ask for samples, references, test-runs and little orders as a credentializing step in the process of doing business with you. After you have credentialized yourself, THEN you get to the real issues of a potential business relationship, which means relevance and value at a scale past credentialization. That’s why I say, “Brando Don’t Audition.”
Once you have hit Brando’s level, it would be ridiculous to ask him to audition; insulting, redundant to the body of work he has already produced. You might ask yourself, as a director, Can Brando still play this aged character? Does he provide the right chemistry for this project? Do we need to pay his salary to get this project off of the ground? But you don’t ask whether or not Brando can act… that has already been proven.
With prospects who are asking for you to credentialize yourself, you have to get them to see you as competent and competitive so that you can get to the value and relevance of using your firm. One of the better ways to do this is to take the prospect back to your company’s body of work.
You say:
“Look, we work with X, Y and Z companies, solving problems like P, D and Q and with the scale of A, B and C. This tells you that we are capable of doing this type of work, consistently and at a market competitive rate. Otherwise, these companies, with their rigorous qualification process and purchasing approach would never have hired us. If you agree that we can probably handle your work, let’s spend our time focusing on the specifics of this relationship so that I know whether or not we can be relevant and valuable on this particular program.”
People put you through the hoops of auditioning because:
1) They feel they have to. Some part of their process that they feel requires it. 2) They want to put you in your place. Like keeping you in the lobby 15 minutes extra before meeting you – this is a power play. 3) They don’t know you’re Brando. This is the place you have the greatest amount of control. Through your initial conversation and presentation, the prospect needs to understand that putting you through the hoops is a waste of their time and yours. You are the Marlon Brando of your industry!
Somehow the competitive market place has caused companies to stop swaggering. You have to get that back, otherwise, it grinds out your confidence to have to keep going through the audition door when you should be going through the finalist door at the first knock.
Hi Tom. While your posts are always great, this one speaks volumes to me. Even further, it makes me a bit mad because I’ve been there, done that.
I have a client that did exactly what you described. We wrote proposal after proposal for his company until he ultimately decided that he wanted to “try us out” first. On the one hand, he couldn’t make up his mind, which was a waste of our time (especially considering we don’t get paid to write proposals). On the other hand, he was insulting our capabilities.
We finally ended up turning the tables, telling him that we weren’t sure we even wanted to work for his company (and we really meant it). At this point, he offered to pay us for writing a final proposal and, even though we ended up doing a “prove ourselves project” for him, we charged him royally for it.
“Sure, we’ll do a project for you, but this little project is what we do for a living, so you’ll need to pay us for it.”
He didn’t bat an eyelash and we’ve all been working together ever since.
In the end it worked out, but I’m assuming there’s an even better approach that doesn’t leave ill-feelings toward the client in the end…
1Tom,
As stated, it is very tempting in a down market to do what ever it takes to “win” an order. Thanks for the reminder to remain confident in what you offer.
2Hi Tom,
As a small Michigan company weaning itself off the Automotive gravy train, we too have been hit by the recent economic problems of both the state and the industry. When times get lean you find yourself desperate for the next order – keeping the lights on seems more important than pride. That’s when we forget that we invented our new industry – we are the leaders – and the only ones that have proven that we can do what we do time after time after time.
Today, when we discussed stating the 3 primary problems that we solve right up front and making them provocative in our presentation, it reminded me that we have often played the “let us tell you what your problems are” game – partly to see the look on their face, but mostly as a means to let them know that we understand the industry, the process, the lexicon, and the pressures that they are facing every day. To give them confidence in our ability to address their problems. It is essential to make sure that this aptly termed “swagger”, or more acurately the lack thereof, doesn’t create greater problems. It takes confidence to instill confidence and, as you pointed out, transmitting fear is the most non-productive move we can make.
Thanks for the reminder to note what works, remember what works, and consciously utilize what works! I’m looking forward to Part II tomorrow!
MB
3Ahhhhhhhhhhh…the art of Swaggering… is it really a lost art or do we “allow” the prospective customer to squash our confidence because we are often in a “we can close this deal mode…whatever it takes”. (Even if we have to succumb to the many foolish demands of the prospective customer!)
So, what does it take? What should it take? Do we really KNOW when to draw the line? Do we really know when “enough is enough”? Is there a “rule book” that says… “You are allowed to SWAGGER?” or “You don’t HAVE to audition”?
In sales we often look at the competition and work at “proving” to the customer that we are bigger, better, smarter, stronger…oh and yes… we CAN pee farther… although we tend to do that over and over and over until we have auditioned so many times that we really don’t even know who we truly are. We begin to “act”, we invest so much time and energy that we tend to become “yes” people, simply to close the deal.
It is important to make a shift in how we sell, it is important to show the confidence, swagger and stop working at “proving”.
Realizing ourselves, that we ARE the Brando of our industry is truly the first step, understanding that we ARE qualified and believing in ourselves is critical. If we have the passion, skill set and confidence for what we do and who we are, the rest will fall in to place. We no longer will be in the mindset of “proving to them” once we have assured OURSELVES. We are now ready to confidently swagger through the finalist door and close the deal.
4Tom,
Great post. We typically find sharing our success stories is enough to win – at least in markets where we’re known. The one time we failed with this approach was when we chased a blue whale in a new market segment.
The prospect company knew none of the players in our traditional markets so our good examples were less helpful. The problem really was one of the whale not knowing us since we were hunting in a new ocean. Because we wanted to break into the new market, we were forced to audition.
Through many meetings we addressed the whale’s fears. We showed how our ultimate product performance exceeds our promises, how we understood the concerns about on time delivery and consistent quality and how we met similar requirements from other customers.
In the end, we landed a small development order and proved our technology works in this new market. Since that audition, we’ve seen this customer become our second largest account. And the new market promises to triple our business as we land other similar accounts. Auditioning can pay off in the right situation.
5Tom, Your right, we need the same confidence (swagger) in our approach with whales. And if we forget once in a while we will just stick a few marbles in our mouth and repeat…”I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse”…gotta love Brando as Vito Corleone…
6Tom –
That moment that a potential client recognizes and acknowledges that you are qualified is the perfect time to make a claim or statement. Go ahed and make a statement, “Our company is the perfect service provider”! “ That is exactly what we do and we are the best at it”!
One of our recent wins and now a completed assignment was won based almost exclusively on the Brando factor. The client told us the reason he hired us was a result of the confidence we exhibited in our presentation and the clear and concise message that we conveyed. The client hired us because we differentiated ourselves by making a statement of our relentless pursuit of the best deal for their new headquarters location. He actually told us that he had always wanted to make the same claim to his prospective clients but lacked the bravado. Instead he hired us!
7The universality of our experiences- successes, fears- mistakes and bravado is really apparent on this post. Thanks for sharing all of it! I have the Kenny Rogers song in my head this morning – “The Gambler”- I remember the line - “Son, I’ve made a life out of reading people’s faces. Knowing what their cards were by the way they held their eyes.” Setting aside the fact that in the rest of the song this genius did not have whiskey, cigarette or match- I think sales organizations pride themselves on this visceral understanding of what people are thinking. And yet… we don’t always swing with the big bat that we bring to the meeting called earned experience as a way to credentialize ourselves and win the deal. Hopefully one changed approach towards a deal in the next week or two will yield a large account and re-connect all of us to our swagger!
8Why is it we all – sales and business people – walk through life cocky, confident, and completely sure of ourselves; yet sometimes become a cowering puppy for the sake of a deal. Why do we let the customer maintain control? I know my commission/bonus plan isn’t good enough to justify that, and I’m sure most others’ aren’t either. Thanks for the consistent reminders that “we’re good enough, we’re smart enough; and doggonit…people will BUY from us!”
9Great blog, Tom-
I’m sending this out as a must-read to my sales staff!
10I see this thread is over a year old, but I must comment. Throughout history, a primary key to any wartime battle is to avoid giving up ground already gained. We have tirelessly pursued and attained so much territory throughout our business history that we must hold onto it fiercly. To win new sales is to capture new ground. I appreicate the Brando analogy so much because Brando wouldn’t give up ground, he would only decide which new hill he wanted to attack and ultimately take.
Brando had the confidence of his past, and present skill. Those two combined allowed him to analyize and sieze opportunities…and as you said recently Tom, “Drive, don’t ride.”
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