Recently I received an email question that I answered and I wanted to share it…

“Hey Tom,

I should have asked you this question yesterday when you presented to our CEO group, but I didn’t think of it then. I have a big sale opportunity that we are scheduled to give a proposal to in two weeks, (company name omitted). We are a $9M staffing firm and I put $1M-$2M as my size filter. This is a $4.5M account, clearly out of our range. I am not getting strong buying signs and don’t feel we have much chance of landing this one.

Question is: My plan is to put together a proposal and go ahead and present. My reasoning is to use it as a learning opportunity for us. Our contact is pretty friendly and I think would give us some good feedback after the fact. Is this a good idea?”

My response…
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(Sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to your prospect on the phone. Yes, really.)

In most horror films, at some point two people are in a scary place and they get separated. And at that moment, the tension begins because where there was conversation, now there is just the sound of the person’s breathing…the silence begins to play tricks with the imagination…and the suspense builds on itself until the character is at a level of irrational panic. Usually the person is calling out into the darkness repeatedly the name of the other character…and getting nothing back.

Silence is the worst when you’re on a hunt. One day there is a great dialogue and lots of discussions and the next you’ve entered some twilight zone of communication—emails aren’t returned, phone calls deadend at voicemail, and even your ace-in-the-hole contact (the one you’ve cultivated to give you the inside scoop) has dropped into some witness protection program, never to be heard from again.

Prospects smell fear and desperation; it’s pungent and unpleasant, so screaming into the night or begging for a returned phone call will not create a sense of strength and often doesn’t result in a returned call or email anyway.

However, humor can really work, so I want to share a few of the ways I have broken sustained silences in a big hunt and I want to hear some of your ideas in return. So, here are some cheap tricks and favorite techniques for reactivating the dialogue during a hunt that has gone silent…

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My son keeps telling me about a new show called “Lie to Me.” Evidently the main character has the ability to tell when someone is lying and, often times, why he/she is lying. Facial clues, tone of voice, body language are all indicators for him. He’s a scientist with years of study behind his abilities, but he has a few “naturals” on his team. These are people who can come to similar conclusions with accuracy, but have no formal training. [An ex-girlfriend of mine used to say that she had the same ability—she could tell when men were lying because their lips were moving. (Sigh.)]

Anyway, it got me thinking about our abilities in the sales process to identify liars, half-truth-tellers, concealers and the most dangerous buyers of all (I think): the delusionally hopeful, whose greatest sin is that they lie to themselves first and then repeat it to us.

I don’t have science behind me and I’m wary of the pop-psychology world of body language interpretation, (“If he crosses his arms that means he is defensive”). I do, however, tend to think that there are some indicators when the conversation is not completely truthful and those hints are worth watching for…
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It has all of the excitement of the big game, the high school play and your first illicit smoke rapped up in one. It’s “all you can eat night” at the adrenaline junkie café.

I’m talking about the night before the pitch for the big piece of business—it could be the final interview in an RFP process, a proposal meeting with the big prospect or the next step with your biggest client. Regardless, it’s show time and you and your team, (which could be no more than your pet, yourself and your coffee pot), are up late getting ready with all of the final details.

I’ve been through it a million times and I’ve watched dozens of clients go through it. This experience has taught me some key things that you should do to get it right in getting ready. But before I do that, let me share my worst mistakes ever…

• Opening the shrink-wrap on a software package that we had decided to use to create some of the elements of the next day’s pitch for the first time at 2am the morning of the meeting.

• Taking the red-eye from one pitch to get to the next pitch – that day I got the names, business issues and even the terms of the deal mixed up so badly that the prospect asked us to come back in the afternoon when we were a little clearer on the details (this one is so painful, almost 20 years later I can hardly write about it)

• Taking a team of the CEO, CFO and COO to a meeting on which they had not adequately been briefed, assigned roles and gone through a Murder Board exercise (see below). They spent the majority of the meeting arguing with each other on the assumptions in the presentation in front of the client.

I’m not going to tell you that you should have prepared beforehand and that it is about organization and planning, blah, blah, blah. You already know all of that and you’re still pressed for time up until the last minute. What I will tell you is that if you focus on the wrong things, you may get through the pitch well, but you may hurt your chances of getting the business.

Here are the right things to prepare …
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An edge… that’s what we’re looking for. The odds are in our favor, now more than ever. Let me help with three resolutions for 2009—different resolutions than I would have written in 2008 and hopefully different than what I will write for 2010.

1. Up Your Digital Touch – Your Rolodex life-expectancy is going to drop from its traditional 21 months to about 7 months in 2009. That means your contact-database is deteriorating at an accelerating rate. Get on and start inviting at an aggressive rate—people change jobs, cities and spouses. Make sure to follow them; it gives you a way to stay in touch through all of the changes.

2. Keep Your Clients Closer – Your best accounts are being stalked, hunted, poached—you get the idea—like never before. Even if you have long-relationships and strong contracts, clients are looking for every opportunity to free themselves of commitments. Nothing is to be taken for granted. Spend more time with your current clients, or they will change in unpleasant ways.

3. 3 Taps and Out – Change your prospecting approach to a “3 Taps and Out” strategy. The economy is changing at such a fast rate that your prospecting model needs to be just as fast. Reach out to your top prospects 3 times. If you don’t get any traction, leave them alone for 60-90 days and then go back. It’s very possible that their worlds will have changed and the opportunity door will be open.

What are some resolutions you think hunters should make for 2009?

Yesterday we introduced our first free eBook, Landing Big Sales with an RFP, and I can’t say that we could have picked a better time to do so.

I was just talking to a friend yesterday about how RFPs fit into the current business landscape. Our conclusion? And this isn’t rocket science, here: As budgets become tighter, and companies–big and small alike–become more anxious to show increased ROI, RFPs will simply become a necessary evil. Companies are going to want to make sure that they’ve explored all possible avenues before they make any decisions. And what’s the best way to do that? You guessed it…

So while RFPs may have been a mere yes or no decision for you in the past, you’re going to start seeing more and more of them in days to come. There’s no escaping, so my suggestion is this: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. In other words, take some time to learn how to master RFPs. We’ve spent years dissecting these things and are now so familiar with them, that we’ve even figured out how to make the topic interesting and funny. Really…

And hey, I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to fill out an RFP: they’re time-consuming, vague, and often don’t result in new business. Sometimes you even feel like you’re offering free consulting–and, well, sometimes you are. This eBook will help you determine whether or not you’ve got a shot; whether the RFP makes sense for your company; and if so, how to make sure you stand way above the competition. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! (And yes, I’m definitely using fear tactis here).  Click here to Download: Landing Big Sales with an RFP.

The telltale schinck of a window opening and a muffled whooshing sound told me undeniably that my broker was on the ledge again. At the highest floor of a downtown building, the limited bars of cell coverage or the wind was making it hard to hear him- it sounded like…” …volatile conditions…ssmshbrssss…short-range perspective…sppppssssksst…REBALANCE YOUR PORTFOLIO!…” and then the phone went dead, possibly from it dropping alone or not alone from a very long distance.

REBALANCE YOUR PORTFOLIO! Now that’s good advice, even from a broker…
Here is what I’m recommending in terms of investing your time in your portfolio of prospects…
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*A small town in southern Indiana. What did you think I meant?

The power of words…

Grab attention, communicate an idea, provoke, engage, energize… If you hunt large sales, you know that the turn of a phrase or the capturing of a concept hinge on powerful words. I just read Frank Luntz’ article “Words That Pack Power” in the November 3rd issue of BusinessWeek. He picks out five words from the executive lexicon that should be used regularly in the current business world…

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The race is run, the contest’s done, there’s work to do. Let’s get to it.

My blog is not usually political; it’s about landing big deals. Anyone who knows me knows I voted for McCain–so what? I have a new president, who I will be referring to as…Mr. President.

How does a junior senator from a midwestern state, a man of color with no military service and few economic credentials win the most powerful political position in the world? How does he defeat not one, but TWO enormous political machines? (Remember, the tougher fight was probably Hillary and her machine.) The answer? He whale hunts. (more…)

[Eel: Gatekeepers, deal spoilers, and nay-sayers at the whale company who work to prevent any sort of change.]

In every deal there is an eel. A person who is against the deal—maybe on principle, maybe because they’re your competitor’s champion or they fear they will be made to look bad if a new vendor is brought on. Hell, they may just be a curmudgeon who doesn’t want to see change. Regardless of the reason, you need to find the eel in the deal.

Now, old-school sales training says that you talk as much as possible to your champion and as little as possible to the eel. But here’s the problem: the eel is the one who has the power to kill you. Worse yet, eels have a tendency to hang out in the shadows. They’re hard to get to and they usually talk you down when you’re not around. The conversation may be innocuous…
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