Check out my blog on MoneyWatch today.  Enjoy!

(photo courtesy of flickr user MyTudut cc)

Check out my recent interview with Keith Ferrazzi – it’s on CBS’s MoneyWatch today.  Enjoy!

(photo courtesy of flickr eastcoastblogging cc)

People tell their own bio story like they are reading the ingredients of a Cheerios™ box. When we do the “round the table” intro at a meeting hardly any one makes an impression. The act of listing name/title/length of service is a mindless droning that is absolutely enervating. I think that this moment is a lost opportunity. Your job is not to blend in- it’s to stand out as someone who brings value and uniqueness to the conversation. How to do this:

Formula

1. Name and title
2. Years in the industry, with the company
3. 2-3 big hits
4. Your contribution to the “big solution”

I think that this is best illustrated in a series of examples:

Example #1 – Joe
Hi, I’m Joe Williams, COO of XYZ corporation. I’ve been in logistics for 20 years, 10 of those with the top 3 mainline carriers and 10 in the 3PL and 4PL consulting business, the last five with XYZ. A couple of the highlights have been re-building the international supply chain management transportation for Wal-Mart saving a half-billion dollars over 4 years and the re-organization of the expedited services of PDQ for a market share double over 3 years. I’m here to cover our 19% expense trim strategy on your urgent shipments.

Example #2 – Sue
Hi, I’m Sue Anderson, Senior Account Executive of Acme Corporation. I’ve been in strategic account development for 15 years in the IT services industry. All of those have been with Acme focusing on the enterprise platform deployment area of the business. A few of the exciting opportunities have included securing and implementing the 10 year SLA for the state of Indiana for all of their enterprise systems – that was a billion dollar plus contract. Also, our recent implementation of the national SAP standardized platform for the rolled-up assets of Very Big Corp has been very rewarding. Today I’ll be addressing our approach to rapid transition and performance accountability with your company in the installation of the RIS program.

Example #3 – Bill
Hi, I’m Bill Johnson, CFO of Pinnacle Performance. I’ve been on the growth team for 5 companies in the past 20 years focusing on strategic alliances and business case dynamics for account growth. At Pinnacle, my work has focused on the development of our 38 international distribution partners and the quadrupling of the volume of that network. My part of today’s conversation will focus on the specific way we’ll leverage 23 of those partners for doubling your revenue volume in your key product segments.

In each of the examples, the character is providing a series of anchoring events that gives them credibility in the conversation. This is not an exhaustive list, rather it is a suggestive list. The audience gets a sense that this person makes a measurable difference and probably has more of a story to tell. Their history, including that from other companies, is included to transfer the credibility of their personal resume to the resume of the presenting company. Finally, there is a forecasting of how all of this will be brought to bear in the presentation, creating a sense of anticipation.

These bios are meant to intrigue, anchor and suggest. Less than 45-60 seconds, you know why you are listening to each person.

Do this exercise with each of your people so that their own bio is not an afterthought, but a leveraged part of the presentation.

I was flying with a senior engineer from one of the top 5 aerospace companies in the world this week as he was on a trip to meet with a number of his suppliers around the country. He’s been an engineer on the supply chain management side for years in several different very large companies. I asked him his thoughts on smaller suppliers- how can they get into a big company, how can they grow their business and what are some of the common mistakes. A couple things I got from our conversation include:

Getting In
The traditional answers came up, but some nuggets came out. Industry networking – figure out a way to connect to the senior people at trade shows. Read the papers and articles in the industry and contact those authors who are active engineers in the companies with whom you would like to do business. LinkedIn is an emerging way to reach out to senior people and he is seeing more social media connection going on, especially in the specialty groups that are formed inside of LinkedIn and other SM platforms.

Procurement
He saw my eyes roll and he laughed, but he tried to reassure me that this is still a good way to get in. His point was that starting at the top and working on getting an executive sponsor in Procurement/Purchasing/SCM is still the right move. Most small companies look at these areas as processes to follow or areas to avoid. However, his point is that the executives in these areas get big points for bringing in good suppliers who solve problems. If there is a mix of smaller suppliers who make the grade, they get every bit as much credit as working with a big supplier. In addition, smaller suppliers are easier to move into the “Top Supplier of the Year” winner’s circle at the end of the year because they are easier to develop, which is another way those executives keep score. His point was that the executives in this area of the business are getting their heat from the company for failing suppliers of any size. If they can get a quick resolution to a real problem by bringing in a smaller but successful supplier, it is a big win.

Main Suppliers
Being a second to a prime supplier is a successful route and often leads to the second becoming a prime over time. His emphasis was the “over time.” The route is second, co-developed parts, prime, and this cycle moves slowly.

Here’s what he said about growing your business:
Small companies are often looking for the fast win and fast growth, so they push too early. By being painstakingly perfect on initial orders, the follow-on orders and projects will come more quickly. Go slow to move fast.

Also, he said that smaller companies who ask for help, collaborate and are transparent rocket to the top of the list. The ones who hide their issues, close down or try to solve everything themselves do not look like good partners- they look suspicious.

Visibility Is Big
Bring more people to the meetings when the big company comes to your site. Use the visits not only as quality control and education sessions but do in-services, brainstorming, and problem-solving sessions. When you visit the big company, take more people. Take senior people, take the president, when the big company is in the offices regardless of the level of person who comes, the executives of the smaller company need to show up and spend time.

Also, who is directly working the account is a HUGE issue. Don’t use younger, inexperienced people in any way on the account. Senior people need to handle the account management, the regular touch point work, any engineering, production or logistics areas.  If the bigger company makes a comment about a person they like or dislike, take it very seriously. Those relationships are very impacting to the overall companies’ relationships in many ways behind the scenes.

I think for many of us who work in the small business to big business arena, these thoughts echo our own impressions and experience of how this works: a good reminder and all of that.

However, I found the conversation interesting because of some general tones that were worth noting:

1. Smaller is better: The general sense was that his experience was that he preferred smaller vendors because of responsiveness, leverage and quality. His big issues were resources and that he felt that as those companies grew they sometimes “forgot who brought them to the dance.”
2. Playing favorites: Once a smaller company became a “go to guy for me,” he would maneuver the system to favor that company very aggressively. However, that company had to be able to respond with the same energy, quality and success on the next project or they became pigeonholed and would not get many new opportunities.
3. Whining v. collaborating: His point was that he and his people would work tirelessly with a company that they liked, who demonstrated that they were working just as hard and who collaborated. They cut off the whiners – those companies who had no ideas, who waited for his group to make all of the revisions and who seemed to sit on the other end of the rope waiting to be pulled up instead of at least grabbing onto the rope and to start climbing.

For most everyone reading this I think you will feel as I did about this conversation, invigorated. It clarifies from behind the curtain what the market thinks about your efforts and how it will respond to your approach.

Here’s the final round of how you can get someone to spend their political capital for your purposes.

• Make it important to them. Big P.C. comes from doing something important. You have to connect to their biggest business problems and demonstrate how your relationship aligns to those, or you will not get any real P.C. spend—you’ll just get lip service. The results have to be measureable and they have to happen quickly.
• Big ROI. This is key. You have to show a very big ROI in one of two ways: either a huge multiple on a big investment or a huge multiple on a small one. Executive Sponsors must perceive a relatively small expenditure of P.C. to get a big win. To do this, you are going to be very specific in your requests. a. “I need for you to make this introduction on my behalf.” b. “I’ll need your direct support in getting that information from that department.” c. “I’m concerned that the person we need for this effort does not feel the sense of urgency that we do. Will you assist me in moving this up her priority list?” These things are all small P.C. expenditures for the Executive Sponsor, but are big in terms of value to us (the little guy). By being tactical and specific in your requests, you have helped them to calculate what the potential P.C. expenditure. The request is contained and manageable, so you have a higher likelihood of getting that sponsorship.
• Make them important in the process. Vagueness serves no one in Executive Sponsor work. Often times I explain to my sponsor up front: “Here’s our experience, if you don’t provide some sponsorship in these stages of the process of our companies considering working together, the inertia of doing things the same way will keep people from making necessary change. That’s why it is so important that if you are really interested in seeing what this process might produce, that we have your early support to at least have the necessary meetings and get the information to see what is possible.” I have found that this very direct explanation gets a Sponsor’s head nodding. They begin to understand why they’re needed in the process and just how crucial their role is.
• Make the right ask. Start with incremental requests early in the process. You want them to get comfortable with you by making small spends of P.C. before you make the big ask. This may mean getting a person to a meeting or making a request for a report or other piece of information. Don’t ask them to sell for you; they won’t be any good at it. Don’t ask them to guarantee you will get the deal; they can’t and will feel you have overstepped. Even in the “big ask,” the Executive Sponsorship Agreement, you are only asking for assistance that is appropriate, (See my blog “Executive Sponsorship Agreement”).
• Talk them up. Wherever you are in the process, you should speak highly of your sponsor. This gives your sponsor a modicum of P.C. in his or her organization.

How to put this to work:

Set Expectations Early. Just like the example above and the document from “Executive Sponsorship Agreement,” you want to be direct as to what you are asking for and why you need to have it. The key things that you need from an Executive Sponsor are:

• Access. His/her assistance on connecting to the right people is very important.
• Priority. We need to figure out the appropriate level of attention for your organization so that the process is supported.
• Interest. Communicate with him/her throughout the process and let him/her know what’s happening. Stay connected with updates on the progress.
• Logjams. If the process bogs down, you must be able to approach the Executive Sponsor and be able to count on his/her assistance.
• Clarity. There are times when you will need to better understand your Executive Sponsor’s company and its unique culture. If you are confused, you must be able to ask for clarity from the Executive Sponsor.

I have included an example in my earlier Executive Sponsorship post.

Negotiate half-steps when you can’t get full steps. If you can’t get someone to give you the Executive Sponsorship that you request at any step in the process, then you have to get your half-a-loaf. The request sounds like this, “Can you at least do this much for me?” and then make your request. If you are not getting this much commitment, then you are not necessarily lost, but you are losing fast.

Don’t proceed without commitment. At every step in the sales process, even the first one, you have to have an Executive Sponsor. Unless your business works on the basis of blind RFP awards, (which if it does, why are you reading about selling? That’s not selling, it’s bidding and hoping), then you cannot win at any step unless you have sponsorship.

Don’t single thread. You need executive sponsorship from everyone who will give it to you. That means that every meeting requires an ask of some fashion for one of the five things stated above. You need them to be able to win, and since we are playing to win, not playing to play, there is no sense in going forward without that sponsorship. By having multiple executive sponsors, you are increasing the potential of success from all of the players and more P.C. is being spent on your behalf.

The best people at securing Executive Sponsorship are the most fearless. They are direct, they are unapologetic in asking for what they need in the sales process and they are quick to explain why not getting what they need is bad for the prospect. Ask early, ask often and ask specifically.

It wasn’t enough.

The last time I wrote about Executive Sponsorship, people loved it but wanted more. How to get more sponsorship, earlier sponsorship and greater commitment.

Let’s start with the idea of Political Capital

In a big company, there is an unaccounted for currency called Political Capital. That term stands for the sum of the positional authority, favors, charisma, recognized successes, perceived favoritism from higher-ups and “fair-haired” status that a person has in a company. Now, this is real “coin of the realm” stuff and it is exchanged in a very subtle way for all sorts of purposes, including:

• Moving priorities around. Say, getting your IT project done before someone else gets theirs done.
• Quashing prying eyes. For example, your people screwed up a quarterly report and you want it re-run on the down low rather than having someone making the mistake a big deal.
• Getting promotions. These can be for that person, for a subordinate, a peer or a friend.
• Getting preferential treatment. Travel vouchers, seating at the company banquet, office supplies and so on.
• Making things happen. Little or big, when an executive wants to make things happen, he or she is using political capital to do it. The less organizational chart influence they have, like telling a direct subordinate what to do, the more political capital it takes to get things done. Don’t be confused though. Even getting a direct subordinate to do something takes political capital.

In the end, it’s for influencing people in an organization in order to give/get a person his or her way. This works even if a person does not seem to have much power on the organizational chart.

If someone is your Executive Sponsor, he or she will have to spend their Political Capital on you. Your Executive Sponsor is going to spend Political Capital to:

• Get people to meet with you;
• Get the information that you need;
• Move a competitor of yours out of the way and
• Swing the deal your way.

Remember, your Executive Sponsor is only spending his or her Political Capital for one reason:

To Get More Political Capital!

How do Executive Sponsors get more Political Capital by helping you?

• With success. Part of the way to get Political Capital is to win. If you are successful in the deal or interaction that your sponsor set up, he or she will also be seen as successful. Success always increases Political Capital.
• By defeating their own competitors. Everyone is watching. When one “player” in the company sways decisions his or her way, everyone knows that Political Capital is at play.
• By making change that works. “Success has a thousand fathers, failure is an orphan.” When someone implements a successful change in a big company, people notice and quickly “get on board” with that person’s ideas.
• By getting other people what they want. Part of this game is trading. By doing favors, that person gets favors. Players look for low-risk ways to give people what they want so as to trade on that favor later.
• By doing things in an honorable way. Everyone is watching the way in which and Executive Sponsor handles him or herself. If he or she handles him or herself in an honorable way, he or she will gain the trust of others in the organization and in the industry. Trust is a cornerstone in the game of Political Capital.

How can you get someone to spend their Political Capital for your purposes? By showing the Executive Sponsor why investing in your purpose is important to them. How?

I will address this in next week’s post!

Referrals, references, connections, networking, social media: they’re all about access and leverage. You get access to the people who make things happen and are able to leverage these relationships.

I want to focus on the second part: Leverage. How do you get the most leverage during the sales process from your past successful client relationships? If you have read my materials, you know that your prospects have to overcome their fears and concerns in buying from a small company before they buy from you and not from a better-known, bigger company. References can be a tremendous asset in getting a buyer to overcome that fear, or they can be perceived as worthless commentary delivered by your buddies. So, how do you get the most out of your best client relationships?

A couple of techniques for high-impact leveraging of your references:
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Recently I was interviewed by Paul Diamond from the Vistage organization. We discussed the vast array of social media sites for salespeople and the fact that there are a lot of these sites out there, but not all of them are good. I think that Paul’s take on the topic and what he uncovered in his research is helpful. Check out his blog post on the topic on Bizmore.com.

First, let me apologize for the big gap in my blogging. I have been all over the country in the last 6 weeks with the Inc. Magazine presentation tour. We made stops in New York, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco. It was a fantastic experience and I met some remarkable new entrepreneurs (those “newpreneurs” I’ve been talking about). Between those travels and my client work I have not had a moment to write to you. But, I’M BACK!

Follow this link below to a video of a the presentation I gave in Seattle. I covered the 5 Best Practices of Explosive Growth Companies.

Scroll down the landing page and click on the video box at the bottom.

The presentations went very well and we had a great exchange of ideas. The Q & A is worth watching as well because I respond to some of the questions typically asked by people who want to hunt big, but are not yet sure how.

It’s good to be back. Enjoy the video.

I’m working with a team of sales people right now—good sales people—who have one teensy-weensy problem: follow up.

The sales process for all of us includes a large number of transactional communications. They may include coordinating a meeting, securing a key piece of information, getting approval from Procurement or Purchasing, sign-off from a superior, the review of the proposal, signing the contract and so on. Every one of these communications must be completed in order to land the deal. If you participate in the sales process, you understand that rarely have you suffered more indignity or unprofessionalism than in this cycle of unanswered, unreturned or ignored emails, voicemail messages and sent and unsigned documents.  And it’s done WILLINGLY.

I’ve watched frothy-mouthed-screaming-at-officials-soccer-moms, who when faced with following up with a prospect who agreed to an action and hasn’t done it, say “Well, I’ll just give it another week.  I don’t want to be too pushy.”

I’ve seen bar-pounding-get-me-my-beer-now-guys wait for weeks for a response on a proposal. Weeks!

What is the right amount of time to wait before following up with a prospect? Not just any prospect, but a big prospect.  I know that you don’t want to be pushy or desperate.  I get that.  But you also need to keep moving the process along. We are looking for the Goldilocks “just right” level. Here are some pointers before I give you the timing guidelines:

• Ask. My favorite approach came from a guy in Ireland pitching me some commercial real-estate. He said, “Thomas, the line between persistence and annoyance is a fine one, and I wouldn’t want to be crossing it. When should I be getting back to you so I’ll know you’ll be picking up the phone.” In every direct communication, ask when they want to have you get back to them and be specific. “Early next week” is not specific. “Tuesday at 10am” is specific.
• Set expectations. It starts with setting expectations. In voicemails, emails, face to face or by phone, never end the conversation without setting the next time. Tell them when you will be calling or sending an email, specifically.
• Be impeccable. Never miss a time or date. Not by a minute. If you are going to set the time for follow up with precision in your email or voicemail, then you have to hit it. You are creating a perception of attention detail and reliability. Just because they are not impeccable does not give you a pass not to be.
• Allow some leeway. Sometimes, my calls for appointments and follow ups are missed by the person whom I am calling. I leave this message, “I have us scheduled for a meeting today at 9am. I probably just missed you or one of your other meetings is running over. I will call back in 15 minutes to connect. I look forward to our conversation. Thanks.” Then I call back. If I don’t reach the person, my message sounds like this, “I’m sorry we didn’t get connected today, I was looking forward to our conversation. Your day may have just gotten away from you, I know that happens to me sometimes. I’ll call you back at end of day today, say 5:00pm, to reschedule this call. Thanks.”  Don’t wait for a call back or an email.  Keep pressing forward.
• Drive, don’t ride. I don’t expect that people will be calling me back. I’m driving the process, so it’s my job to drive the communication. I am always willing to be surprised in a good way with a responsive person, but my control needs dictate that I can’t be waiting.  I have to drive. How about you?
• Walk away. Like the movie title says, maybe “He’s Just Not That Into You.” At some point, continued follow up is groveling. Don’t grovel. (see Brando Don’t Audition)

If they are not responding, it means that they have moved on. I send an email or leave a voice message that sounds like this:  “I’ve been in this business a long time, and when I stop being able to connect with someone it usually means that the timing for us to work together is not good. This is my last call to you for 6 months. I’ll circle back around then to see if timing is better for us to work together. If something changes for you between now and then, please feel free to call me. “

Having said all of this, here are some guidelines for proper Hunt Big Sales Prospect Follow Up Etiquette:

Prospecting Calls

• 1st Prospecting Call- You can call or email an unresponsive person within 48 hours.
• 2nd Prospecting Call– Within 48 hours of last call
• 3rd Prospecting Call– Within 48 hours of last call
• 4th Prospecting Call– Within 72 hours of last call
• Final Prospecting Call– Within 72 hours of last call

Trade Show Follow-Up – This gets trickier depending upon the volume of contacts.

• Pre-Set Personal meeting – Within 48 hours of trade show closing.
• Good conversation on floor – Within 48 hours of trade show closing
• Passing conversation on floor – Within 72 hours of trade show closing
• Fish bowl business card – Within 7 calendar days of trade show closing
• Prospect listed in program – Do you really have time to chase someone who you never met at the show? Don’t be a psycho stalker. Let it go.

Proposals. Assuming that you are sending a requested proposal, rather than an unsolicited one, your follow-up cycle should be declared in the cover letter. It should be within 24 hours to confirm receipt and distribution if appropriate. The time should be set at that time for a full review of the proposal within 72 hours. The house goes on fire outside of 8 calendar days—you must get connection and confirmation of interest and progress within 8 calendar days or you are dead.

Contracts. Who is driving? You are. Contract cycles within clients are a misty and dark area of the sales process. Lawyers think of themselves in this process as the stewards of their company’s risk, which they probably are. Because of this, they are slow, methodical and indifferent to you. First, get an understanding from your champion how long the cycle usually takes. Cut this time by two-thirds and follow up at the one-third mark in the cycle. Work both the attorney and the champion. Your approach should always be helpful: “What areas are of the most concern in the agreement? Which parts of the agreement are we going to be able to leave the same? How can we help to work through this agreement?”

Getting the prospect’s team to move. Stuck. I hate being stuck. Usually it’s IT, but not always. The process gets tends to get bogged down while your champion of your new client is waiting for someone in his or her organization to do something. Now everybody is waiting. Your follow up here has to be vigorous and consistent but friendly. You are working within 4 hour cycles of commitments. Any time that a time or date has been missed on a commitment, you follow up within 4 hours. If they are not missing commitments, then your follow up is within 1 hour of commitment completion to thank them for completing the commitment. 20 commitments? 20 thank you’s.

Information requests. Use the same guidelines as “Getting the prospect’s team to move.”

Guidelines are not laws.  When in doubt, use your own judgment. Always remember though, YOU ARE DRIVING.