March Was Alright!

I am a sucker for those movies where they start with a dramatic scene, build up the suspense, then fade just before the natural ending , and come back to a completely different scene and the bottom of the screen reads: “Three months earlier”.  You just have to hope that they weave a good story that brings meaning to climax scene you saw at the start, which in fact was the closing scene to the plot.

To me it is a lot like sales, we know there is going to be a close, assuming we execute the sale as we should.  Part of that “should” needs to be the timing, that is knowing how long your sales cycle is.  Some sales folks know this, others don’t, the ones I love most are the ones that answer “depends” when you ask how long their sales cycle is.  Of course I point out that Depends are an adult diaper, in fact I would give them a coupon for two dollar discount if that was the choice they stuck with.  But after some reflection they do come up with a number.  While it varies greatly, many sales cycles seem to be between three to six months, let’s go with the lower end of the range and use three months for the rest of this post. 

So if our Movie was called “Got That Sale”, and the dramatic opening was our heroin sales professional Sally, deftly played by Uma Thurman, looking the buyer in the eye waiting for positive response; fade out, the fade back in had to be three months earlier when she first prospected the buyer in question.  She did that because she knew that if she was going to close a deal in three months, she needed to put a prospect in the top of the pipe, three months ago, or no deal at the end of the movie, no Oscar, no endorsements, no sequel.

This is why I can never understand why some sales people don’t have time to prospect, they are too busy selling.  Now let’s not confuse account management with selling, let’s not confuse order taking with selling.  If you are selling, B2B new business acquisition, it is a straight forward process, Engage, Discovery, Gain commitment, Execute.  No engage, no Execute.

So if it takes three months to complete the EDGE process, you should be cognisant and fixated on two things: making sure you are moving the sale along, and that you are engaging someone new every day to close in three months.  If you know these, you will know your conversion rate, and you will know how many prospects you need to engage today, to make quota in three months.

Unfortunately many sales people don’t take this into account and focus strictly on the close, the ABC crowd.  But if you close one of three prospects, you need to have 12 at the top of the pipe now if you are going to close your quota of four in March.  Opening is related to closing.  So while it may seem a bit far away, if you have a three month sales cycle you should be able to sit down now and see how your March will be.

An old favourite, I was with a sales director this afternoon, he told me their cycle is four months, I said how was your February?  He said “Not sure yet, but give me a call towards the end of January and I’ll tell you”.  Hmm?

So How Were Your March Sales?

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