Don't...

After a week off blogging to focus on a key business project, I am thrilled to be back writing on a Sunday morning. My last post advised, ��Stop competing against everyone else�� there is only one person you are actually competing with; yourself, or more accurately, the version of you yesterday.��

I realise just how difficult this advice is to implement. I recall when trying to secure a significant piece of business with a client, some highly motivating advice from my director was, ��Whatever you do, don��t f*** this up!��

That diverted my energy and, more importantly, my focus, from succeeding to the possibility of ��. you guessed it! I then started to think of all those things that I could do wrong and sure enough, I started acting that way. Fortunately, I was able to muster a renewed focus and partner with the client to create a scope of work that was win/win and went on to deliver. (Thank you Clyde Brolin for use of image)

I thought this old school, ��don��t mess it up�� sales advice was a thing of the past, yet over the last two years I have observed many in enterprise sales receiving such ��wisdom��. One of the greatest challenges I have observed from sales achievers is how to have relevant dialogue with key decision-makers, gain their trust and ultimately win. This out-dated, old-school advice goes against achieving this.

What is the problem then?

As humans, what we focus on becomes entrenched, which is why habits are easily formed yet so difficult to break. The godfather of ��flow��, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, tell us that entering the high-performance zone requires high challenge to meet high skill. The vital third dimension is our state of mind, and the best place for that state is ��relaxed alertness��. Relaxed and yet alert to the challenge and possibilities in front of us.

Our focus is guided by our Reticular Activating System, (RAS), which acts as a mental filter for the multi-million bits of possible information that could enter our focus. There is a need to consciously choose what to focus on, what we want rather than what we don��t. As a trivial example, my wife and I recently bought a new car, blue in colour. Suddenly, on our car journeys, we are noticing and spotting all the blue cars, which have, of course, been there all the time, but until we had a new, blue car we did not notice them.?Just like sales and business opportunities - they are there in front of us, but we don��t see them unless we are focused on them.

So what are you focusing on and how are you thinking about those goals?

I have made a commitment to myself this year to reduce the information coming into my mind that does not serve me and my family. So, I have made the choice to only look at the news and the news stories I want to hear and then for only a limited time period.

It��s tough, especially with the hourly chaos caused by our current illustrious Prime Minister, but I literally go on the BBC website, filter which part I want to listen to from the respected journalists I rate, for a set period of time, (often a less than five-minute video) and then am back to work. I have this image in my head of a Roman gladiator, guarding the information coming in.

I have observed and experienced that when trying to secure a significant sale in a large company, as opportunity creators, we have been working on creating value in the relationship for a significant period of time. Then we are asked to forecast and close and suddenly the size and significance of the deal becomes known, and the human self-interest of many others comes in and starts to affect things. I call it coat-tailing, where all and sundry want a piece of the action to elevate their ego and standing.

I recall having nurtured a particular relationship over a 24-month period, and of course it looked like it had dropped from the sky to others. To steal and adapt a well-known mantra, ��Good relationships rarely happen by chance.�� Large scale engagement comes from connecting deeply with others, as per the killer line in this video from Steven Johnson, ��Chance favours the connected mind.��

A fun way a trusted peer and I used to look at this, was how many meetings and coffees did it take to get there? When it was over 50 (!) there was no luck involved; we had earned the right.

This is a challenge that is not going away so what is the best advice?

Rob Howes and I had the honour of interviewing over-achieving enterprise sales director, Paul Evans, with a 20-year plus track record in the software industry. He is typically brought into an organisation to accelerate revenue growth - this is always achieved by creating high performance and a positive ��people�� culture.

Paul has a rare ability to create compelling narratives that connect solutions to decision makers - enabling them to align with key business objectives. He is a stellar relationship builder, so we asked him: How do you achieve such big deals?

He shared that out of the three possible routes, proactively discovering what the customer really needs is optimal. It��s hard work, involving much discovery work, developing relationships with contacts in the company to build up a picture of what the need is. Joining dots and aligning your solution to these is the optimal route to larger deals.

Yet the difference that makes the difference is, ��Early executive engagement - win the psychological and social contract before the commercial contract.�� This is vital both internally within your own organisation and with the customer and their team.

Paul continues, ��It feels authentic to know that executives know each other at the beginning of the process and have relationships in place, rather than last few days before deal sign-off.��

Will YOU step up to the Challenge and gain early engagement for the sake of your sanity and revenue?

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