Fuentes Fridays #0038

Here is your end-of-the-week insight into what I see going on in the business world, what I’m thinking about, and what I’m learning about. Forward anything that you feel inspired to share.

What I’m Hearing From Sales Leaders/Professionals

The clock is ticking, and soon, the ball will drop in Times Square. Right now, many of you are having "closing conversations" with prospects that have no shot of closing before the end of the year. You probably know it deep down in your gut, but you still want to hold onto hope.

We have all done it, and this week many of you came to me with deals that you wanted help "making sure were in before the end of the year." I am not saying deals don't get done between now and December 31; I am just saying we often have a warped perspective of where our deals stand during the holidays.

Many deals will close because the incentives are right, the risks have been mitigated, or there truly is a compelling reason that the deal MUST get done before Ryan Seacrest yells, "Happy New Year!"

However, there are a lot more deals that won't. Your job as a seller (and my job as a deal coach) is to figure out which ones SHOULD close before the end of the year, which ones can close, and which ones more likely than not won't close.

When I am going through pipelines at this time of year, I ask a few critical questions:

What are their expectations of when the deal should close?

Have they told us that they want it by the end of the year, or have they told us that they must have it by the end of the year? These are two very different statements with vastly different implications.

Have they clearly articulated what needs to happen and who needs to be involved?

Are those people who need to be involved already involved or, at the very least, aware of what is going on?

Will all the things that need to be completed follow their natural timelines, or do some need to be accelerated? For example, a security review takes three weeks, and we want them to do it in three days.

If things get stuck, who has the political power on their side to get it through?

If this thing falls apart, what happens to the champion?

And … many, many, more.

I am what I like to call a "paranoid closer." Especially when it comes to closes at the end of the year. I have seen too many deals get punted to the first or second week of January because "you guys will honor the price, right?" And, "I had forgotten that X was going to be gone." Or, well, you get it.

If you have deals that you need, want, have to have close before the end of the year, PLEASE reach out to us at Maestro. We will give you the second set of eyes on your deal to help you figure out how realistic the close date is.

What Made Me Laugh

One of the best things about this past high school football season was the announcer, Tony Bentley, at the Wakefield High School home games. Tony is a great basketball coach, but if he wanted to be a wedding DJ, he could be the greatest one ever! He really knows how to get the crowd hyped. Especially since the majority of the crowd are 40- and 50-something-year-olds who love showing the kids how "cool" they once were. At the games, he would always play "Jump Around," and everyone, including this little guy, would go nuts!

This Week’s 40/20

For every 40 hours of work, I believe you should spend 20 (additional) hours mastering your craft. This is how I spent some of my 20 hours this week.

My body has been struggling lately. My back, my hips, and my sciatica have been acting up. It all started a few weeks ago when I bent over to pick something up, and it has compounded since then. A few days ago, I found THIS VIDEO with two exercises to help relieve sciatica pain. So far, they have helped tremendously.

Potpourri for 800

Potpourri (shoutout to Jeopardy!) is a category that covers a variety of topics.

I found this thread on Seneca about a month ago and have been revisiting it every few days. There are a lot of great quotes and perspectives in the thread. One of my favorites:

"It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. The life we receive is not short, but we make it so; we are not ill-provided but use what we have wastefully."

Quote for My Son

Every day, I leave my son a note with a quote. This was my favorite from this past week:

"You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending." – C.S. Lewis

You can get weekly helpful information for sales professionals by following my company’s Maestro Mastery blog here .

Let me know what you think about this week’s edition of Fuentes Fridays. Which section was your favorite?