HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT TO SALES
Creating Your Own Position
Terry seemed to say all the right things in her interview with the managing partner.? Building client relationships, active listening, extreme responsiveness.? In turn, she was excited about what her interviewer said concerning the opportunity and challenge of being the firm’s first Director of Sales.? Until now, this architectural practice required the four partners to lead all sales efforts, along with their project and firm administrative duties.? The managing partner assured her that all the partners were anxious to bring on a Director of Sales to allow them to focus on responsibilities more in their comfort zone. ?The chance to create this position contrasted with her current post, recently vacated by a retiring sales manager after 16 years, where Terry constantly felt she was being compared with her predecessor for not matching his successes in her first 6 months on the job.?
She received the offer two weeks later, after meetings with the other three partners.? Those interviews felt mostly perfunctory, each person willing to support whichever candidate their managing partner recommended.? The third partner interview, the only woman of the four, concluded on an odd note.? As they were shaking hands, Terry was assured that she would be offered the job because “she checked all the boxes, her salary demands were very reasonable and all the partners are anxious to move on from this hiring process.”
Her first day of work, aside from filling out forms, mostly involved emptying a windowless room that had served as the firm’s architectural samples library.? The managing partner stopped in toward the end of the day to see how Terry was doing.? By then the furniture had been installed and the IT guy was connecting her computer tower and flat screen.? Her boss apologized for the lack of windows, but predicted that she would be spending most of her time on sales calls away from what felt liked a large closet.? At that moment she decided she should not suggest that equipping her with a laptop or tablet might be handy for those sales calls.
The remainder of the week was devoted to learning more about the firm and its talent whose services Terry was responsible to sell to new clients, cross sell to existing clients and reintroduce to past clients.? This familiarization included examining the available digital and hard copy marketing materials that were prepared by advertising consultant.? She of course already studied the firm’s website prior to that first interview.? The website was just adequate to assure a potential client that the practice had depth and critical mass.?
What surprised Terry as she introduced herself that week to the architects and project managers was how much the website was out of date, missing many recent impressive projects and new hires.? She completed that first week by taking the initiative of contacting the advertising firm to see if they had a template for the firm to announce new staff (they did not) and to receive digital copes of marketing materials that she could adapt for presentations on those sales calls (they happily provided these to her without verifying she was really their client’s new Sales Director).
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Biweekly Prospect Review
Monday morning of the second week, as she was preparing a press release to announce her hire for her boss’s approval, she was called into a 9:00 meeting of firm management.? Evidently this was a biweekly huddle where the managing partner reviewed a long list of identified client and project prospects, the assigned account manager provided an update, and the executive assistant recorded the responses to be distributed to attendees by 1:00 PM that afternoon.? Terry took detailed notes which drew glances of curiosity and appreciation.?
As the meeting concluded, the one female partner suggested that responsibility for running down the prospect list might transfer to Terry starting next meeting.? The managing partner nodded, but Terry was unsure whether this was acknowledging the suggestion or approving it.? Instead, he remarked that he was looking forward to hearing Terry’s additions to the prospect list next time.
Accustomed to that pressure, Terry’s next stop was the accounting department.? That manager was very accommodating in providing her with a list of clients who had not been invoiced in at least six months, although had been invoiced sometime in the last five years.? Terry was working on the theory that these were lapsed clients who had once thought highly enough of the firm to hire for a project.? So much easier to re-engage past clients than start from scratch with potential clients who had never heard of their firm.
From that list plus some online research, Terry narrowed down those lapsed clients to twenty who appeared to have growing businesses that potentially required new or renovated spaces.? At an appointment with her managing partner on Tuesday afternoon, she first reviewed the prepared press release on her hiring, which he wordsmithed without making any substantive changes.? She then reviewed the names of the lapsed clients she was going to target to reintroduce the firm.? This resulted in an unexpected worried look from the managing partner.? After admitting that no one at the firm had ever considered identifying potential contacts in a list of recently lapsed clients, he reviewed each company with her, noting one of the following designations:
领英推荐
That fourth designation troubled Terry.? She first asked when each client was last contacted by the account manager.? The managing partner knew the contact history on some of the clients, but admitted to her that the project managers who were handling those accounts were likely too busy to have contacted them for several months.? Better to service paying clients than look for opportunities that may not exist.? He surmised that clients would be in touch with their firm if there was a need for their services.? That last pronouncement was delivered somewhat sheepishly, admitting that such a level of client loyalty should not always be assumed.?
In the end, the list was narrowed to seven prospects she should contact after the managing partner informed the account manager he had assigned Terry to do this.? He also agreed to arrange a visit for the two of them with one of his accounts that was listed that he had not contacted for several months.
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What Was Really Going On
Their drive to visit that client the following week offered them the chance to become more comfortable with each other.? They discovered they had hobbies and sports teams in common.? When they met with this client, managing partner and sales director acted like longtime colleagues.? The client did share that there was a project about to be released, but it largely involved mechanical and electrical work.? The amount of architectural work was likely too meager for their firm to undertake.?
Terry immediately stepped in before her boss could respond.? First, she assured the client that no project was too small to service as part of their business relationship.? Second, they could deliver the mechanical and electrical design services through their subconsultant engineers, while providing coordination as part of their project management expertise.? The client responded that he did not know Terry’s firm could offer this approach, and he would be very comfortable having them as the single point of contact for all design services.
On the ride back, the managing partner shared his pleasure with the result and especially with Terry’s initiative.? He agreed there would be a good fee to be earned from project management services as well as the markup on the engineering services.? She sensed that he was now feeling more comfortable with what she could offer the firm.? She replied, “If we don’t see the RFP in a week, I will follow up.”
The warmth she was feeling immediately dissipated.? As the managing partner assured Terry that her further contribution was not necessary, she began to finally understand her expected role in the practice.? She was to identify an opportunity and make the introduction to the project manager who would develop the proposal and oversee the project if it booked.? Otherwise, she was to get out of the way.? No review of the proposal, no attendance when the proposal was presented, no follow up while waiting for the proposal to be considered (the managing partner was sure such follow up was not necessary by anyone and possibly annoying to the prospect).? Ultimately, her role was to find prospects, not to building client relationships.
Another visit to the helpful woman in accounting allowed Terry to see the data on the firm’s prospect “hit rate” and revenue sources.? Overall capture was 80%.? For repeat clients, it was closer to 90%.? Revenue for repeat clients was enough to breakeven each year.? The new clients were the source of profit, and thereby partner bonuses, not critical but nice to have.? While these statistics might seem admirable, they told Terry that the firm was coasting on easy repeat business.? They were not pursuing former clients that did not offer a high probability for another project.? And they were not focusing on new clients.? This was not a sustainable approach.? Losing a few big clients would be a financial disaster.? Failing to find new clients which were growing would not balance future revenue gaps.
At the next Monday morning sales meeting, several attendees reported their appreciation of the list that Terry developed of lapsed clients, and recommitted to start making those renewed contacts… on their own.? Terry did report on fruitful contacts she made for clients of departed staff, which were then assigned to one of the project managers.? This reconfirmed Terry’s role to be limited to a lead generator.? This firm was not ready yet to relinquish individual control of sales.? That evening she contacted the firm she had left a few weeks prior, wondering if they had filled her position.? When she jumped back to her former position, she informed her colleagues that she found the environment at the other firm to be hostile.? Everyone drew their own conclusions.