How to Slow Down to Speed Up

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”  - African Proverb

As an account executive in an enterprise software company, I remember the feeling of being handed a brand new account list every quarter, half, year, etc. Or better still, being handed the ever-coveted ‘inbound lead.’

Someone wants to speak with me about buying my stuff? Getting the meeting was the hard part after all, right? Right. So, like most reps, I stopped what I was doing and followed up with the inbound lead to set up a meeting as soon as possible.

30 minute invite for “Introduction, Company Yours <> Company Mine” sent and accepted. That was easy. Back to work.

Fast-forward to the call – why was it that more often than not I finished the conversation feeling…disappointed. 

“He was too low level” or “She had no access to budget” or “The company is just not the right fit”. 

“I should have been speaking with his boss” or “I should have asked what her budget was” or “I should have looked into the company ahead of time.” 

No matter my flavor of self-talk, the reality was the same. 

I moved too fast.

I got ahead of myself, and I’ve read the tortoise and the hare to know that moving too fast means finishing last… far from optimal in the sales world.

Below is a prescriptive 3-minute read on how to slow down to properly qualify your accounts, leads, and meetings before putting time into conversations that will lead you nowhere, fast. 

So, where should you begin?

(Hint, it's not the phone.)

Research

Not all companies are a fit for your solution. Slow down to consider the business challenges you solve, the case-studies of your most compelling customer stories, and the typical champions, influencers and decision makers who actually buy your stuff. Now you can begin.

Build

Whichever one of your leaders is always going on about “building your org charts!” – it’s time you listen to them. We know there are 6-10 people in the average B2B buying process. Building an org chart to lay out all of those champions, influencers, and decision makers is a triple-threat.

1. Prospecting - you will have a sense of who has power, vs. influence vs. budget, and can tailor your outreach accordingly.
2. Customer Calls - you will have a better sense of what your prospect will find valuable from a conversation, and can be more prepared to help.
3. Internally - you will save time (and face) on account/opportunity/deal reviews with management, and represent yourself as the extremely organized individual that you are. 

Network

Once you’ve built a well-researched org chart and identified who to engage, figuring out how to engage is just as important. Not often is the path of least resistance the most effective, but with a strong professional network, it absolutely is. Why?

Though the internet is vast, the world is small – and everybody knows everybody. The best chance you have to earn a conversation with an executive is through a warm introduction because it comes from a place of mutual trust. 

You might be a stranger to Mary Joe @ ABC Company, but your former colleague John Smith is connected to Mary on LinkedIn. Ask John for an intro with something simple like the below:

“Hey John, hope you are well. Quick one for you, I see you are connected to Mary Joe @ ABC Company - how well do you know her?”

Make It Easy

In the scenario above, assume John Smith says he knows Mary Joe well enough to introduce you. Make it easy for John to do so by writing the intro message for him to send. Why? Because John, like you, is busy and although he might be comfortable introducing you, he might not have the time to physically write the message, or frankly, position your company as well as you can. 

Try writing something simple and neutral in tone *from John’s POV* so he can simply copy, paste, add his own 2 cents of endorsement/personalization, and send straight away.

Example:

“Hi Mary,

Been a while since the ABC Company days together, hope you are well.

I wanted to introduce you to my good friend [your name] who works at [your company name] which does [short company value statement]. Given your recent share on [XYZ], I’m wondering if a short conversation could be of mutual benefit – especially given [your company name]’s recent success with [relevant proof point or case study link].

Can’t imagine a quick chat being a wasted effort? I’ll let you two take it from here, thanks Mary.

– John”

The idea here is to give John little to no work to do at all, outside of “ctrl+c, ctrl+v, send”. Put another way, if you’re asking something from someone you need to make their ability to help you out as easy as possible.

So the next time you receive that warm inbound lead, or a new batch of accounts, try slowing down to research, build, network and make it easy.

If there’s anything I can do to be of assistance in any way, business or personal, please know that I'm just a message away.

Cheers and good selling. - JS