R's To Success
Kevin Scott Cowen
Creating winning partnerships for companies to reach and surpass their KPI and ROAS goals. There's a reason I was nicknamed The Hammer! Doing all while living on coffee and snacks.
"Frustrated," "Running In Circles," "Cannot Reach," and so much more. As sales professionals, if you have never had to deal with any of these obstacles you are either the best sales person in the world or the worst. And while we fail more than we succeed, how you handle obstacles dictates the path to success or failure.
If you keep emailing the same person, thinking that things will change, you are probably mistaken. Unlike Tim Robbins's character in The Shawshank Redemption, who kept writing letters to get books for the prison library, this type of persistence will not pay off. And if you expect your contact to all of a sudden respond, either way, guess again. Your emails are buried, and have probably never been seen. And, if you think a cutesy headline, like "Open Me, " or similar will work, again, probably not. While there may be times when things may change, in most cases, probably not.
Let me take a minute here to let you know this is not an article on how to make you a better sales person. This is article is about your sales strategy, not execution. This is about Rethinking, Reengineering, and Redeploying, your sales strategy.
Rethinking. You have been doing the same thing over and over. You did some research on your prospect, sent an informative email, and waited for a response. But nothing! Yet,for some reason, you keep doing the same thing. Why? If it did not work the first time, or 15th time,why would this change on number 16? It is time to think about other opportunities to move the sale along. Put your head down, think about the history of this account,why it has not worked,and move along to the next R.
Reengineer. Or, quite simply, put together a new strategy. Email, voicemail (Remember those) don't seem to be working. Put together a new strategy. Or, move along to other prospects. It IS possible it may never happen. But if you believe this is a prospect worth pursuing, then think about other ways to make it happen. Tweet? Follow? An actual letter by mail? Whatever, just put together something different than what you have been doing.
Redeploy. Put it into action. You know Company A just got funded. Everybody loves compliments. Let them know you know. Cutbacks? Let them know you know, and you can help NOW. Put your plan into action, make it happen now.
There are so many sales "strategies" we hear about,and experience all the time. Last week my company got a demo on some new service. The sales person tried getting us to buy in with the typical "Kevin, what part of this would you most value?" Seriously. And, yes, listening is important, as is "overcoming obstacles," and other sales cliches. But if you are not at that point,and things are caught in a web, then it is time to remember the Three R's: Rethink, Reengineer, and Redeploy, your sales game plan!