Embracing The Changes In B2B Selling And Sailing On A Calm Ocean
Workhorses of yesteryear
I love walking into the old manufacturing mills that are scattered around New England. Many of them have been reclaimed and are used today for multi-use businesses, restaurants, schools and housing. Times have changed. Their uses have changed. They still have huge economic and human value. They have evolved.
For those of you who are new to my writing- and to me- let me introduce myself. I am career B2B seller. I was an Individual Contributor for 15 years and have held various sales leadership roles for 20 more ( and counting ) with much of my career in technology. I have had great years and I have had awful years. I have been to Presidents’ Clubs and I have stayed home. I have been promoted, fired and laid off. In each case and with every year, I learn something new. When I learn, I like to share and to help. Fundamentally, isn’t that what we as sales people are supposed to do? To help others?
Sales has afforded me a life and a career that I could never have dreamed of as a kid barely graduating from high school and even more narrowly graduating from college. It turns out that I learn by doing and by living rather than in a classroom.
I hope you will follow me and that what I write will make you think. I also hope you don’t always agree with me and when that happens you tell me that and why. The best education is when we find out that what we thought or believed is wrong or that it may need more thought and more research to get to where it is truly right. Don’t worry about hurting my feelings. I am a “Boston guy” with 35+ years of sales experience. My skin is as thick as armor.
Much of what I will write about is sales process and leadership. How to get better at both for yourself and for your business. A recurring theme will be to reimagine sales as a manufacturing process with the lead as raw material and a closed/won deal as your finished good. ( The picture may make even more sense now ).
Why would we do this?
In a manufacturing process, you are constantly working to gain efficiency and improve your yield. Every step, every person, every machine has to be optimized in order to reduce raw material and increase yield. That leads to better margins and profit. Businesses exist to make a profit. We may have forgotten this over the last 25 years but it is still true and what we should strive for.
When the sales process isn’t tuned properly, you hear things like “we don’t have enough pipeline” and see metrics like a need for 6X quota in pipeline, 47% quota attainment, 18% close rate…
When the sales process isn’t tuned properly, no amount of AI will fix it. It could actually make the problems worse.
When the sales process isn’t tuned properly, you will never get to sail in a “calm ocean”. There will be storms and rough seas. Not every boat will reach shore. It will cost you people. It will cost you money.
As we move forward and I write more, we will dive into the sales process as well as how to optimize critical stages like qualifying and discovery, ultimately improving forecasting and managing people. Until then-
Good selling and good sailing!
Mike
