The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Belly flop. The phrase itself conjures painful memories. You start off with the best intentions... and somehow, along the way, something derails you. Instead of a dive with a tiny splash, you end up landing flat, with a huge splash, and welts on your belly.

Belly flops aren't just for swimming holes. Think of the last really great idea you had. Now, was the execution flawless? Maybe. But if not, you need some guidance. Even if your manager focused more on empathy than accountability, you need to make sure your next great idea doesn't flop. Below is the critical path document that helps big ideas become polished products.

“There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.”

-Francois de La Rochefoucauld

I sincerely believe that most of the salespeople we work with aspire to be truly customer-needs-focused in everything they do with or for clients and prospects. Recognizing the Key Account potential of a given prospect, they realize the relationship should be taken very seriously, and every move should be thought-through well before taking action. Just as with an authentic romance, they realize that instead of talking about themselves (or their company, products, and services), they should get the other party to talk about their interests, aspirations, and needs.

But temptation can be very strong. When another quick sale might help the seller get to budget, or when they’re being pressured to bring in one more deal to help the sales department meet a quota… it can be very easy to allow one’s focus to shift toward the immediate transaction rather than the long-term relationship they started out looking for.

This week, we discussed medicine, stealing, wasting time, and personality tests. Oddly, they all go together. Read on to see how.

The Center for Sales Strategy Weekly Wrap-Up

• Monday, John Henley gave us a dose of good medicine for healthy sales.

• Tuesday, Mike Anderson reminded us that there are people trying to steal our business, and offered several tips on how to prevent that theft.

Personality tests are all the rage!

I recently read that 60-70% of Americans today will take a personality test as part of a job application process. Gaining in popularity, personality tests are even used in career planning for those not in the workforce yet as well. Just last week my daughter was given a personality test by a college professor hoping to help his students better understand their potential and how they might match up with a variety of journalism career paths. 

I began my sales career in August 2001. I was young and neon green (kind of like Howie!) with visions of six-figure commission checks dancing through my head. After being on the job for six months or so and closing a few deals, I felt as if I was a master of sales and deserved an established account list that would get me closer to my six-figure goal. I would vent to my friends and family about how everyone else had all the good accounts and how unfair it was that one of the managers carried a list. Hindsight is 20/20; I almost cringe thinking about the impression I left on the many prospects I stalked to land meetings—only to push the latest sales package and talk excessively about how great my organization was and why they should buy its products. Candidly, it wasn’t until I went through a formal sales training program that I understood why I wasn’t being handed a six-figure account list. Although I was closing deals, I wasn’t getting any renewal business. I was selling like the stereotypical used-car salesman.

You’ve seen those pill-box organizers right? When I was visiting my parents this summer, I noticed my dad was using one of these organizers so he wouldn’t forget which medicine to take when. We are all thankful for advanced medicine and the quality of life it affords, but it won't do you any good if you forget to take it.

Imagine if salespeople had a sales-box organizer to help them remember to serve their customers well every day. You can immediately think of the potential in this idea. One of the toughest parts of being in sales is making daily decisions about how to spend your time. You could spend 100% of your time each day handling transactional details and service requests on current accounts, along with moving your best prospects through the sales funnel.

What a great week! There are some great gems from our writers here, and wonderful news from around the web. Read on!

The Center for Sales Strategy Weekly Wrap-Up

• Monday, Steve Marx told us about the trap in focusing on a slow-selling line. It's always, always, always about their needs, not your products.

• Tuesday, Kimberly Alexandre talked about Starbucks, and how they're letting ideas drive campaigns. Notice the trend this week?

We work in an increasingly connected world. We can meet with someone a thousand miles away without ever leaving the comfort of our own office. This cuts down on costs, as well as travel time, but often, distance meetings leave something to be desired. Nothing beats meeting in person, but a great distance meeting can be a close second.

Below are three things you can do to elevate your distance meetings from mediocre to great.

1. Stream Video of Yourself to Make the Meetings More Personal

You started an inbound marketing program a few months ago. You followed all the advice. You even read about what to expect in your first year of inbound marketing. Now... it seems to be working!  People are exchanging their information (email address, title, phone number) for your premium content, just like you heard they would!

Visitors to your website are becoming inbound leads!

Now what do you do?

Here are five things to consider with every inbound lead that comes in.

Ideas are worth more than the media time or space used to distribute them. If you don’t believe me, take a closer look at the development of Starbucks' first branding campaign, recently released by 72andSunny, the agency responsible for the work. The campaign itself includes a mini-documentary-style film shot in 59 different stores, in 28 countries, using 39 local filmmakers and ten local photographers.

This project may be one of the largest in scale for any branding campaign, but where the idea came from is even more important. Starbucks’ branding campaign was sparked by its observation of how Starbucks customers were using social media—specifically the stories they were telling in YouTube videos that were shot inside Starbucks' stores. To watch, click here. Digital media wasn’t simply used to spread an idea, but to source the idea! In any medium and on any platform, it’s the idea that counts, the idea that carries most of the value and generates all the value created with its intended target. Ideas drive campaigns, now more than ever.