SALES: 3 EASY PIECES

"Lead me, follow me, or get the hell out of my way." - George S. Patton

The title to this piece is a knock-off of Feynman's "Six Easy Pieces," dealing with the nature of physics. We want easy pieces, we need easy pieces, in this case, we're going to talk about sales. Few people enjoy reading/learning about sales - even (or maybe especially) if you're in sales! So instead of 6 pieces for sales, we're doing 3.

Easy means simple. These can be difficult to implement, usually because we have to overcome some habits, and/or deliberately create a method to ensure you're deploying these principles. The three easy pieces are these:

1) Make it easy for them to say yes.

2) Let them see the future

3) Show don't tell

By making it easy, we are looking to eliminate the areas of friction. Some common friction elements include:

- too many steps

- unclear steps

- too much thought and effort required

- length of time is indefinite

Common ways to make it easy for a "buyer" to say yes are:

- Answer common objections before they ask

- Articulate weaknesses

- Make the cost of taking the first step minimal

- Show what the next common steps are

Now, to let them see the future we have to play pretend. It would go something like this:

"Let's say we get the green light to get started on the project next Friday, Sept 1st. We would then lock in the implementation team and assign a project manager. They would schedule a kickoff call the following Wednesday to go over a sample schedule including milestones, etc....Based on similar projects we would estimate a go-live date of Dec 1st...this would mean that you have a production ready system before the end of the year...."

We're looking for a few things hear:

- Be prepared to play pretend - do it before they ask

- Compare similar engagements and show how those "looked"

- Ask who all will be involved in the project/process - use named (your side and theirs) individuals in the forecasting exercise

To emphasize showing instead of telling, we do this:

- Instead of saying "we work with many Fortune 500 companies" - show them the logos of your clients

- Instead of saying we're good at creating data architectures. Show them several you've built and why you did it that way.

- Instead of saying "I love my job" be enthusiastic

You get the idea here, I hope. The show/tell trap is a very common and difficult to self assess for many.

Master these three principles and you'll selling like a rockstar in no time!