In honor of CEOs, Boards, and Vice Presidents of Sales everywhere that believe that the best course of action is usually avoidance or denial; we proudly announce our inaugural edition of the Ostrich awards.
Named in honor of that flightless bird with a penchant for burying its head at the slightest indication of danger, The Ostrich award celebrates individuals we come across in our daily prospecting and selling efforts that, despite reasoned discourse, refuse to even engage in meaningful conversation with 3VL because it would require they acknowledge (or worse actively seek out) problems in their sales organizations before it is too late.
We invite you readers to submit nominations in the form of anecdotes we will publish from time to time anonymously or as the writer prefers. Feel free to use the Post Comment function of this weblog or email me directly at ostrichawards@3valuelogic.com
Our inaugural nomination comes from our own esteemed Sales Director – Robert Johnson:
The CEO of a local company has a huge issue, How to build, retain, and grow sales people and increase revenue?
The conversation began more than 12 Months ago at what seemed a justifiable place. ‘I just hired a new VP of Sales and two new sales reps…we are all set.’ How could I blame the guy. He has just committed $20,000 per month on three new-hires. He had better believe these were 'high value resources' with 'tons of industry experience.'
I politely wished him luck and committed to calling in a few months to see how things were going.
Being the diligent sales person (and power SF.com user) I called back in six month. Turns out the Sales VP was ‘doing fine’ but they needed to replace two of the four front-line resources who had been fired for non-performance. A quick calculation led me to the conclusion that they were on track for 100% annual sales turnover.
I presented a solution that included hiring a resource from 3VL as a way to try something new. He agreed so I called my CEO, asked him to draw up a contract, and sent it over.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
I think this is a common tail in sales. Too many times people or organizations get committed to something before there are measurable results. CEO, VP of Sales or just individuals can become emotionally committed with something before there is a ROI; you can see this often especially in personal relationships. That is my two cents...
Townsend,
I've been reading your latest blog posts with a lot of interest, and have a thought for you. A caveat that free advice is often worth what you pay for it goes along with the thought.
The underlying assumption in your latest posts seems to be that in some way your prospects don't "get it'. I experience the same frustrations in my selling as you do in yours..... but..... my experience in working with my clients is that those whose prospects don't "get it" have often not figured out what problem they can solve that the prospect sees as critically important. And I've seen that when they do figure that out, the number of prospects that "get it" goes up dramatically. My experience in my own consulting practice is that I've had to re-invent my value proposition about once a year as the market has changed - when I started five years ago, the VC community was handing me their cripples to see if I could help with a rescue mission, now I get brought in to help accelerate the success of already successful businesses, and in between there have been at least three other changes.
So, the thought I'd share with you is to wonder if there's some new approach to your prospect base, using exactly the same set of products and services, that your prospects would see as essential to their success. Some way that you can help them "get it". I'm concerned that your blog approach will just piss people off rather than start them thinking (which I'd guess is your goal here).
Andy,
I believe you and 3VL are targeting different audiences. As you know, sales is a very emotional topic for people in organizations. Questioning a CEO or better yet a VP of Sales about sales will most likely bring up a titanium wall. I think Townsend's blog entries are meant for these people to think outside their wall and try and look at things differently and not from the weeds. I see your point, but think your prospecting versus Townsend's is like apples and automobiles...very dissimilar.
Post a Comment