Sales & Sales Management Brew

Sales Strategy and Execution

As I approach the 10^th tee I look down the fairway and read the slope of the fairway, the angle of the dog leg and the elevation of the ‘position a' landing area.  I then select the appropriate club to execute my perfect shot, address the ball, swing and hit the ball cleanly:

Into the woods.

As my good friend Whitey Kollmeier says, "That execution thing is overrated".  Certainly, he says that in jest, but it brings up the issue of how so many salespeople spend time on ‘sales strategy' stuff and yet fail to execute on the strategies.

My point today though isn't around the execution of your sales process.  My focus is on strategy development for your sales opportunities.  The process is not complicated, but it is critical to improving your success of converting appointments to opportunities.  In other words, using Dave Kurlan's example in Baseline Selling, you want to get from first to home, but you just can't go straight to home.  You must have touched 2^nd and 3^rd bases and eliminated all possibilities of getting picked off.

This requires strategy.  The ‘pre-call strategy' is simple:

• What is your ‘macro' objectives: disqualify the prospect, qualify the prospect
• What is the "micro' objectives - discover qualifying qualities of the prospect
• Start your process to achieve the objectives
• Identify qualifying or disqualifying questions you will ask
• Identify in advance qualifying or disqualifying answers to your questions
• Identify what question they may ask and your appropriate response (notice I didn't say answer)
• Understand what potential curve balls can be thrown at you and how you will react

Establishing this information and process up front will help you close more business more quickly, not because the pool of qualified prospects has increased, but because you will have stopped wasting time with non-prospects.