Manage circumstances equally as well as timing.

The obsession with time can’t be underestimated. Whether you are measuring your lifespan, war, microwave oven setting or sales cycle, these all involve a definitive time element. To better manage time elements, it’s important to manage circumstances equally well. Every month, week or day we sit down and try to make sense of our sales numbers. One of the greatest errors in our ‘subjective’ judgment may be our over-reliance on time as the driving factor. Like wars, deals are not set by time, rather by circumstance. So what does this mean?

Look for circumstances.

The Pareto Principal can come into play in a big way. It’s the 80-20 Rule. Think about your Pipeline in the same way: 80% of your sales will come from just 20% of your Pipeline Opportunities. As a salesperson or manager, we can never get away with violating the laws of nature without paying the consequences. Step off a building, and gravity will get you every time. With forecasting, while we may not experience consequences “every time” we ignore circumstances, sooner or later the laws of nature, like Pareto’s Principal, take effect. Usually it’s horribly inaccurate numbers and time lines that are difficult to make sense of.

Prima facie is Latin for ‘at first view’.

Whenever you forecast, Prima facie means you should see it the first time e.g. it should be obvious. But before it becomes so obvious there’s some homework to do. It’s important for any forecaster to know the circumstances that make up alternative directions of action. When it comes to Pipelines, analyze the number of circumstances and the order of magnitude of each.

This analysis can be as simple as a Ben Franklin plus and minus columns or more a definitive set of criteria. The circumstances affecting opportunities for your organization probably fall into five or six categories e.g. Delivery, Credit, Pricing, Customer Service, Customer Loyalty are a few. You might want to spend a few minutes creating your own list and ranking the order of magnitude each has with your pipeline opportunity.

 Two circumstances affect your Pipeline Opportunities.

1:Listing those customers that have the fewest reasons not to buy from you.

2: Define the biggest reasons why they won’t buy from you.

In either example, there will likely be a number of items. However, your task now is to separate the vital few from the trivial many. Then assign a value to each item, naturally, ranking the highest value items first. And it’s these high value items that you have to solve/analyze first.  

Set priorities for action.

Just like a general, you have to set your priorities based not so much on your wishes but what reality looks like. How this affects your forecasting accuracy will become obvious. You will now look closer at what will make the most difference in your sales success. The circumstances have a time line of their own. You simply can’t ignore a major item. Now you have to establish a timeline to the circumstance, or series of circumstances. This will result in a more accurate completion date.

The stronger the confidence in your pipeline, the less threatened you are.

We have to accept the fact that some customers are going to react irrationally. Maybe I can call it the ‘Irrational Principal’ where out of the blue you get broadsided by 20% of your opportunities. In these cases you can’t control the game, only your reactions to it.  I’ll bet that the stronger the confidence you have in your pipeline, the less threatened you will be by what happens around each opportunity. Having a high level of confidence in the vital issues surrounding your pipeline can be as a result of good ‘circumstance’ management.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

Pipeline Triangulation

Triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known points at either end. In MosaicCRM terms, triangulation is the process of determining the points that make up your pipeline and its ability to hone in on opportunities that have a high probability of closing. Click on the Icon for more information on how this works!

Not unlike the logic behind a Credit Score, it pays off to have a formula that gauges and monitors the level of customer commitment. This might seem obvious, but commitment is often misconstrued somewhere between your splatter of features and benefits and the ensuing oohs and ahhs from the client. So it is vital to know and manage the difference between being simply involved in the selling process, and the customer being committed to its success.

One of the biggest gripes or gaps in traditional CRM landscape is the inaccuracy of Sales Projections. The traditional rating schemes ‘Probability % and Stage’ are relatively useless categorizations to define commitment to success.

The real key is evaluating ‘commitment’ at each ‘Stage’ of the sales process and not just the sales opportunity phase. Rather than inserting a Probability % based on little more than your eagerness to wish it so, it is more effective to equate the potential outcome based on the Commitment % Level. This adds an interesting twist, rationale and accuracy when commitment levels equate to a level of certainty (probability).

MosaicCRM Experts Tips

So many factors affect the transition from the prospect to customer that they seemingly appear beyond control. In reality, many CRM selling processes simply lack a structured and regularly timed commitment report card. Here are a few examples of info fields you can add to CRM to back up your Commitment rationale:

• Project Finalized  (or not)
• Budget in place (or not)
• Valid change prompting need
• Prime business application for product (or not)
• Clear competitive advantage is…

Pipeline Triangulation

Triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known points at either end. In MosaicCRM terms, triangulation is the process of determining the points that make up individual pipeline opportunities and its ability to hone in on opportunities that have a high probability e.g. commitment to close. Click on the image to view how Pipeline Triangulation works.

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Commitment Separates You from the Competition

Meet a Marine and you begin to recognize the character of people deeply committed to something. Their exuberance is contagious. It’s no wonder why. They did more than just join the Marines they have now become Marines. Their level of commitment is expressed as total and only total excellence is the goal.

Their example is a reminder how just how important it is to be committed because customers sense a superior and sincere level of commitment every time. It’s often the one and only thing that separates you from the competition.

In the world seemingly on a rudderless course steered by automated ‘personalized’ marketing; we are inundated with the latest and greatest sales behavior predictions using social media, networking, blogging, video platforms… a digital cornucopia of the ‘it’ factors pointed at customers that will buy.

Beware of sales behavior predictions.

Some of the statistical data is downright poor and maybe that’s because simple statistics rely too much on buying habits under a limited number of situations, markets or conditions that bear little resemblance to what you sell. Few experts are willing to debunk these easy and simple hypothetic links e.g. a social network platform that works for selling Pepsi may have little relativity for selling houses.

Yet many a marketing guru would have your company totally revamp its selling process based on these statistics; worse yet with relatively ‘green fielding’ methodologies in lieu of tried and true methods.

Social Media Sales Stats: Does this mean the end of Wal-Mart?

Even when demographic and econometric modeling is added, a statistic hypothesis of a certain sales behavior doesn’t necessarily mean anything. For example, Twitter touts 200 million users. Even with such screaming growth, does this new wave of internet marketing spell the end to Wal-Mart? Hardly, for many solid reasons, not the least is new internet platforms are a figurative drop in the bucket. The 176 million living and breathing customers that visit Wal-Mart stores weekly and ‘stay’ awhile and ‘buy’ vastly outnumber Twitter and MySpace.

Stats tell you what customers aren’t buying.

Car crashes killed 34,000 people in 2009 and in 2008 there were six million accidents, about a one in five chance it will be your time. No one could possibly sell cars based on these statistics alone. Car manufacturers avoid the poor statistics and replaced them with items that do not change the statistical facts: zero interest loans, free this and more that. They have used poor stats to their benefit: ignore what customers aren’t buying.

Great stats can fail to sell.

Airlines can statistically prove air travel is many times safer than traveling by car. However, many a travel plan is based on a perceived and intense decision not to fly for safety reasons. As infinitesimal as the risk may be, the buying decision for air travel is not based on favorable safety statistics. So airlines ignore statistics that won’t sell: a hugely favorable safety statistic is something they can’t sell because many passengers aren’t buying it.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner
Maximize your statistical edge: “Sell a ‘Trend”

Even with exposure to the unlimited ‘customers’ on the net, selling a trend is possibly the only edge over blanket numerical statistics. What makes a trend is selling to good markets and ignoring weak markets, niches or products with proven methods and options that accentuate your edge.

At MosaicCRM we rely on tried and true statistics, particularly in the two vital areas of activities and sales opportunities.

• Market Analytics show aging, margin, unit volumes and revenue distribution is a single step
• Track Stalled Opportunities as an indicator of competition, sales programs and sales cycles
• Identify Customer Buying Cycles to minimize the selling cycle and maximize personnel deployment

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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Protocols for Measuring and Optimizing Activity Results

Helping organizations and their users achieve their activity objectives is the hallmark of MosaicCRM. Our business processes offer a unique and important approach to measuring activity ‘results’.  This differentiation is particularity valuable when it comes to Account Retention and Acquisition: our activity protocols are vital to optimize activity effectiveness and success.

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Do we enhance sales with customer satisfaction or is it customer loyalty? The differences are night and day and the effectiveness of each needs careful scrutiny. To hear the gurus talk about the value of customer satisfaction, one would think it’s the beginning and end of the customer relationship. Maybe that’s because it’s easy to define the satisfaction mission: what business practices result in the highest customer satisfaction.

In turn, the rationale is the more satisfied the customer is, the higher degree of customer loyalty and more loyal customers buy more.  Right? Not necessarily. This is not to belittle the satisfaction process in any way because a lot of our selling is often directly related to the JD Power and Associates or Consumer Reports or similar evaluations about your product and company. This is where it starts to get confusing.

What is satisfaction?

It’s hard to find a constant relationship between satisfaction and loyalty. It depends on the value weight that the buyer assigns to the purchase. It could rate with little or no value, such as in the case of a commodity like cars. If what you sell is a commodity, the satisfaction value will usually be on par with your competition. In these cases it should not be the focus of your sales efforts because in the mind of your customer, he has placed little value on it and hence you are no different from anybody else.

What’s loyalty?

Loyalty is best summed up as the reason the customer wants to return and buy something from you. There is so much less said about customer loyalty relative to customer satisfaction, yet from a sales perspective, it might be the most important buying reason of all time.

Successful organizations have a common denominator: a long history of providing value.

What drives the ‘reasons’ behind customer loyalty? I believe strongly that loyalty is driven by value. And value is what the purchaser deems appropriate at that time.  Herein is the key: you must provide the exact value equation to the customer at the time of purchase. Equally valid is the fact that to maintain loyalty, you can’t rely on past levels of satisfaction. Your customer has likely changed and so has their perception of value. As sales people, our task is to recognize and uncover our customer’s ever changing value system. Change with them or lose them. It’s that simple and it’s that easy.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

CRM is an efficient method to acquire the satisfaction and loyalty drivers unique to your customer. This could play a key role in helping you manage what the customer perceives is the life cycle of your product (buying cycle) and tracking the current ‘value’ of why they want to buy from you.

• Monitor buying ‘reasons’
• Target buying cycles
• Strategic activities and objectives that match buying cycles and customer preferences
  
• Pre-formatted customer/prospect nurturing programs
• Case/Customer Support modules
• Integrate with social network/media venues

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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Protocols for Measuring and Optimizing Activity Results

Helping organizations and their users achieve their activity objectives is the hallmark of MosaicCRM. Our business processes offer a unique and important approach to measuring activity ‘results’.  This differentiation is particularity valuable when it comes to Account Retention and Acquisition: our activity protocols are vital to optimize activity effectiveness and success.

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8 Ideas For Sweeter Sales.

Forest Gump said it best: ‘Life’s like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.’ Sales results often share the same fate. Here are a few ideas that might help you chose the best chocolates!

• A big part of any sales function is continuous and rapid prospect qualification. The key measurement is whether or not they are going to buy. This differs from what they want to do, as compared to what they can do.
• Focus on what you have to offer, and not just what you are selling.
• Continually expand your product applications to new markets and/or customers. This minimizes your reliance on fragile markets or domineering customers.
• Focus your creative energies on strategies that promote consistent wins. By doing so, you will lessen your natural tendency to fall back on the blasé behaviors that just can’t produce the long-term consistency you need.
• If your pipeline seems to be managing you, then manage your prospects much earlier in the sales cycle. Two aspects of managing prospects are rating them as a company and the value of their opportunities. If either doesn’t fit your business, move on.
• Once you have your customer’s attention, keep it focused only on them.
• Simple selling techniques work. If nothing else, try something simple to improve, innovate and demonstrate your product.
• Promote customer satisfaction, but sell loyalty. Loyalty is the reason customers want to buy from you.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

Nobody said CRM is sweet but here are a few ideas to keep your sales process on track:

• Qualification: Set out predefined Rating and Profile descriptions for your Account and Contacts. How well  each fits the ideal target can speed up this all important sales step.
• Customer Retention/Loyalty Process: Don’t leave retention and loyalty programs to chance. MosaicCRM offers ‘Marvel’ a unique system of multiple contact processes that keep your organization in front of customers.
• Daily Activity Manager: This eloquent system makes daily activities a breeze so sales staff can concentrate their energy and time on selling.
  
• Deal Nurturing: Nothing is dropped or forgotten with PipelinePro methodology and alerts systems.
  

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Written by
Bill Noonan, Founder & CEO, MosaicCRM

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Pre-CRM Planning Tips for SMB’s

I’ve put together this slide presentation that covers a number of key elements that can help in your CRM Plan or Re-Start program.  Some of the topics include Beware of ‘Quick and Easy’ CRM promotions, The Human Factors, Competition Applications, Abilities, Resources and Sales Process Design, Budgeting and more.
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“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” Patton

Motivating your customer to buy the world’s best doodad requires some different thinking in this economy. Understanding what a client really thinks can help. Having good answers helps even more! Automating the thinking task.. not possible but CRM can help you think better!

1. What type of capital investment is required?
Client: Our new budgets have stopped everything. Who is going to cut what to do this project?

2. What’s the ROI on the world’s greatest doodad?
Client: The ROI has to pencil out to ‘immediate’ if we are to do anything new or even think to replace anything we already have.

3. How is your doodad going to improve on my current way of doing things?
Client: We need to be assured that it works, everything we do goes under a microscope.

4. How can your new doodad not add to my costs?
Client: Somehow these wonder cures always end up costing more. We really can’t add anything to the budget.

5. How can you and your doodad help in an immediate way?
Client: Time is money and that means I need tangible results today.

6. Is your doodad going to take more time and distract my staff?
Client: Training, implementation, added costs and changing the status quo are big distractions we don’t need.

7. How much money is it going to save me?
Client: What specific examples can you show? Fluff isn’t going to cut it this year.

8. What happens when we have problems?
Client: We cut support personnel to the bone. When we have a problem is it going to take us weeks to hunt you guys down?

9. What will happen if we don’t do anything?
Client: We’ve been doing this way for years so why all the urgency now? Heck, our level of performance is understandable in this economy.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

• Add topical fields to your CRM program that include the top buying issues facing your clients.  For example, Opportunity/Drawbacks/Challenges can be simple fields with drop down menus to aid in speedily adding the info and tracking changes throughout the sales cycle
• Add a new technique ‘Opportunity Rating’ unlike Probability weight the importance of each issue to Rate the Opportunity against a specific Pass-Fail number
  
• Decision delays? MosaicCRM offers a ‘Deal Nurturing Strategy’ to your Opportunity mix: use a prescribed contact schedule and script to keep value and timely contact with decision makers

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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Mirroring our Masters

In America over 77 million dogs have owners. Then it’s not so unreasonable to imagine that in the scheme of modern urban life that they have an affinity to look like their owners. During a recent lunch my guests discussed this phenomenon and for an added wrinkle we even went so far as to match a few business associates with the dog they owned. One commented how uncanny it was that their General Manager looked remarkably like his mutt. Upon further reflection the business too was beginning to look unremarkable, like her GM. This was not an appealing spectacle.

How does the leader look?

With dogs or business, one reason we might mirror our master is that we tend to seek out those things that are most familiar to us and readily adopt those traits. Some may argue that it starts out when owners pick their dogs, or staff, they unconsciously choose them because they truly reflect the owner, or boss as the case may be. The lesson learned is be careful of what you want your business to look like as it will invariably reflect just how the leader looks.

The Customer’s perception is everything.

I believe the same logic applies for customers: a reflection of them. They find what appeals to them and what doesn’t. This is beyond nettlesome because the ‘look’ or perception for most customers is everything. Worry too about the fact that most people don’t necessarily act in accordance with your reality quite as much as they do on their own individual perception of ‘reality’. To that end, our customer’s reality, good, bad or indifferent, is formed to a large extent by what companies do and not what they say.

Follow the bouncing ball.

As business management and customers accelerate even further away from each other, success is often influenced to an immense degree by decision makers who have little experience or a ‘look’ for sales. In fact, your surroundings can begin to look astonishingly unfriendly, even somewhat dog-eared; particularly when the company’s current nirvana is simply the latest Guerrilla tactic that entirely ignores ‘reality’. Or the brains behind the new budget has patently little appreciation for brand or value; like the premier airline I flew last week whose management believes a fraction of an ounce of pretzels, a half of a can of soda, with questionable housekeeping and seats so close I could perform dental work will, of course, endear me to fly with them again.

Solution: Perception Truths.

If you find yourself or a client in this position what are you to do? Well there are a few Perception Truths I devised you can always use as a fall back.

• Brand Personality: Product Excellence and Superiority a.k.a. Value

Be ever vigilant for someone mucking it up. Your fundamental task is to correctly identify the customer’s preference for brand over price.  Look for customer clues where they value the significance of a great reputation, or beneficial cost of ownership matters like durability, warranties, multi task applications and even pretentiousness and esteem are striking buying qualities. If you’re not attracting enough of these types, then either you, the company’s marketing or its business style needs correction.

• Service

Practically nothing beats a high level of customer satisfaction, it’s not hard to understand why: customers want a pleasant buying experience together with attentive and responsive customer service, from both the sales and support staff. Lose this and you have lost the profitability associated with ‘value’ …and likely the customer. Now tell me again how much airline ‘A’ saved on those pretzels?

• Costs

Everyone knows that better products cost more and cheap products are made up of cheap bits and pieces. When it comes to cost, it’s the thing your customer perceives as price, your task is to hone in on what’s superior about your product or service. That’s because surprisingly few customers will bother to take the effort to figure it out on their own. Worse yet I am given to wonder why some salespeople can’t let go of customers that have little conscience of cost.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

There is no better tool than a well configured CRM program to monitor and manage perception truths. At MosaicCRM, we add simple yet effective fields to account monitors and specific reports in these key areas:

• Buying Qualities:
  

  Monitor and record customer preferences and translate that data into optimized sales cycle management tools

• Service Factors:
  

  Customer satisfaction, service and Case Management components tie the entire company relationship to the customer experience

• Value:
  

  Monitor where you are wining against competition, one click recording of sales factors, value milestones, even managing road blocks

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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Alchemy was the medieval attempt to turn lead into gold. Jean Dubuis described alchemy as the “art of manipulating life and consciousness in matter to help it evolve, or to solve problems of inner disharmonies”.

Modern CRM isn’t so different: data bases follow the alchemies operation of separating the ‘the prima material’ or so called chaos by taking this unstructured data and putting it into a structure to capture, index and store it.

On a simpler plane of thought, alchemy could easily be used as a metaphor of transforming prospects into customers. It’s this process that is almost magic, but not quite. It does involve a simple, yet demanding process of turning dumb or chaotic data (leads) into usable information (customers).

This is where the magic ends: CRM by itself does little to help you turn data into information and knowledge. Let’s take a look at how to make your CRM task a whole lot easier and beneficial.

1. Get better outcomes in less time with strategically focused sales behavior.

Begin at the beginning: rank and prioritize your leads. After all, who or what makes it into your database, and then subsequently into your pipeline, will determine to a great degree your success in turning these leads into customers.

2. Set out a clear and easily defined selling stage process.

I hear it all the time: my database is no good… bad info, leads are crap, I need more accounts…etc. Sales automation provides a huge volume of information; however, separating what’s needed to advance the sales process can often be an excruciating exercise that too often bears too little fruit. If everything makes it into your pipeline then you have a fantastic bowl of goop and nothing tasty. Unlike poor Oliver, you don’t want more of the same no matter how hungry you are for a deal.

The easiest method is to plainly and clearly describe each phase of your sales process, even a basic rating scheme will work. Then when a lead doesn’t make it to the next desired stage you know why and when and can manage your time and efforts much more confidently.

3.    Manage your pipeline on a daily basis.

Regardless of the advances in CRM, you still need to figure out not only what to do, but what to do next. It’s often too late for management to have any significant impact on the outcome when they are only managing what’s closing this week or only get involved at the later stages. Rather they should be involved on a daily basis and knowledge of what works, what doesn’t and guidance on plan b.

Daily attention should not be an issue. CRM technology allows us to sort through leads, pipeline candidates and sales opportunities easily and effectively. Properly designed, it now forms the way we manage sales and activities by dictating what strategic value or action is necessary as opposed to blind sporadic oriented actions e.g. call everyone again.

4. Nurturing long term leads.

We all wish everything happened today. Alas that genie never seems to come out when we need it. Eventually it may by adding a structure to the lead nurturing process including understanding how each customer wants to be contacted and frequency. CRM make this a relatively brainless task of turning data into buying cycles.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

At the end of the day, any CRM is only as good as the data in it and how the users manage that information. To make CRM outstanding, we follow a strict methodology so users avoid the chaos:

• Implement sound business process and logic by concentrating on a vital few objectives that gain sales
• Eliminate fluff and duplication: ignore anything that doesn’t add immediate value
• Constantly improve the system: Step by step, month by month
• Vital tasks like qualification, stages and pipelines require little effort and are easy to understand
• Tracking, maintaining and developing contact points that match customer buying cycles

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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P.S. We ask questions that no CRM vendor wants to ask:

CRM Discussion Points – Getting CRM right begins with asking the right questions.

I have written this comprehensive discussion points guide that covers topics that no CRM vendor wants to ask mainly because they can’t pass you off to a junior menu list type techie. That’s because now you know what it takes to meet your CRM objectives and it is a lot of work to demonstrate how to get there. Far too many CRM vendors won’t put in that sort of time.

What this worksheet creates is the right atmosphere for discussion and strategy building your CRM. Let me know if it would help you on your CRM journey. Use the ‘Contact Us’ tab on the website and I would be pleased to email it to you.

Bill

Flipping a coin and determining whether it will come up heads or tails depends more on the fact that a tossed coin obeys Newton’s laws of motion than a simple random chance. With sales opportunities, like pennies, a bias has a huge bearing on the result. So if you want to improve your odds flipping a coin or managing a sales opportunity, spend some time thinking about how to create and maintain a bias in the mind of your customer.

How do you forecast a bias?

As with predicting the outcome of a coin toss, you might be surprised that a bias will skew your forecast. Ivars Petersen is a mathematician who illustrates why unexpected results shouldn’t come as such a surprise. The Lincoln penny provides a striking example of such a bias. Stand a dozen or so pennies on edge on the surface of a table. Then bang the table so that the pennies topple over. You’ll find that nearly always more heads than tails are face up. Sometimes all the coins end up heads. On the other hand, spinning pennies tend to land tails more often than heads.

Probing creates awareness that creates a bias.

April is Mathematics Awareness month. I’ve instantly created a bias in your mind about April, besides the first day being All Fools Day and showers that bring May flowers and that fact that there are 22 selling days in April. Now you have a mind full of data and awareness about April.

It’s no different than creating a sense of awareness with your customer. Just answering a customer’s question creates no advantage when new bias data is added to the customers mind. Essentially he now perceives everyone your response as the same as any other response.

By probing the customer for more information and understanding what’s driving their need, you now have ample opportunity to create a greater awareness (bias) of your products and services. This is not to say that you should stand there and rattle off 100 of your best features. Quite the opposite is required. Give them only the information they will value the most. You now have the bias on your side of the coin. Find out too if your competitor has a bias e.g. brand name, better warranty, less risk and ‘one up’ your own bias.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

Beyond the operational aspect of CRM, most databases are chucked full of analytical data. One problem we see is that this analytical data is rarely configured for optimal ‘bias’ applications e.g. learning what customers want to buy at this very moment.  What do they look like, how much do they spend, when, how often is too often seen as information overload when in fact just the opposite is true: customers now get exactly what they want because you know them inside out.

As a side note, we do see social media as collaborative CRM data used as a vehicle that communicates with customers but this isn’t the same as using your CRM database for predictions analysis.

To maximize CRM’s return, it operates best in a forward looking mode and least optimal in a rear view looking transactional recording mode. For example, one of the best known predictors is credit analysis. Wouldn’t every organization want the same level of predictability with their customer base or at least their pipeline? Start with defining CRM data models and routines to optimize predictable outcomes and biases for:

• Cross Selling/Up Selling
• Supporting Customer Loyalty/Retention
• Minimize Customer Attrition
• Improving Sales Forecasting/Decision Making
• Better marketing relationship with the customer

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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The best way to be lucky is to be smart. To this point, let’s expand upon the concept of doing the right things, versus doing everything right, as selling smart. Time and again I have seen the salesperson doing everything right, but for some reason they just weren’t successful. The subtle, yet big difference was they were not doing the ‘right things’.

I was reminded of doing the ‘right things’ during a sales process meeting with a label printing company. The owner of the company remarked that sometimes his sales staff skipped doing one ‘right thing’ or another.

For the most part, his people were doing everything right: good prospecting, follow up and eventually they got around to bidding. However, in their haste, the sales staff often ignored most important ‘right thing’: preparing a sample for their customers to see and hold.

“But you don’t understand” they pleaded, “The customer is all ready to go… all they need is a price.” Then POOF! Things went decidedly unlucky and obviously more than a price was needed to close the deal.

Dumb luck works too.

Unquestionably there’s always ample pressure on sales people to produce. It’s at these times we have to step back and give luck it due chance. Sometimes it’s just a matter of dumb luck. You know, when out of the blue you pursue that opportunity, you did the right things because the customer is allowing you to, and presto, the deal’s done.

Often it’s not as simple or as dumb as it appears. Likely you did all the right things. Be very alert to Customers that try to short change you doing the right things.

Hard luck stories.

There’s no shortage of hard luck stories. Everyone’s had a fair share of them. But when it comes to hard luck, maybe a bit of good luck can change your predicament. To get out of a hard luck spot, stop selling: Stop selling what isn’t selling that is.

Too often we get all hung up on a product or program and ignore what will sell, even if it is less glamorous or less profitable. The point here is if you’re on a lengthy dry streak, it’s unlikely your cadre of fine prospects can change your predicament unless you change. So the good luck part is when you finally give up on chasing rainbows and move on to what will sell.

Worst Luck Yet: You’ve got a lottery sales style.

The worst luck yet is when you blindly believe selling is a numbers game. In this case you will probably do everything right. You’ll make the calls, follow ups etc. Unfortunately, you won’t be doing the right things. It’s very much like a lottery: you throw your numbers in and hope you win. Improving you luck here is to think smarter. Besides, if you’re smart you won’t buy lottery tickets, but that’s a whole other matter.

Define what your very best customer looks like and stick to those. It’s usually an easily managed and finite number. Now that’s selling smart. Makes you lucky too!

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

Some simple process techniques to your CRM program can improve your luck many times over:

• Define: At every stage of the sales process, define what has to occur e.g. Sample Sent
• Set Activities: Include specific activity types that include the ‘must do’ right things
• Profile: Scrub lists that match your ideal customer, competitive advantage and sales ability then ignore the rest
• Track: Look at Closed Deal Analysis, Aging, Customer Retention and other parameters to tell you what is and is not selling

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Big $$$ in Unlucky Things.
Even though we seek luck, we are also reminded to avoid unlucky things. The whole Feng Shui craze is based on the unlucky ways we organize our lives. The list goes on: the number 13, broken mirrors, black cats, even being born under an unlucky star.

But alas, there’s no end to helping you find luck, for a price. There is a web site that promotes, for a fee, how to command more luck. I’m not making this up. They come complete with savvy lines like “Are you suffering from the illusion of lousy luck?” not to be outdone by “Exciting breakthrough for the terminally unlucky”. Maybe I should try my luck out selling this crap. They even promise a 55% commission. How lucky is that?

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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