RainMakers on Sales & Marketing Integration / 21st Century Sales

Who wants to be a Millionaire?

2012-05-16T11:37:46Z

I have been lucky. Early in my career, I had the opportunity to work with people that came from ordinary backgrounds and did well. Along the way, I've had some very good conversations with some very smart people. I'd like to share two conversations and then summarize my point.

The first is a conversation that happened between a group of nurses about the movie, Social Network. Short version is that the nurses did not like the movie. Back-stabbing, deceit, business before friendship. All in the name of business success. Now, if you think about it, this makes sense. Nurses are generally caring, humanistic type people that want to make people feel better and work for a higher cause. It wouldn't surprise me if they had failed at a business because they don't have the stomach for it.

The second conversation was a private conversation that I had with a new college grad. I asked what they were gonna do with their degree and they said, "Start a business. Nobody's gonna get rich off my brain." They have started a business. They are very successful.

So, who do you relate to? The Nurse or the new grad? What did you think of the Social Network? Do you struggle with work/life balance? Is what you want, what you get? Do you ever know what you should do, but don't, or do something else? Do you want to get over it? Contact me

Sales E-Books and Sales Survey

2012-05-15T13:11:08Z

Many of you are new, but if you're paying attention, you should know that I'm all about real life. I share stuff that I do, no t that I theorize should work. If you've never worked with me and you want to see something work, contact me and we'll make it happen.

So, in the spirit of real life, we're half way through 2Q12. How are you doing? On target? Slightly behind? Need to reboot?

Have you read the e-book that I released at the end last year?

"3 Things You Can Do Now 2 Get Sales in Two Weeks"

Do you use or have you tried to use social media? If so, please take 5 minutes to take our survey.

Finally, remembering that the best posts come from real life, take a turn. Share something from your life. Write a guest post about something real that happened to you or something that you're wondering about and send it to me. If you don't like to write, share the idea or ask me a question in the comments and I'll turn it into a post.

The #1 Reason to Hire a Sales Consultant

2012-05-14T13:33:04Z

I read and I have a short attention span. As a result of that combination, I'm attracted to one-line posts, titles with no bodies, and bullet points.

Today, I read a title with no body posted by Owen Van Syckle (don't know him) on the Sales Gravy LinkedIn group. Here it is.

"Sales Tip: Sales success is out of your comfort zone."

It reminded me of something that Steve Crowe said to me a few years ago. He was looking for me to help him grow his business, but he's kind of an introvert. After we spoke, he made this comment.

"I guess there's enough room in your shadow

that's outside my comfort zone

so I can grow."

Doesn't that some it up? If sales success is outside your comfort zone, isn't the ideal person to help - the person that has a shadow that's outside your comfort zone and is committed to your success?

I'm looking for my next retirement project to go from now to August. If you want help with growth outside your comfort zone, contact me here.

$100,000 in 12 Weeks

2012-05-12T02:14:54Z

It's now the middle of May. New Year's resolutions are long gone. 1Q12 is either in the bank or in the tank. 2Q12 is a question mark and some are starting to look forward to 3Q12, or even Labor Day because the nice weather really puts a damper on sales in May - August.

I truly hope that this doesn't sound familiar, but trust me. Someone out there is saying, "That's me!" and hoping that I'm about to share the golden nugget that will end the downward spiral once and for all, turn sales around so that 2012 winds up being their best year ever. This post is for that person.

I can tell you that spamming Twitter, LinkedIn groups, or writing three blog posts a day probably won't work, but you'll feel busy. Likewise, a new resolve to make 35 cold calls a day or send out 500 spam emails a day will keep you busy, but what kind of return have you gotten when you've done that recently and how long will you keep it up if you get similar results.

Now, think about the title of this post. What am I talking about? $100K in sales? $100K in commissions? $100K in profit? What would you like it to be? What do you think is impossible? What would be awesome if it did happen? Do you feel it? That's the Secret at work.

Now don't flip out. You don't wish it and it is, but you have to get yourself in position.

So, now think about history. What happens to you? Do you sell, sell, sell? Then deliver, deliver, deliver? Then when you finish delivering, you sell, sell, sell? Then (you know). Or, do you have lots of leads, but they don't want to talk to you? Or, do you hate the buyer/seller process? Do you sometimes feel like you could really help, but your prospect doesn't get it? Or, does everything look good until a competitor gets in at the eleventh hour with a low-ball price or an off the wall proposal that stops the process and sends your prospect back to the drawing board? Or is it one of the 2,347 shit things that have happened to me since I started working over 40 years ago?

OK, so I'm an old guy! Let me ask you about some newer stuff. When was the last time that you got a sale through LinkedIn? Your blog? Twitter? Facebook? How about from a referral? Somebody you met at a networking event? Trade show? PPC campaign? What are you doing and what should you be doing? What's working and what's not? (That reminds me. Please complete this survey if you haven't already.)

So, let's wrap this up!

It's not about what's happened in the past. It's what needs to change to get different results in the future?

It's not about followers, tweets, connections or leads. It's about how do they all relate to $100,000?

It's not about how much change you can do yourself, but how much change will happen with Rick alongside saying, "Been there. Done that. Let's go!"

So, this is my suggestion. If you have a brother, sister, son, daughter, husband, wife or best friend that you think would like my help to get $100,000 in the next 12 weeks, send them an email and let the Secret take over.

Social Un-Selling

2012-05-11T18:31:11Z

Hot from my inbox: Yippee! I just got followed.

So, as I usually do, I looked at their profile. Do you see what I see?

2,000 followers. ZERO following? Obviously, whoever this is believes that they are the only ones worth listening to and are preparing to become experts at Twitter Spam. So they follow then un-follow immediately.

I wonder how many of their followers auto-follow everyone that follows them, but never read a tweet? Let's stop this social unselling and forward, RT and repost this post to the rest of the world. We'll clean up the sales world one dope at a time!

The #1 Inbound Marketing Mistake

2012-05-09T12:00:00Z

I just read an article about 50 inbound marketing services that your agency should offer. Normally, I'd link to the article, but I'm not because it's a bad article. It's mythical and I'm not gonna be a party to it.

I have a friend and former colleague that used to say, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

When I was much younger, my father saw me hit a nail with a pair of pliers. He asked, "What are you? An electrician?"

I, like some of you, have a tool box. I've got a set of sockets and ratchets, a variety of screwdrivers and wrenches, a few files, saws, hammers, etc. and I know how to use them. Occasionally, I do it myself, but more often than not, I hire somebody to do it for me. Why? Two reasons....

I may not have the right tool, so I'd either have to make do with what I do have or go out and buy the right tool.
The person that I hire will have the tool, know how to use it and probably do a better job than I would have.

So, back to the inbound marketing article. The article talked about relevant content, editorial calendar, social media sites, optimization, tags, links and more. No where in the article did the author suggest that sales should be involved other than reporting their activity and results.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! (Is my frustration showing.) This isn't part of the problem. This IS the problem. Inbound marketing generates a different kind of lead. Downloading your white paper, attending a webinar or completing your form does not mean that a person is ready to be pitched, much less buy and many that have tried inbound marketing have given up or are struggling. Don't believe me? Sign up for this survey of salespeople and social media.

Bottom line is that if your salespeople can't sell to inbound leads or if your marketing is attracting leads that can't be sold, it's the same result. No sales. No ROI. Waste of time.

I suggest that BEFORE you start an inbound marketing program, you do a professional evaluation of your salespeople, your sales process, as well as you marketing people and marketing processes to determine whether they are capable of executing the strategies of your company.

Want answers? Click here.

21st Century Salespeople, Social Media and Jerry Stiller

2012-05-08T12:47:11Z

Last October, I wrote "Jerry Stiller on Sales" for my other blog and re-posted it here this morning for your easy reference.

Last week, every salesperson, manager and business owner that I spoke with was struggling with the disconnect between their marketing effort(s), their sales process and the way their clients shop and buy.

OK. Here's the question. Is social media relevant in your world? Does it generate sales? Not leads or buzz, sales? You want to know who's doing and getting what? This survey is for you.

Survey: 21st Century Salespeople and Social Media

Jerry Stiller on Sales

2012-05-08T12:43:22Z

Actually, Jerry Stiller didn't talk about sales, but I just watched his Capital One commercial again where he says, "People. Look at you. Texting. Blogging. All this technology, but you're still banking like pilgrims..."

Some days, I know that I must sound like Stiller when I criticize companies that are still selling like pilgrims. They still expect the techniques, tactics and tricks that worked in the 1900's to work today.

I've made door to door and telephone cold calls using lists and straight out of a directory. (What's a directory?)

I've worked Expos, trade shows, home shows, flower shows, etc. You put people in a room, I show up with my smile and a pile of business cards and brochures. (What are business cards and brochures?)

I've been the recipient of 'bingo card leads', yellow page call-ins, Executive Luncheon leads and had some success with each. (When was the last time that you used the yellow pages?)

There were a lot of ways to generate leads. Many still work. Even Hubspot, the inbound marketing company, uses demo tables, meet-ups, good old faskioned PR and self-promotion to generate buzz so that their name will be recognized when their cold callers call.

However, this is not an article about different ways of generating leads. Let's face it. If you're not doing inbound marketing and you're not doing it right by using a partner that's been certified, you're denying reality. You're living in La-La Land. You're giving your market share to your competition.

BUT (and this is the point of this post), selling has changed. In the door-to-door days, they were called marketers, but were taught sales. As advertising, PR, promotion, etc. became vogue, marketing and sales developed a chasm so that they could blame each other for the lack of success and each take full credit if they did succeed. Inbound marketing only works if marketing is totally synchronized with sales. Sales needs to know how marketing is setting the leads up and marketing has to know how sales is following up. There are different strengths and skills required in the two jobs, but there's one body of knowledge and target market and if you really want to cover the bases, contact me to evaluate your people, your marketing process and your sales process as to whether they can execute on your strategies.

Pre-Survey: 21st Century Salespeople and Social Media

2012-05-01T17:31:54Z

I'll be releasing a survey tomorrow to determine the level of usage of Social Media by 21st Century Salespeople, Executives and Business Owners and the relative effectiveness of their efforts. Although an email address will be required to receive the results, it will not be required to take the survey. So, identities will be safe. I've posted this pre-anouncement for two reasons.

I'll be asking about usage and results from LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, websites, trade shows, advertising, B2B vs B2C, job title, sales growth, tracking, and lots more.

Is there a question that you would like included? That you'd like to know the answer to? Enter it as a comment or send me an email.

This is the link to register to take the survey and/or to receive the results.

RainMaker Maker in Montana

2012-05-01T15:12:43Z

I wrote this in September of 2009. Since then, a lot has happened. Jerry never started a blog, but he's still fishing.

September 15^th, Tuesday morning, 8:30 AM MT: I'm sitting on the deck overlooking Ashley Lake. It's been about 18 hours since I've had internet access or a cell signal and I'm still alive.

Our host, Jerry has written a syndicated column about fly fishing for 30 years. We've had several conversations about starting a blog on the same topic. He's curious, but honestly, if I could fly fish and I lived where he does, I'd be very reluctant to do anything other than fish, hike, or otherwise be close to nature. Nonetheless, I can't help thinking that he's got 60+ years of experiences in his head that people who wear suits to work and occasionally cast a line or take a walk in the woods would love to read. I can't help but thinking that if he started writing about all the spots that he's fished, things that he's seen and lessons that he's learned, that people who dream about living the way he does, would get a little closer. Whether he does or doesn't, I'm glad that I had the chance.

I should point out that I had Jerry read this post before it got published. First, I'm sharing tidbits and my impressions of very private conversations. Just two guys, brought together by their kids, drinking beer and passing the time, getting to know each other. He may not want any part of it shared and if he says, "No.", you'll never read anything past the word, "alive". Second, I want to make sure that my sharings are accurate. Memory, even within a few hours, can be fuzzy. So, I want to make sure that I get my facts straight.

OK, so, Jerry's shared a few pieces of wisdom.

Don't move to Montana if you don't want to enjoy outside activities when it's cold.

Montana has six months of winter and six months of crappy sledding.

Jerry teaches a fly tying class. He's had lots of seniors take the course because they have it on their "bucket list". Why do they wait?

So, I guess I just want to say, "Thank you, Jerry." The lesson for us all is that with all that fishing, hunting, hiking and enjoying nature, you still made time to have a rewarding career, build two homes, raise a couple of great kids, and be a great host.

Busy Season Sales in a Lifestyle Business

2012-04-30T13:52:29Z

As many of you know, I'm a beach bum in the summer. Partially luck. Partially by design.

25+ years ago, I was lucky enough to stumble into a business model where the 'slow season' was in the summer. I didn't fight it. I just made sure that I earned enough in the other three seasons so that I could be in 'maintenance mode' during the summer.

So, let me ask...

Do you run your business or does your business run you?

Do you know what your natural business cycle is? Do you try to force it or go with it?

How often are you frustrated with the ratio of your results to effort?

Do you know what your value per hour number is for every season and month of the year?

If you had the choice, would you rather work 10 hours today and earn $1,000 today or work 40 hours this week and earn $2,000 this week?

Are you scratching your head and thinking that I'm crazy yet?

OK, let's get specific. Tomorrow is May 1st. Is that the beginning of your busy season? What do you need to do during your busy season to assure that you'll have a great 'off season' and an awesome year?

Is tomorrow the beginning of your slow season? What should you do to make sure that the other three seasons are your best year ever?

It's different for everybody. So, there is no 'one-size-fits-all' answer, but if you'd like to know what I would do in your specific situation, send me an Mail.

BTW, my three most popular articles last month were:

Perfect Business Plans

Who "Needs to Know"? Marketing or Sales?

Thoughts on Mom & Pop Shops

Did you read them all? See a pattern?

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated

2012-04-27T15:02:06Z

I receive several email updates every day from various LinkedIn groups. One of them included a link to "5 Ways To Uncover Your Personal Brand’s Strengths" by Jorgen Sunderberg. I don't know Jorgen. I don't think I've heard of him before and I can't say that I agree with everything that he wrote in this article, but I can't use his stuff without letting you know that I got the idea from him. He writes:

"Imagine you are sitting on the porch of your home and old friends, family members, and colleagues are showing up. People are coming to celebrate your retirement. As everyone gathers they are gradually breaking into smaller groups, talking, laughing, and having a great time. They are talking about you and how you have impacted their lives. You get up from the porch and walk around. As you pass by each group you can overhear what they are saying. Write down what you hear. How have you made an impact? What did you do to help them?"

Now, interestingly, I have heard some of this stuff. I remember a client telling someone else that I took their business from $30K/year to $30K/month in less than 6 months. Another client hired me to grow retainers from $40K to $250K/year. He did $7K in month #1, $14K in month #2 and $20K in month #3 (all monthly retainers). When I asked, "Are we done?", he asked, "What will it take to get to a million?" I'd also expect to hear recaps of sales calls that happened exactly as we had 'rehearsed' during a coaching session.

Truth be told, though, I wouldn't expect all the stories to be 'happy'. I'd expect some to complain that I was too 'black and white' or that I wasn't easy on them when they didn't do what they agreed to do.

That brings me to the title. As you know, I retired from Kurlan and Associates last year. I ended every client engagement cleanly and haven't spoken to most since. Here's why.

My maternal grandfather died, at work, 9 days short of his 58th birthday. He never got to retire. I turned 60 on 12/29. His son, my uncle will be 82 July. He's enjoying his retirement and has a couple of part time things that he does to keep active. My father died when he was 72. He did get to retire as a carpenter, but found a fun job helping senior citizens do wooden projects in a workshop environment. Used his brain without heavy lifting.

Retirement doesn't mean death. Retirement should be enjoyable. Spending time with people that are fun. For me that means working with people who will tell good stories about me and avoiding those that won't.

If you know an entrepreneurial business person that's looking to multiply sales, put us together. Just forward this post to them, copy me and include their phone number. I'll do the rest. I don't know how long I'll be retried, but I ain't dead yet.

Obstacles or Opportunities?

2012-04-26T01:42:39Z

Who would you rather be?

A 20-something who spent the last few years delivering services as a sub-contractor for one company. Surprise! Company's gone. OOB. Owner left town. Not paying subs (including you!). Customers paid up front, but didn't get product. Now what?

Another 20-something who is the GM of a well established, well known family business, but is excited by the opportunities in other industries. Stay or go?

A 40-something who's owned his business for 15+ years, and has had some good ones, but has watched his margins erode to the point that last year, although he had about 500 customers, he didn't pay himself.

A 50-something who's been hired to take a company in a new direction by introducing a new non-tangible technology to a commodity customer base with salespeople that sell tangibles.

So, pretend. Who has the biggest obstacle and who has the biggest opportunity?

Please answer in the comment section, but if one of these sounds like you, call me. We should talk.

Who "Needs to Know"? Marketing or Sales?

2012-04-17T11:21:06Z

Watch CIA, FBI, or military movies and you're bound to hear the term, "Need to Know". We all know that when we hear those words, somebody isn't smart enough, tactful enough or competent to handle the knowledge appropriately and the people saying those words consider themselves better able to act appropriately.

Recently, I met a sales executive that didn't know his company was a Hubspot user, didn't know the kind of data that was available when a lead was generated. Realization started when I asked the question, "How many sales have your salespeople closed as a result of inbound marketing?"

This is what I think is going on. The marketing executive doesn't think that the sales force is capable of helping with marketing. So, he doesn't share access to the data.

Could it be something else?

Good Questions and Sales Process

2012-04-16T00:08:29Z

Friday was a different kind of day.

It was Friday the 13th.
I worked.

I retired 12/29.
Even before that, I didn't work on Fridays.

I went on a 'face to face' sales call in the prospect's office.

Because my practice has been global for the past few years, most everything happened on the phone or computer.
Even before that, prospects came to my office, not me to theirs.

But there were circumstances.

Carole Mahoney and I were speaking at Maine Marketing Association's Lunch and Learn.
Carole asked me if I would accompany her on a sales call.
When we agreed to the Lunch and Learn, Elaine and I were thinking, 'long weekend at the beach house'.

Enough about how I got there. Let's get to "Good Questions" and "Sales Process".

This call started off like any other call.

High powered executive, busy, important, no real problems, wondering why I was there.
At 2:16, he said, "I've got 30 minutes and we're 16 minutes in and I don't have a clue what the relationship between you two is or what you can do for me."
At 2:39, I asked, "Do you know that you're 9 minutes over?" He replied, "I'm OK."
We talked until 3:15.

Why did I stay? Because he started answering my questions with "Good question!", "I don't know." "HHMMM." and by staring off into space thinking. He was expecting a vendor to come in and tell him all the things that the vendor could do, but he got questions that he needed the answers to.

We closed with this exchange.

"Can your salespeople execute the strategies of the company?"

"Good question."

"Wouldn't that be good to know?"

"Yes."

"Let's talk again."

Now, in realty, in order to know whether the salespeople CAN execute the strategies, don't we all need to have a clear picture of what those strategies are and while we're at it, shouldn't the strategies be given the 'sniff test' to make sure that the strategy will get the company where they want to be?

Evangelists' Impact on Sales

2012-04-12T11:08:12Z

Please enjoy my guest appearance on the Comparz blog.

A Great Way to Increase Sales, Harness the Power of Your Evangelists

More from Rick about Evangelists

Pricing Professional Services for Growth

2012-04-11T12:15:49Z

Do you sell yourself short? How do you calculate the price that you charge your clients? Do you find yourself working all the time? Is your company stuck? Has your income plateaued? Are you not able to dream attainable dreams? Maybe you should do what Vic did?

I talked to a bookkeeper a few years ago who had quit his job to become an independent bookkeeper. He was making $20/hour at his job and gave himself a raise to $25/hour when he went independent. Very normal, but it didn't take long to realize that $25/hour doesn't allow a business to grow. Sure, you could work 80 hours a week and gross $100K/year, but then you need to add in time for invoicing, unbillable conversations, doing your books and taxes, returning calls, dealing with sales people calling you, working out, family time, sleep, etc. You never have time to do marketing or make sales calls. You're stuck!

You could hire a bookkeeper or get a sub-contractor, but they'll want a minimum of $20/hour. They'll probably want paid vacations, health insurance, a raise, etc. How long before they're costing you more than than you charge your client? ...and, now you have to manage an employee.

If you are already billing for 80 hours/week, I can't help you. You're already full and you'll have to fire clients in order to have time to learn how to grow your business.

But, if you bill for 40 hours or less a week and you'd like to grow your business, these are the steps in the process.

Get found by good prospects.
Learn how to sell "21st Century" style.
Raise your rates.
Hire and repeat.

I know that it sound simple and it actually is. Not easy, but simple and I've seen it work with bookkeepers, marketing agencies, consultants, attorneys, tradespeople, contractors, IT people. I've seen incomes go from $20K/year to $70K/year, from $40K/year to $250K/year and everywhere in between.

Have questions? Want clarification? Ask in the comments or send me an email.

Want my help? Just ask..

Entrepreneurs The First Three Months

2012-04-09T14:01:05Z

Dictionary.com's first definition of entrepreneur is "a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk." I like that definition because it doesn't reference a genius idea, venture capital, scalable, yada, yada, but does mention "considerable initiative and risk".

Last week (like any other week) I talked with several entrepreneurs. Here are a few stories from last week.

Joe is what I call a 'forced entrepreneur'. The founder is leaving the business immediately (for very personal reasons) and looking for someone to take on a small amount of debt and pay a dividend over time. Joe is a key employee and the company probably will not survive if Joe doesn't stay on. However, the founder is considering taking on the role of minority stockholder and handing the day to day over to someone that doesn't know the business nor have the respect of Joe, or the other employees. Joe's concern should be, "What happens when the founder's connections and good will are gone? Will we still have a full pipeline and can we make it better?"

Jim is a self-described "serial entrepreneur". On 4/2 Jim asked for my opinion on a product that he was reviewing. I didn't know Jim, but I did know the product. So, I replied, "Thank you for your offer, but I'm quite biased and don't believe that my review would have any value to you." Jim replied, "Thanks for being a standup guy!" Then, he asked me if I wanted to be listed as a resource on his site and if I could refer him to anyone whose opinion would matter. I appreciate tenacity, so I asked about two mutual connections that we had on LinkedIn that I know and respect and learned that one of them is on Jim's board. OK, the beginning of something beautiful. I gave Jim a referral. I wrote this post, and sent a link to the post to Jim along with "How are you deciding who to spam?". Fast forward to we had a conversation. It was interesting that Jim did not have time to read my blog post, but did ask me to write a guest post for his blog. When I did, his editor made it so unrecognizable that I said they could publish it but not use my name. Jim said that he would publish it unedited, but yesterday the edited version was posted over my name. Not listening or not caring?

I have another example about an uncommitted pretender, but I'm already long. So, let me wrap up.

Since I've retired, I've become totally intolerant of pretenders, liars, know-it-alls as well as mediocrity, small thinkers with no dreams and big thinkers with one-dimensional plans. (Not that I've ever been very tolerant.) What the heck good is a perfect business plan if it's going to put you out of business? What good is it to have a social media presence if you don't know how to use it? What good is it to have great lead development software if you're not closing sales and developing evangelists? and what good is sales training or sale process if you don't have the prospects that will never turn into evangelists? Ever thought about taking a month with someone that's been there? Doing an evaluation? Developing a strategy? Want to see where you are? What you've got? Where you're headed? What would 100 evangelists do for your business? Sick of questions? Want answers? Get on my calendar!

Long Term Relationships

2012-04-07T11:58:00Z

In the fall of 1970, I was in my second year at WPI. For those of you who don't know, WPI is a highly rated engineering school. I was also a social brother of ∑¶ fraternity. The lesson starts on pledge night in the fall of 1970. Pledge night is the night that all 12 fraternities at WPI throw parties to celebrate all of the new students that 'pledged' to join their respective fraternies. We need to give you the picture. In 1970, their were two girls at WPI and 1,000's of boys. So, girls were in high demand and short supply for parties. There also wasn't an all girls school right next door to balance things off. To make the job even more difficult, these were math, science and engineering students. We had pocket protectors, slide rules, very few social skills and Nerds weren't cool.

So, back to pledge night. I had filled my funnel well and our party had lots of girls and was going well. So, I figured that I'd take a walk down the block to Steve Brennan's fraternity house (Phi Sig) to see how his party was going. As I approached the house, three girls were walking down the front stairs leaving. I probably asked something like, "Where you going?" and I remember that they said that they were going to Lambda Chi because Lambda Chi had a reputation for having great parties. So, I tried to convince them to go back in. No dice. They left.

I didn't know at the time, but one of those girls was Elaine.

Two weeks later, Elaine and I 'officially' met at another party and I can't remember anybody else since. We got married 39 years ago today on April 7th, 1973.

Thank you, Elaine.

The sales lesson? Your process might start with a, "No.", but keep getting your message out there. It may turn into the longest relationship of your life.

Stop Selling - Get Discovered

2012-04-03T10:00:00Z

I originally posted this on my other blog in August of 2011. Enjoy!

Frank Belzer is really good at his day job. He works with me at Kurlan & Associates. He also plays in a band a few times a month. My guess is that if some Hollywood agent called and said, "Frank, I like your sound. Here's a guzillion dollars. Stop wasting your time at Kurlan and come make music full time.", that we'd be a memory.

Go to Hollywood. Talk to the waitress in a restaurant, the attendant at the car wash, the clerk at the convenience store and you may find an actor, singer, dancer waiting to be discovered.

Today, there are about 240 minor league baseball teams (down from over 400) 'feeding' the 30 major league teams. How many Little Leaguers, high school baseball players (varsity and JV) and even college players are hoping to be discovered, play in the minors, sign a multi-million dollar contract and be set for life? What are the odds?

A few days ago, I posted "Selling for Founders". I actually talked to the first guy that I wrote about. He's spending his savings to live. He's talking to prospects about how wonderful he is, how great his work is, but they're not buying. He doesn't want to pay for my help until he "sells a couple of good deals" so that he can pay for it. Meanwhile, he's talented, trying to be discovered, spending his savings, worrying about how long he can go on.

Brian Halligan's advice was to go sell something, but the person that he was talking to already knew how to sell. I'm sure that, given the opportunity, Brian would tell the aforementioned first guy to go learn how to sell, then go sell something.

So, if you're a founder, I suggest one of three paths.

Contact me. Get evaluated. Learn how to sell.
Take a lesson from Frank, actor wannabes and the Little Leaguers. Hope to get discovered, but "DON'T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB!"
Convince somebody to give you $65 million. (OOPS! You might have to do #1 first.)