This article is a guest post by Dan MacAdam. Dan joined Kurlan & Associates in October 2010. He has upgraded our online presence and multiplied our sales. Does the story to follow sound familiar?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of sales and marketing wisdom, and it was the age of sales and marketing foolishness…

“The O. Twist Co., a $100 million dollar porridge company, was a hot lead. Their CEO had downloaded five of our offers in one day and was racing through the marketing funnel. He was behaving just as we imagined the perfect prospect would, snatching up our top of the funnel offers, devouring our middle of the funnel offers and quickly moving all the way to the bottom, our most “sales ready” offers.

The lead was assigned to one of our salesmen, who followed up quickly. I told him this lead had researched our widget extensively (looked at pricing info, inquired about demos) and almost certainly would be interested in purchasing them. So, the salesman, Bob called and after a few pleasantries, began to explain how the widget could help Twist Co. reduce overhead and save thousands of dollars on storage costs. The prospect sat and listened through the presentation, thanked Bob and told him he’d be in touch. A few weeks later Bob made a follow up call, hoping to close the sale. The prospect told him that he had just purchased 11,000 gizmos from our closest competitor because he felt it would fix his problem more effectively. He wouldn’t need any widgets. Bob exclaimed, “You never told me you needed gizmos, we have those too!” The prospect retorted, “I didn’t know what I was looking for…and you never asked!”

Pickwick Industries was a mid-sized company that had been in the pipeline for a few months. An executive assistant poked around for a while, downloading top of the funnel offers and not really expressing any serious interest. A salesperson called to qualify the lead, assuming she would be able to cross them off the list pretty quickly. When she called, the assistant Pip picked up. He said “Wow, I’m glad you called today. Our CEO Miss Havisham was just talking about how she needs some widgets…you sell those right? Hold on I’ll put you through.”

The saleswoman asked Miss Havisham questions about her business issues and the problem she was trying to solve. How long had the problem persisted? Why did she want the widgets now? What would it cost Pickwick Industries if she didn’t fix this problem? While she was creating S.O.B and finding compelling reasons by asking tough questions, she realized that Pickwick needed both widgets and gizmos to solve their problem. She rounded the bases, qualifying, uncovering the budget and creating urgency. Miss Havisham finally shouted, “I need widgets and gizmos and I needed them yesterday!” What started as a qualifying call turned out to be the biggest sale of the year and a one call close.”

The two leads were very different. One was a decision maker of a large corporation, the other was a gatekeeper. The first lead would have been scored very highly, while the second was middle of the barrel at best. In the first scenario, the salesman assumed that he already knew the prospect’s needs and that the sales call was really just a formality. Bob based this solely on the prospect’s browsing history (and the faulty advice of an overenthusiastic marketer). Remember that sometimes a prospect doesn’t know what they want/need. Just because they indicate interest in a product or service doesn’t mean that’s the one that will best solve their problems. It’s up the salesperson to uncover the real issues and find the most effective solution.

In the second scenario the saleswoman, with a stroke of luck and impeccable timing, had a conversation with the decision maker. However, the key was her technique; she didn’t assume anything about the prospect’s needs and frustrations but took her time, followed the process and asked the right questions. It led to a cross sale and a one call close on a lead that might never have been followed up.

Lead scoring is obviously necessary, practical and advantageous when prioritizing and sifting through leads, especially if you have a high volume. But never assume a lead is qualified and ready to buy based only on what they’ve done on your website. Use the information you know about the prospect as a starting point, to begin the conversation or explore issues, but don’t skip steps in the sales process simply because they downloaded a how-to-guide.

What are you doing in September? Frank and I will be at HUGS 2011. There’ll be over 1,000 Hubspotters, Hubspot partners and Hubspot customers. If you don’t fall into one of those categories, should you?

This article was originally published 10 years ago in 2011. It’s been archived, but I’m republishing it so that I can use it in today’s article.

Earlier this year, I told Dave Kurlan (privately) that I would be retiring at the end of June. I didn’t because Kurlan & Associates decided to sponsor HUGS 2011 and I didn’t think it appropriate for me not to attend and I had several clients that wanted to extend into 3Q11 & 4Q11. So, I wrote a post that announced that Dave and I had agreed to move my retirement to 12/29/2011, but I deleted it. Not because I’m not going to retire that day and not because I don’t want to retire on that day, but because Jay Leno announced his retirement, retired and caused a lot of turmoil when he came back. Unlike Jay Leno, General MacArthur and Arnold Schwarzenegger, I shall not return and I won’t be back.

So, what? Why write about my retirement at all?

First, I don’t want to be one of those old guys that’s lost his edge, is irrelevant, or drools on himself. I just had the best year of my professional life, made a lot of money and had a positive impact on a lot of people.

Second, I have other stuff that I want to do, but I tend to be a fanatic. At the moment, I’m a fanatic about sales excellence in business ownership. I expect that I’ll be fanatical about whatever’s next and don’t want to deliver less to clients.

Finally, I want to finish what I started. I have several clients that are committed to growing their businesses to $250K-$500K by year end and two that are committed to being million dollar businesses by year end and I’m part of the plan. I talk to these people several times a week. I’m involved with their funnels, pipelines, sales calls, prospects and clients. None of them accept mediocrity. None of our engagements extend beyond 12/29/11.

The time is right, but I haven’t answered the question, “Why write about my retirement at all?” It’s actually pretty simple.

Would you like to be part of my last hurrah?

Are you willing to swear off mediocrity?

Is your number $250K, $500K or $1,000,000?

Are you committed to developing long term relationships with your clients?

Are you willing to be held accountable and talk with me several times a week?

Are you willing to learn about yourself and overcome your barriers to success?

Are you willing to learn from those who went before you and apply the lessons learned?

Are you willing to do whatever it takes between now and 12/29/2011 to set 2012 up to be your best year ever?

If any of your answers are, “No.”, thank you for reading

If all of your answers are, “Yes.” and you want my help, get on my calendar and we’ll talk this week. Six of you will be invited to be part of my last hurrah!

When I coach business owners and entrepreneurial salespeople, they typically already have some clients. It’s not unusual that one of their clients be “important”. Could be their biggest revenue producer. Could be their first client. Could be a strategic client or a client that has huge ‘potential’.

As you may know, the internet has flattened the world. I am just as likely to be working with a client across the Atlantic, the Pacific or the equator as I am to be working with a client across the street, across town or across the country. Sales is also changing. Webinars, Skype, tele-conferencing has lessened the necessity for face to face meetings in offices and sales training has also had to change to reflect these changes and help us sell in this new, flattened world.

I received the following email from one of my best evangelists.

Sales Anecdotes and Their Antidotes is an e-book. Every chapter is my recollection of an actual coaching session during which I help a client prepare for or debrief a real sales call with a real client. I hope that you enjoy reading and can turn it into money for yourself. Click here to download it for free.

The snow’s almost gone. Spring is here. Time to come out of hibernation and get some new business.

Yawn. S t r e t c h. Get up. Get going. Need a kick start? Check this out.<A href="/files/12509-12009/SalesDevProg.pdf”>

Sales Development Program Details

Wednesday, March 9th, 5:30 til I’m done.

This is Networked Events regular monthly event with a twist.

Ten of you will be my wing men (unless you’re a girl, then you’ll be a wing girl).

I’ll do everything that I can to introduce you to everybody who’s anybody.

We’ll have fun.

You’ll see the way that I work a room.

And it’s all free. You don’t even have to pay to attend. Click here to register . Enter “rickroberge” as the discount code. Show up. Bring a smile and a pile of business cards and if you’re in the mood, buy me a drink.

BTW, I think that it’s free parking too!

See you there! Twwet this.Post it on Facebook. Fill the room.

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